Three Tips To Remember When Designing A Deck To Withstand Your Destructive Dogs

As a new homeowner, you are no doubt filled with ideas about how to improve your outdoor living possibilities during summer. Now is the time to get your deck builder locked in ready to build with summer's lovely heat just a few months away. However, while you are in the designing stage of your deck, it is important you keep your canine family members in mind. A badly designed deck can end up a very damaged deck when you don't give thought to your excitable four-legged friends. These three tips should be considered as you work through the design phase.

Type Of Timber

You have a variety of different timber options to consider when building a deck. Softwood, such as treated pine, is a very popular option as it is the least expensive of them all. Bamboo is gaining popularity in building due to its strength, and hardwoods like Jarrah give a really pretty addition to the home.

However, when you take your pets into consideration, treated pine is already not recommended for use in domestic decking. While the chemicals to prevent rotting and insect infestation are sealed into the wood, they can still make your dog ill in certain situations. For example, if you have a young puppy who wants to chew on your new decking, they will ingest small doses of chemicals. Additionally, if the deck is not well maintained and splinters in the future, these splinters could lodge in the paws of your pups and deliver a small chemical dose that way.

As a first choice, consider healthier woods such as hardwood or bamboo for your deck. Alternatively, you can buy composite deck boards which are made of plastic but designed to look like wood. These are less likely to splinter like wood deck boards will.

Under The Deck

Dogs love to play, and it is very easy for a dog to race under the deck while chasing a ball and get stuck. A trapped dog can quickly panic and cause damage beneath the deck, not to mention having to pull up deck boards to release them.

While designing a dog-proof deck, make sure you fully enclose all sides of the deck down to the ground. This will prevent your dogs from running under there. However, be sure to have a small door built into one side the deck enclosing material. This will make it easier to check under the deck for soil subsidence in the event of a flood or other natural disaster.

Deck Railings

When considering what sort of deck railings to use, you must also keep your dog's habits in mind. Don't use wood railings as your first choice as puppies love to chew. It doesn't take long for a lovely new deck to look like an ugly dog chew toy once they get their teeth out.

Stainless steel deck top rails combined with strong steel thread make the perfect combination for a dog deck. The stainless steel rail is sleek, elegant, and your dogs are not attracted to it. Using steel thread spaced between the top rail and the deck floor means your dogs will not slide off the side of the deck when they go bounding across full of energy.

Using these three deck design tips you can be sure of having a deck built that will give you all the joy of outdoor living during summer. The fact you have considered your dog's needs during the design process means it is an area they can enjoy on the sunny days too. The more time your dogs spend outside on your deck, the less destruction they are doing in your house!

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