At some point my wife mentioned that it would be nice to have a proper place to sit in the garden. No sooner said than done.
The build
The deck is 3 × 3 m and stood in the garden of our rented flat, on a bed of stone chippings with concrete blocks supporting the beams. Grass dies under a deck, so I cleared it with the landlord first. We agreed to re-sow the lawn afterwards.
The move
In 2013 the deck moved. This time there was even a plan, in the form of a highly professional CAD drawing. ;-)
Materials and cost
I no longer remember what I paid back then. The quantities are counted from the photos, the prices are DIY store and online prices from October 2026, based on pressure-treated pine:
| Material | Quantity | approx. price |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete grass pavers 60 × 40 × 8 cm | 8 | 25–30 € |
| Chippings 2/5 mm, at most 5 cm under the blocks | approx. 6 bags of 25 kg | 30–35 € |
| Beams 4.5 × 9.5 cm, 3 m, for the whole substructure | 11 | 130–165 € |
| Deck boards 28 × 145 mm, 3 m | 20 | 200–240 € |
| Stainless steel screws 5 × 60 mm | 500 | 70–135 € |
| Total | approx. 450–600 € |
Douglas fir boards instead of pine add about 150 €.
The end
In 2019 I sold the deck on Kleinanzeigen, Germany’s big classifieds site, for a respectable 50 €. All in all it held up well. Only one board had rotted, because a bag of potting soil had been sitting on it for two years.
Today I know that potting soil does not belong on a deck.
To see how the pros do it, watch this video by @derholzbock.