Let me tell you about a friend of mine who I believe was a full blown wood deck building addict. It all began when he moved into his new home and I don't know where he first got the inkling from but he built his first wooden deck.

Now let me tell you it looked really good and I've got nothing against wood decks as they provide a great area for the family to kick back and relax and enjoy some quality time together.

But - my friend got hooked on building the things. I know he must have got some great feeling of achievement from doing it himself but not long after he finished his first deck he was off to the hardware store with credit card in hand and returned with more timber ready to go again.

I'm not kidding you when I say every weekend for years he was building a new deck. He started out at the front of the house and I must say he was very good at building them. But he kept going with deck extensions, and even had deck pathways all around the house.

Then he moved out to the back of the house and started there. His first backyard deck was a really good one built up high as a sort of verandah or balcony set up. This wood deck was his best in looks and practicality as it worked like an extension on the kitchen. With great outdoor dining furniture all they had to do was open the outside sliding door from the kitchen and they could walk directly out onto the deck.

It was an ideal place for breakfast in the mornings, or to have a cuppa while reading the paper and was also excellent for barbeques. These guys were also in the fortunate position of having great views as they were in the country surrounded by trees and lots of birds.

Anyhow, my friend still had the itch and continued building outdoor wood decks all over the place. There were upper decks and lower decks and to my untrained eye there seemed to be decks on decks. He had a magical system of steps between decks and I must say it was all cleverly done but even to the most casual observer you could see he had gone totally over the top.

The one thing that impressed me more then anything else was that at least the decking was taking up a lot of space and cutting down on his lawn mowing.

Anyhow, sadly my friend fell on hard times and after about 5 years of wood deck building in his new house he was forced to sell the property. And I bet you can guess what the new owners did almost immediately after moving in. Yes - they demolished every wood deck he had built. All of those hours of work for nothing.While I could understand them doing so it was upsetting for my friend to see and even I couldn't believe they demolished the good one off the kitchen. They literally ripped out the whole lot.

My friend hasn't built a deck since and I think he is no longer a deck building addict however he is living in a rental property so maybe we'll never really know unless he gets his own home again. So if you're a bit of a do-it-yourselfer by all means go for it but please don't go overboard in your deck building.