Our latest DIY project is virtually completed: a timber deck that finally connects three doors to the outside with a reliable platform (so far) to walk and sit on. All that remains is for me to complete the stairs. As with the paving of the driveway, this turned into a DIY project once the incumbent BEE deck installer never supervised his staff. They were incompetent to the extreme: measuring 40cm seemed a challenge and the installation of the joists alone took more time than the entire job. In a fit of desperation I kept the Ryobi mitre saw I’d bought the installer in lieu of some payment to assist with the trimming of the individual decking boards.

Rhodesian teak is not a very hard wood. Ten cuts later, the 1200W motor of the R795 motorized saw went up in a rather impressive puff of white smoke. In that way, Makro cannot be faulted: the unit was returned and a full refund issued. I headed off to the tools section and spent five times more on a decent, German piece of equipment: the 1800W Bosch GCM10 blue line mitre saw. The difference in performance is absolutely astounding, with the Bosch reliably cutting through the wood like a knife through very soft jam, as Alexander would say.

The Ryobi biscuit joiner performed admirably. The method of fastening the decking boards we chose is rather new and results in a deck that is completely free of unsightly screws. EasyClip is a South African product, though similar fastening systems have been copied or invented in New Zealand and the USA.

A biscuit joiner is essential, as the EasyClip is effectively little more than a nylon biscuit with a single hole in the centre for a screw and two protrusions at the bottom that rest on a joist and automatically enforce a spacing of roughly 5mm between adjoining decking boards. The two major advantages of this system are the fact that no decking board is very drilled and screwed down directly and that the installer needs to take no special care to ensure consistent spacing between the boards. Our deck has an overall size of almost 42 sq. m, and it is unavoidable that a slight kink will develop after a couple of rows of the decking have been installed. This is easily remedied if periodic measurements are made and the offending row slightly adjusted by increasing the spacing ever so slightly. I had a constant 5mm shift on the right-hand side every two meters or so, but managed to adjust the difference quite easily.

The first row has to be drilled and screwed onto the frame, but after that each other row is simply inserted and held down tightly by the screw inserted into the joists. It’s a tedious, lengthy process – to progress a single meter from where I’d start each session would take me at least five hours.

It’s measuring, cutting, biscuiting,

inserting clips, screwing them down,

biscuiting the next row and so forth.

The Bosch cordless screwdriver with two battery packs was absolutely essential, allowing me to simply reload a new battery pack after about three hours to keep on going.

More information regarding the EasyClip system may be found here. The clips cost about R1 each, so there is some additional cost. I used twenty clips per row, with roughly 70 rows making up the main section of the deck. Anodized screws match the clip and ensure that rust is never a problem. At the end of the day, there is no question that this is a very simple system to lay decking with and the end result is very attractive.

As a last thought, the quality and reliability of contractors in South Africa is absolutely shocking. This is my second experience with a rather large job that went horribly south and required our personal intervention to ensure that everything turned out ok. Greed for payment and the interest in ensuring that as many jobs as possible are held on the cooker at the same time will be the downfall of many: why is it that no one is interested in completing their task to the best of their ability?

My latest adventure is with an electrician who is simply required to complete a few tasks I’m a bit reticent to do because I fear I may blow up my house… So far, he’s not been very forthcoming with any results. Seems like I’ll be putting on the rubber gloves and the earthing wire soon ;-)

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