Woman reveals she saved £2,000 by installing her own garden decking during lockdown – and learned everything she needed to know from YouTube tutorials
- Natalie Miller, from Scotland revealed how she made her decking
- She was quoted between £2,500 and £3,000 to have it done by professionals
- Decided to do it herself with her husband David thanks to Youtube tutorials
- Said it only cost them £1,023 to put the decking together themselves
A woman revealed how she saved £2,000 by installing her own decking in the back garden.
Natalie Miller, from Scotland, was quoted between £2,500 and £3,000 to have her garden done professionally and decided to do it herself to avoid the hefty bill.
After buying a decking kit for £1,023 on eBay, she and her husband David watched Youtube tutorials to find out how to complete the project.
The couple, who added their own coloured lights underneath the wood flooring, impressed with their results on DIY On A Budget UK on Facebook.
Natalie Miller, from Scotland, was quoted between £2,500 and £3,000 to have her garden done professionally and decided to do it herself to avoid the hefty bill and followed Youtube tutorials instead. Before, her garden was littered with dog toys and uneven patches of grass
After this ‘labour of love’ Natalie’s garden looked completely different. The couple even screwed light bulbs into the decking
Natalie explained the family’s dog had destroyed their garden by burying his toy wherever he could
Natalie had wanted to revamp her garden after her dog ‘destroyed’ the grass.
Speaking to FEMAIL about the project, Natalie said: ‘We had a quote for composite decking for £2,500-£3,000 to have it done. We watched some YouTube videos and figured we could do it ourselves,’ she told Femail.
‘We purchased the full kit from eBay for £1023 (it’s a large area 16m2). Which included all the frame work and screws.
‘First we put in support posts and made sure they were level. Then we put down the hoist frame work and levelled our the mud.
David covered the grass in a groundsheet to avoid weed growing through the decking, before propping the wood onto it
Natalie’s husband David put in support posts to make sure the decking would be leveled correctly
David installed each wood panel one by one in order to make the decking. At the same time, he screwed the lighted at the extremities of the decking
The decking halfway through the building process. The lights’s wires were hidden underneath the decking
The finished decking after a splash of water. It cost Natalie at least £1400 pound less to make it themselves rather than pay a professional
‘We added in a groundsheet to stop the weeds coming up. We didn’t have enough joist support after fitting the first 3 decks. So we had to add in another seven support joints.’
She also explained how David and her bought lights on Amazon that they built into the decking.
‘We had 20 lights so we had to measure the area and divide it by 20 so we knew the distance between each light.
‘The lights were from amazon and really simple to used we screwed a 35mm hole for each spotlight. They come individually so you thread them through the hole and then they just simply screw together under the decking, she said.
Members of the Facebook group dedicated to DUY were deeply impressed with Natalie’s good work.
‘Great work it looks so nice,’ one said. ‘Well done looks great,’ wrote another.
‘Look lovely, well done,’ wrote one.
People loved Natalie and David’s results and congratulated them for their ‘good work’ after their shared the decking online