My name’s Grant Hollis, and I’ve spent close on 25 years building decks and outdoor timber structures around Wellington’s harbour edge, Petone included. The first deck I built here faced dead south across the harbour — looked a picture in the brochure the owners had in their heads. The reality was that for about eight months of the year the southerly came howling straight off the water and you couldn’t hold a cup of tea out there, let alone run a barbecue. I’ve built a lot of decks since, and the lesson from that first job stuck: down here you don’t design a deck for the three nice days, you design it for the wind that shows up the other 362.
The view and the southerly come from the same direction
Everyone wants the deck facing the water. Fair enough. But in Petone the harbour view and the southerly arrive from exactly the same bearing, and if you point everything at the water you’ve built a wind tunnel with furniture in it. The trick is working out where the wind actually hits and giving yourself shelter without killing the outlook. In practice that means:
- Tucking the main sitting area against the house or into an L in the building so it sits in a wind shadow.
- Running a solid or glass balustrade on the windward side to break the southerly at ground level.
- Angling the deck to catch morning and midday sun before the afternoon southerly turns up.
- Adding a screen or a section of adjustable louvres, rather than leaving the whole thing open to the strait.
Get the orientation and shelter right and a Petone deck gets used most of the year round. Get it wrong and you’ve built the most expensive drying rack in the Hutt Valley.
Building on Petone’s flat, reclaimed ground
Petone sits on reclaimed land, flat as a pancake, and that changes how you found a deck. A lot of the older housing stock nearby — villas and bungalows from around the 1900s through to the 1930s, some up towards Alicetown and Korokoro — was built well before this stretch of flat ground existed in its current form, and the soil under a lot of Petone sections is soft with a water table that sits high. You can’t just plonk a pile on the surface and hope. Foundations need to go down to something solid, and on reclaimed ground that often means deeper piles than you’d need on a hill section a couple of suburbs over. Where the deck ties into the house, that ledger connection has to be flashed and fixed properly — a poorly tied ledger board is how water gets into your framing and how decks end up pulling away from the house a few years down the track. It’s worth understanding the ground before you start digging piles, and our guide to Petone’s flat, reclaimed land covers what that soft ground means for anything you build on it.
What actually survives the salt air
Salt off the harbour is hard on fixings and finishes, and I’ve replaced enough rusted brackets to have strong opinions about what goes into a coastal deck build:
| Component | Minimum spec for coastal Petone |
|---|---|
| Timber above ground | H3.2 treated |
| Posts in or near the ground | H5 treated |
| Fixings | Stainless steel or hot-dip galvanised |
| Deck boards | Kwila, vitex, or a good composite |
| House junction | Proper flashing every time |
Composite decking costs more up front but shrugs off UV and salt with a lot less annual fuss than timber, which matters if you’d rather be using the deck than oiling it. Skimping on fixings to save fifty bucks is a false economy this close to the water — you’ll see the rust streaks bleeding down your decking boards before the first winter’s out.
The consent question Hutt City Council will ask
Not every deck needs a building consent, but plenty do. As a rule of thumb, a deck generally needs consent once the floor is more than 1.5 metres above the ground, and there are further conditions around size, barriers and how close you sit to boundaries. On Petone’s flat ground most decks sit low, which helps, but don’t assume yours is exempt just because the neighbours’ was. The thresholds and exemptions are set out clearly on the government’s Building Performance website, and it’s a ten-minute read that can save you a very expensive conversation with the council later. If you’re unsure, ring Hutt City Council before you start, not after.
What a Petone deck actually costs
Wellington-region pricing as it stands:
| Deck type | Price per m² (incl. GST) |
|---|---|
| Basic treated timber | $350–$500 |
| Hardwood (kwila) | $500–$750 |
| Composite | $550–$900 |
Add extra on top if you need deep piles for the reclaimed ground, screens for the southerly, or a consent. A modest 20 square metre deck done properly in Petone, with a bit of wind shelter built in, realistically sits somewhere between $9,000 and $16,000 including GST depending on materials. Get the shelter and the foundations right the first time and you’ll actually use the thing, which is more than I can say for that first south-facing effort of mine.
Questions I get asked on site
Do I need a consent to build a deck in Petone or wider Wellington? Generally yes once the floor is more than 1.5 metres above the ground, with extra conditions around size, barriers and boundary distances. Plenty of low decks on Petone’s flat ground are exempt, but check the Building Performance thresholds or ring Hutt City Council before you start rather than after.
Is it worth repairing an old deck on a Petone villa, or should I just rebuild it? If the framing and piles are still sound and it’s really just the boards and balustrade looking tired, a repair or partial rebuild can save you thousands over starting again — especially on the older villas and bungalows around Petone built between the 1900s and the 1930s, where the original footings are often still solid. If the piles have moved on the reclaimed ground, or the ledger’s been letting water into the house framing, it’s usually cheaper in the long run to pull the whole thing off and start fresh with deeper piles and proper flashing.
How do I stop the southerly ruining my Petone deck? Site the main sitting area in a wind shadow against the house, run a solid or glass balustrade on the windward side, and add adjustable screens or louvres rather than leaving the deck fully open to the harbour. Orientation matters more than any single product you bolt on afterwards.
What decking material suits coastal Petone, and what does it cost? H3.2 or H5 treated timber with stainless or hot-dip galvanised fixings is the minimum. For boards, kwila and vitex handle the salt air well at roughly $500–$750 per square metre including GST, and composite costs more up front, around $550–$900 per square metre, but needs the least ongoing maintenance against UV and salt. The same salt air works on everything above the deck — a Wellington roofing contractor sees fixings fail on the seaward side years before the sheltered side.