Thread: Decking advice

If you need a super hard timber this is it. As for being grainy and rough, this would vary batch to batch. The cumaru I have used has been quite tight grained and smooth. One issue I have found is considerable movement in the timber. At double the price of merbau, you would really have to have a need for extra hard decking.

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm was looking more to durability as I have seen plenty of Merbau decks that don't look that good after time, but also mindful how you treat them as well. Cheers 👍

Merbau leaches as well. Its interested in WA merbau is more common than jarrah for decking even though they are similar price and the jarrah is a far superior product. All the jarrah goes overseas and we bring in the inferior imported timber. Hmmmmm.

If you want durability you could also look at 35mm thick by 120mm Blackbutt decking. Not too expensive, harder than Merbau, Australian and solid.

Thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by Bennetts Timber

Merbau leaches as well. Its interested in WA merbau is more common than jarrah for decking even though they are similar price and the jarrah is a far superior product. All the jarrah goes overseas and we bring in the inferior imported timber. Hmmmmm.

Plenty of Australian timbers are amongst the best in the world for durability: Blackbutt, Morteon Bay Ash, the various Ironbarks, Yellow Mahogany, Turpentine, Bloodwood, plus a whole heap more. Class 1 durability in Australia means its as good as it gets - our durability ratings requirements and testing are the toughest in the world to meet.

But the thing is theres more profit for the wholesalers/ retailers in using cheaper imported timber. And theres also a profit in exporting Australian timber to sell overseas at exorbitant prices because of the durability/ hardness/ generally superior appearance... and keeping the local market depressed due to cheap imports makes that better. But generally speaking an Australian mill cant produce a board for the half the price that the third world origin imported stuff costs landed here - our cost base is way to high for all the same reasons every other Australian manufacturing business suffers from.

Course Merabu could be domestic in origin. Merabu = Kwila = Johnston River Teak: It is native to the Wet Tropics region of Qld as well as PNG and Indonesia.

My builder got me a pack of Blue Gum for our deck from Hudsons....
The deck is approx. 12m x 3.5m, it worked our $500 cheaper and looks great....
I didn't want merbau as it leaches so bad, so good alternative saving money too...