Beautifully greying charred terrace

Story

In the Finnish climate a decking material shows its character quickly – especially on an uncovered terrace, where the wood is exposed to rain, snow and direct sunlight. Beside this compact detached house, set in wooded nature, an uncovered terrace of around twenty square metres was built, with steps. The material chosen was Hiil’s Kelo decking board. The vertical posts were made in the warmer brown of Hiil’s Kaarna, and slender metal railings finish the look, letting the surrounding nature come close.

Kelo is one of our most popular decking materials, and it is designed to grey quickly and evenly. Greying happens both naturally, through the weather, and thanks to the grey-tinted linseed oil absorbed into the wood during manufacture. After charring, a large amount of oil is absorbed into the warm wood, which improves weather resistance and gives 5–10 years of summers without maintenance.

On this plot, too, the sun reaches the terrace from early morning, and the photographs show how nature has done its work: at the time of the shoot the terrace had been installed for less than a year, and in that time it had already patinated to a beautiful grey, as if it had always belonged to the landscape. Although it is a hard and durable wood surface, the brushed surface feels surprisingly soft and velvety under a bare foot. The feel has drawn admiration from both the residents and visitors to the house.

The decking on this project also went through an exceptionally intense wear test right after installation. During an event held on site, more than 8,000 people walked across the terrace over a few days, without any separate protection of the surface, which corresponds to several years of normal home use. Neither this nor the winter that has passed shows on the terrace – it holds up exactly as it should.