A year on now for using the TuffBlock material and it’s been fantastic. No movement whatsoever and
pretty impressive actually. We’ve had some massive downpours here on the Gold Coast and it hasn’t
moved an inch. So a question we get asked from time to time. How does a deck that uses almost
no concrete hold up after months of changing temperatures, torrential rain, strong winds,
and a healthy dose of Queensland sunshine? Well a year ago we helped James here on the Gold Coast
to build a low profile pool deck using TuffBlocks as the foundation. He managed to turn his backyard
from this, to this creating a beautiful space for his young family. So the big question is,
how does a deck that uses almost no concrete hold up after 12 months? Well we’ve come to find out.
So I used the TuffBlock because of time. And the fact that I could use it for the profile to match
the height of my balcony. I don’t know if you can see but we built it to pretty much the mm to be
flush in with the tiles. Yeah ok so you levelled out the - you completely levelled it out because
you wanted the deck obviously to be completely flush and square and flow. - Yup so we had the
digger. He did the grade, and where obviously it was a bit too much we just packed down extra road
gravel and it was perfect with the height of the TuffBlocks. -Yep, 50 square metres. How did you
work out how many TuffBlocks you needed? Actually I reached out to the TuffBlock lads and they
showed me their calculator. And - The one on the website - I worked out what I needed. And then,
you used some concrete stirrups for over here right? Yeah so the concrete stirrups are just
where you see the glass panels just to reinforce the weight just so it has something to hang onto.
The spigots. -Yup. Yeah right, ok. Huge cost saving in time, not having to take additional
time off work to dig the holes out by hand and also considering I was going to hire a drill
of some sort to make the holes for me, and not having to worry about what’s under the ground
is another huge benefit. When we first put it down there was a few skepticism about having TuffBlock
instead of using solid concrete anchor points, and it’s beautiful to say a year on that you can
be confident on the deck and it hasn’t moved at all. So the pool went in and then, what, the next
weekend you just did it with a couple mates or family? I had some family help me out, basically
the whole decking process 3-4 days, obviously finish up, tidy all up, 4-5 days all up. That’s
awesome right? I imagine the first 3 or 4 were a bit difficult but then it just flowed right?
Obviously just trying to get it all square up in the corner so we spent a solid 4-6 hours just
squaring it up - Yep. And then once that was, it just flowed as we went out. - Yeah. It’s always
the first step right? - There was a little bit of concern obviously having a low profile deck,
having timber so close to the ground and the moisture, but I read through the QBC website
and made sure that so long as we used the right treated pine, everything was perfect and a year on
nothing’s changed. What timber did you use? - We used merbau timber for this deck. We just wanted
to get that longer lasting feel - It’s a good choice right. Yeah because it’s a nicer colour.
Yeah it’s been amazing since to be honest. I really felt like I had a pretty small backyard
but since having the pool and the deck it’s just opened up the home massively. Sweeps out to the
back park which has been beautiful and just great to let all that natural light in as well. Got my
little boy 14 months old, second one on the way and there’s nothing better than relaxing out here,
enjoying a bit of a splash in the pool and some beach towels out and enjoying a little bit of
sun. - And are people surprised when you tell them you used a plastic footing as opposed to - yeah
they pretty much feel like it’s solid concrete because it feels really solid. That’s fantastic,
it looks absolutely brilliant. You’ve done a cracking job. First time deck - First time deck.
All with the help of the TuffBlock. If I can build a deck then anybody can mate.