Articles: Fence Slats and Decking Ready for the Summer

Summer is drawing closer and closer so it’s time to get your garden up to snuff ready for the warm weather and much anticipated BBQ season. As a natural resource timber is used commonly in gardens to bring a natural feeling to your home.

After the trials and tribulations of winter your fence panels can start to look tired and worn and may even become damaged so now is the perfect time to look at replacing them. Now you could replace them with regular panels from your local builder’s merchant or you could go more contemporary by buying fence slats.

These slats are designed to have a gap between them to allow sunlight to pass through and are available in both British and Canadian Cedar. The Canadian Cedar in particular give a richness and variety in colour seldom seen in other species which makes for a spectacular sight. The British meanwhile is a paler reddish colour and is more of a traditional looking timber in that you will see many knots in the fence slats.

Both Cedars are highly durable and easy to treat so that you can prevent them from turning silvery grey by applying a UV protector (for example Osmo 420) and by sealing the timber you can help to reduce water movement in the boards helping to reduce the risk of distortion.

So that’s your fence slats sorted now for the decking

Decking is used to give you a platform in your garden where you can sit and entertain friends and family. We tend to offer decking in European Oak and Siberian Larch (although we can supply in greenheart and teak as well). Although all of these timbers are highly durable, they will need treatment to stop them from distorting.

Distortion can occur in the colour and shape of the board, because, sunlight will turn the timber silvery grey and moisture movement within the wood will make the boards expand and contract. To help protect your decking against this we recommend treating your timber.

If the colour of your timber has started to turn silvery grey there may be a way to revitalise it, using an Osmo Wood Reviver Gel although you should remember to test on a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it doesn’t have a negative effect on your timber.