Grey Decking 85B: setting out 290cm boards and squaring the edges

Board length decides how much cutting you do, and 290cm is long enough to cross most domestic patios in one piece. Decking 85B in grey is listed at 15 x 290 x 2.3cm per board, four boards to a pack, covering 1.74m² per pack. Before ordering, it is worth deciding which way the boards will run.

What a pack holds

• Four composite boards, each listed at 15 x 290 x 2.3cm
• 1.74m² of coverage per pack
• A wood grain texture, in grey
• No clips, screws or trims: those are separate lines

The dimension string reads as width, length and thickness, and the coverage figure agrees with that: four boards 0.15m wide by 2.90m long make 1.74m². Ask the shop to confirm the order of the figures if a cutting list depends on it.

Setting out a 290cm board

Lay the 290cm dimension across the shorter side of the area wherever you can. On a patio 2.4m deep, one board crosses it with roughly 50cm to trim, and that off-cut is often too short to be useful at the far end, so count it as waste rather than as part of the next row. Where a run is longer than 290cm you will be joining boards end to end, and joints are easier to live with if they do not all land in a line down the middle of the deck.

Each board is 15cm across the face, so a 3m width takes twenty boards side by side if they butt together. The listing does not say whether the clips set a gap between boards, or how wide one would be, and that is the figure that quietly changes the board count, so get it from the shop or the fitting instructions before you order the last pack.

Grey, and what it sits against

Grey is a neutral, so unlike Oak 03 it is not trying to match a timber tone, which is one less thing to get right next to fencing and wall panelling. The listing gives no colour code or reference for it, and a screen is not to be trusted on a shade like this, so if it has to match something you already own, ask the shop to check it against your fencing or cladding first. The same board is listed in Oak 03 and Black at the same size, which is a tidy way to border a grey deck in a darker tone.

Clips, trims and screws

The listing names Decking Fittings (80pcs) as the fitting clips and the Wall Panel 73/83 Trim - 290cm as the compatible trim for finishing an exposed edge. The clips pack does not include screws. Neither listing states how many clips a pack of boards needs, so take your board count to the shop and have them worked out together.

Where the listing is silent

The description says the board is composite and UV resistant. It does not give a slip rating, a span or joist spacing, a weight, or a fixing centre, and it says nothing about what the deck sits on. The dark brown and black boards in the range are described as reversible, with a ribbed face their listings call anti-slip on the other side; this grey listing describes the wood grain texture only, so do not plan on a ribbed side without asking.

Sizes, photographs and the full description are on the Decking 85B Grey 290cm pack page, with the rest of the boards in Decking. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.