Marine decking designed to last a lifetime
This is the marine decking your father and grandfather wished they could have, but never believed possible.
Today you can really have the appearance of wood but all the wonderful maintenance free advantages of plastic.
Download or print our Decking Products Leaflet
Maintenance Free Decking
Forever free from rot. No damage possible either from water or salt. You will never need to replace this decking in your lifetime.
It is highly robust, impervious to acids, oil and most chemicals.
The ideal replacement for wood wherever regular fresh or sea water is likely.
Installation of boardwalks in recycled mixed plastic can be done using largely the same methods as for timber, but with some changes in certain areas.
Recycled plastic is slightly more flexible than timber and will therefore require shorter spans for decking boards and stringers. (see advice in installation guide)
It has a larger expansion coefficient and any swarf produced will need to be contained as it is non-biodegradable.
Installation method - without handrails (see right)
Posts should be driven into the ground at maximum 1500mm centres (1400mm between posts) along the length of the boardwalk and at maximum 600mm spacing across the width of the boardwalk.
Cross beams should be attached at exactly the depth of the stringer below the final decking level and the stringers should then be attached at 90° above these, to run along the length of the boardwalk as shown on the right.
The decking boards can then be screwed onto the stringers using either stainless steel or 1000 hour sea spray protected decking screws.
Sometimes a kick board is required.
This can either be a suitable sized recycled plastic board screwed onto the side of the decking boards or for a stronger finish use 50 x 50mm profiles screwed down onto the decking boards at each side of the boardwalk.
Installation method - with handrails (see left)
Fence posts should be driven into the ground at maximum 1500mm centres (1400mm between posts) along the length of the boardwalk, to a height of 1120mm above the final height of the boardwalk deck.
These will also act as the outside support posts for the boardwalk sub frame.
A short post should then be fitted centrally between the two fence posts, allowing a maximum span of 600mm for the finished deck boards.
Cross beams should be attached at exactly the depth of the stringer below the final decking level and the stringers should then be attached at 90° above these, to run along the length of the boardwalk as shown on the left.
The decking boards can then be screwed onto the stringers using either stainless steel or 1000 hour sea spray protected decking screws.
General tips for working with recycled mixed plastic lumber
Drilling.
All fixing holes should be pre-drilled with an HSS or wood bit prior to screwing.
A low drilling speed is recommended.
Sawing.
Recycled plastic can be sawn using a handsaw, circular saw or chop saw (including cross-cut mitre saws).
A slow cutting speed with a medium tooth blade is best, for example a 305mm 60 tooth TCT blade.
If a slow cutting speed can not be achieved it will be necessary to reduce the number of teeth on the blade, for example a 305mm 40 tooth TCT blade.
In all cases when working with recycled plastic it is recommended to keep operating speeds low in order to prevent material from melting on the surface of your implement
A bit of WD40 on the blade can also help.
