Andrew Patterson

The interior of the house can be diverse: it depends on the type of filling of the walls. Typically, the walls of the deck feature a low parapet with a large glass area. For interior walls, you can use wall panels or other natural materials.

You can buy premium class wall panels: they are made of spliced wood and practically devoid of knots and other defects. The smooth surface of the wood will have a pleasant color, and panels can be painted at a later time.

The panels are installed on the frame made of bars: they are attached to the wall in horizontal or vertical direction. The wood panels remain perpendicular to the bars; the panels are attached to them with clips that hide the joints of the panels.

Do not forget to take care of the preliminary protective treatment of the walls. Even if you decide to hide them behind the panels or a blockhouse, all wooden elements must be pre-treated with the antiseptic of deep penetration; this way, the frame and the walls will last for a long time.

Floor Finishing on Your Porch

The most difficult question is the choice of flooring. Unlike a residential structure, on deck, everyone usually walks in shoes, and the coating is constantly impacted by temperature fluctuations, precipitation, humidity changes, and, besides, in winter, the floor of an open deck will be covered with snow.

In such rough conditions, even the most resistant paints and other types of coatings will wear out within a year or two, and the floor boards will start decomposing. They will quickly begin to creak and decay, and eventually you will have to change them.

There are several available options of durable flooring for porch and terraces:

• Deck (terrace) board. This is a very durable material made of larch and other wood species that are resistant to decomposing. This is quite an expensive option, but it will serve for decades. Larch is adaptable to water: it only becomes more and more durable; so, the floor of the deck will not be affected by any environmental factors.
• Composite decking. In fact, this is not decking: such material is made from sawdust and other sawn wood waste impregnated with special polymer-based compounds. Composite decking serves for a long time, and it’s easy to install. The special porous structure makes it light, unlike larch and other tree species.
• Terrace oil and liquid plastic. These are special types of polymer-based heavy-duty paints and varnishes. Using them means ensuring durability of the original floor boards, and they will maintain great appearance for a long time. Nevertheless, it is preferable that you use them only for enclosed decks: in open spaces there will be snow, which is damaging for practically any paint compounds.

If you are using any wood materials, you should leave small gaps between the floor panels. With increasing humidity, the wood swells and expands, so the gaps will compensate for this expansion. The gaps are needed for grooved board and decking; this also applies to other natural materials.

We have listed the most common solutions that have proven their effectiveness. However, almost all of them are quite costly, which is not always worthwhile, for example: using it for a simple country house is not the best idea.

You can, for instance, choose a rubber coating, linoleum, and, if the deck is located on a concrete platform, colored self-leveling floors would be a perfect alternative. It is necessary to consider all the parameters: the size and the location of the site, whether there is foundation or not and so on.

If you decide to cover the floor of the porch with wood boards, it is very important to choose the right paint or varnish. Remember: the wood on the deck will be exposed to very serious stress, so the paint should take some of this load off. Criteria for selection of paint for wooden decks are provided here.

Proper finishing of your deck permits to preserve durability of the walls and floor for many years, and provides it with a beautiful design. The selection of finishing materials today has expanded significantly, and you can choose the optimal solution for any interior or exterior finishing.

Learning to use new materials is also quite easy, and, therefore, you will be able to create a beautiful and interesting design.