Davee

I want to use decking wood to create a free form walkway to my deck. Any ideas on the best way to do this?

handyguys

it depends on if you expect it to last or not. Do you want to do this because of muddy or soggy conditions or is this purely astetic?

In an ideal world you construct this like any other deck with footers, etc. You can get away with just a couple 4x4s or lanscape timbers with decking boards attached as well.

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Davee

Thanks handyguys. So if I lay 4x4s in sand will that be enough to stabilize the deck boards?

Con65

You might want to think about the need to prepare the sand base you're going to use.

My neighbor in upstate New York built a similar walkway. Used 8 foot pressure treated 4X4's on a two inch sand base and Trex decking material. It looked great until we had frost heaves over the winter.

He had to dig out the base and use a compactor (similar to putting down pavers). After he did that, no more problems. I've always wondered if using shorter 4X4's would have eliminated the problem also.

cibula11

It really depends on how much foot traffic this will get. If it will be used as any walkway quite a bit, I would at least dig footers every 6 ft or so on either side and lay the 4x4's across those. With weather changes you might get some heave if you just put on sand.

Make sure you use heavy duty landscape fabric underneath....not plastic (you'll want drainage, not standing water).

travelover

Make sure you don't put any slope on it - wood is notoriously slippery when wet.

Davee

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

Davee

Is trex used as a pathway any more or less slippery when wet? If there is little difference with say using 2x6 redwood, then I would rather use trex. Thanks in advance for your reply.

handyguys

Trex might be more slippery but not much more so. The redwood if it gets wet and mold covered will also be somewhat slippery. The trex should outlast the redwood at grade level.

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TxBuilder

What are you going with Davee?