good base for decking

[rambo77]

hi there im looking to replace my slabbed patio with decking i want to extend further than my original patio, i take it i can lay the decking onto the slabbed area using joices but what do i need to do when the decking runs onto the lawn do i need to dig out the lawn and lay a concrete base or slab the lawn area

also what size joices do i use and would i just screw them to the patio slabs

any advice would be great

[thedoctor]

Joists can be anything (solid) you like. On the slabs we would be inclined to use 50 x 50 mm timbers but make sure they are well treated. See the following link for timber treatement.

http://www.awin1.com/pclick.php?p=79829 ... 071&m=1228

When you get onto the lawn its probably cheaper to continue the patio level with concrete and then continue the timbers onto the concrete. The other way of doing it is to excavate down 150mm and then insert wooden (100 x 00mm) posts into the ground with concrete at 400mm centres along the front of the existing slabs and more posts, at the same centres, at the end of the new decking. Then screw 100 x 50mm joists to the posts and lay the decking on those. The length of the joists should be no more than 2m between posts.