I have miles of decking at two houses. All timber when put in the Australian sun will suffer. When building our beach house we decided to go for Spotted Gum and let it grey. Why fight it? We applied Cutek, and will on a regular basis. At our main house we have lots of Merabu or Quilla. Will not grey the same, and leaches lots of red stain. Cheap, but would not use again. What ever you use, use a good quality oil that seeps deep into the wood not a traditional stain/or top finishing product.

Hi, why don't you have a think about installing composite decking which will allow you to be level with the door sill without the worry of run-off into the house due to the 5mm gap between the boards. Composite doesn't required coating so the maintenance issues are significantly less, just a hose down and sweep or mop with water. You would still need to excavate approx. 250mm below the finished deck level to allow for the sub-frame but if you use treated pine framing with, either H4 stumps in concrete, or galvanised stirrups to anchor the framing into the soil. Check with your local decking pro for further advice and brand options. Generally, the USA made composites like Trex or Timbertech are better quality and the concealed fixing systems are easy to install. Your soil type may be the only issue with water, ie clay which retains water, or sand which tends to drain more quickly. Good luck

At Designer Plants we often help customers with privacy needs. We have products such as our Photinia and Laurel Trellis' that I think might interest you. They are Artificial so they require absolutely no maintenance and they are build to last in the sun - In fact, they come with a 5-year guarantee against cracking and fading. Each screen is 1 meter by 2 meters however they contract and retract from 1 meter all the way out to approximately 2.5 meters. If you're Interested check out our website - www.designerplants.com.au Alternatively you can contact me directly with any questions - aaron.quarrell@designerplants.com.au - and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Good Luck with the project!

Very helpful Off to do more homework . Many thanks