Ohau Boat Deck

About the project

The old deck wasn't just tired — the bank beneath it had been eroding away, leaving the structure increasingly exposed and the ground beneath it unstable. Before anything could be rebuilt, the bank needed sorting. Coconut fibre matting was laid to hold the soil in place, combined with new planting to establish root structure and stabilise the edge long-term. A stainless steel wire fence was added along the drop to keep people safe from the gap between the deck and the bank.

The rebuilt deck sits on H6 driven timber piles with M12 bolted connections throughout — everything specified for a waterside exposure environment. 140 x 30mm H3.2 treated timber decking runs across 190 x 45mm joists, with a separate gangplank and integrated seating framing that steps you down to the water's edge. Stainless steel hardware is used at every fixing point. The whole thing is engineered to last in a way the previous deck clearly wasn't.

This isn't the kind of project we take on every day. But that's part of what made it worthwhile — working out what could be achieved within the rules, solving a bank erosion problem that wasn't strictly in the brief, and ending up with something that actually improves the site. Sometimes the most satisfying jobs are the ones that don't fit neatly into a category.