Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Timber all the way!!! The look and feel of real timber under your feet cannot be matched. Depending on the size of the deck, paying a professional every few years to refinish the deck is not that costly and worth it in my opinion. I recently had to refinish a hardwood deck for a client and it was a huge area. It only cost $1200 for labour and materials and took only one day to do. the benefit of timber is that if you like the idea of changing the colour at some point, you can! This is not possible with composites. Just make sure you do your research as to the best type of timber for your needs.

Hey Camira1999, your pool area has huge potential. We love the wooden element you've added to your outdoor area. You could also add in some more foliage to the area, like we did in the projects below. Lacquering the back fence will also make a difference to the feel of the pool area. We also are manufacturers of DIY glass pool fences, balustrades, mirrors and splashbacks - you can pick up fences in a range of styles (ie: semi frameless, frameless with or without mini posts,etc) from your local Bunnings. Hope that helps, and good luck!

Hi I would check that your deck can take extra weight like tiles and additional cement sheet products as well. It looks to me like a light timber frame structure but it does have steel beams holding the cantilevered weight. I would get a designer or draughtsperson to look at it and give you some ideas. If you use a hardwood it will grey off naturally but you will have no maintenance. If you stain the timber the maintenance is every 2yrs really...