is decking really slippery and a bad idea for little ones?

[ksmum]

We have a horrible patio with agly paving. Can't afford to have it replaced with lovely stone slabs so am considering decking whcih will also be good as we have a big drop out of back door so can raise it up. Will go across back of house and down side return.

But is it really slippy and dangerous and is the grooved sort better or worse than smooth?

Thanks

[chestnutter]

We just got the grooved sort done and we're dead pleased with it - it doesn't seem slippy at all but I think that is because it's grooved.

[Racers]

same here, seems fine

[ZZMum]

we have the groovved stuff and it has got slipier over the years... we frequently go flying on it.. need to pressure wash it often to keep algae under control..

[Ecmo]

mine is grooved and it can get really slippery, (more so than the concrete path), in the winter, but we have some rubber mats to use then. Still prefer it thou.

[boomie]

Don't talk to me about decking!!!! In answer to your question ours wasn't slippy for DDs at all.

HOWEVER, we have had a little family of rats nesting under it. We had the rat man out from the council who assures us that they are no more (after 2 weeks of them feasting on poison). He said it is a very common place for rats to live as it is so sheltered under there. We have now ripped it up and would never have it again.

[BettySpaghetti]

Ours is grooved but still gets very slippery when its wet, probably partly to do with the fact that its near trees so gets debris from them falling on it.

Pressure washing it helps but is a PITA

[themoon66]

We had grooved decking at our previous house. Lovely in summer, nightmare in winter. It was slippier than a very slippy ice rink. We solved it by pinning chicken wire over the bit we had to walk on to get to the garden. Taking it up again in the summer.

[chestnutter]

Re: the rats - we got chicken wire built in around the edges of our decking to stop any moving in. Interesting about the slipperiness in winter - I guess it needs a bit of anti-algae scrubbing down...