Spotted Gum deck stepping down a sloping block in three levels. Wire balustrade. Bench seats with hidden storage underneath.
Steep block. The back yard fell away from the house in two big steps and most of it was unusable lawn that nobody mowed. Peta wanted a deck that gave her three flat platforms — one for dining off the kitchen, one for lounging in the sun, and a lower one near the garden bed for the kids' play stuff.
Storage was the second ask. Pool noodles, cricket gear, garden tools. She didn't want a separate shed eating into the planting. So we worked the storage into the bench seats: lift-up lids, gas struts, hardwood-lined boxes underneath.
Spotted Gum 86×19 deckboards, Class 1 durability and a hardness that handles the kids' chairs scraping across it. F17 hardwood subframe with hot-dip galvanised joist hangers and stirrups. 316 marine-grade stainless wire on Pearl tensioners through hardwood posts. Decking pre-oiled with Cutek CD50 in Black Ash for a deeper colour that won't grey out fast.
Four weeks. Dropped sub-frame and footings in week one once we'd nailed the levels — key call on a sloping block, get the heights wrong on level one and the staircase won't land right on level three. Frame and boards through weeks two and three. Bench seats and balustrade in the last week. The original lids on the storage boxes were heavy hardwood and we could feel them dropping. Came back the next morning, fitted gas struts, sorted on the spot. Hardwood deck pricing in the $850–$1,200/sqm band.
Top deck off the kitchen sat above 1m drop, so balustrade went to 1,000mm with no gaps greater than 125mm. Stair geometry to BCA: 165mm rise, 280mm going. Exempt development pathway since the deck stayed under the height threshold for a CDC.
Three usable zones from a back yard that was previously a slope. Storage boxes hold the lot and the lids open with one finger now. Spotted Gum's gone a touch darker after first summer — right where it should be.
"We had a deck and storage boxes built. Couldn't be happier. The lids of the storage boxes were initially too heavy to lift but they sorted it on the spot."
— Peta B., Northern Beaches