Timber Decking Cost in Perth — Merbau, Jarrah, Spotted Gum, Blackbutt | Endure Decks

Real Perth timber decking prices, the four hardwoods that do most of the work, where each one earns its place, why pine doesn't, and what to maintain it with once it's down.

Endure Decks — Perth deck builders · Updated 28 May 2026

These are supply + install rates for an Endure-spec'd deck — boards, properly built subframe, design, prelims and the 20-Year Standard build. What we deliver, all-in. Not a generic market rate.

Expect $440 to $580 per square metre installed inc GST, depending on the species. Merbau sits at the low end of that band and is the most-specified hardwood in Perth by a wide margin. Jarrah, spotted gum, blackbutt and Fijian mahogany each have a specific job; they sit higher on price and earn their place on the right kind of deck.

A 22 m² merbau deck on a clean site comes in around $15,000 for the deck itself. A 36 m² merbau deck around $18,000–$22,000. A 50 m² merbau deck around $25,000–$30,000. The same dimensions in spotted gum or blackbutt sit a band above — the supply cost of the board is the main driver of the difference.

Two things are true at the same time on a hardwood deck quote. Timber costs less than composite at the supply line. And timber costs more than composite at the labour line — hardwood is denser, slower, and asks more from the saw. The honest version of the maths puts the gap between timber and composite smaller than the raw board prices suggest, but timber still wins on initial cost in most cases.

If you've decided you want a timber deck and you're working out which species suits, this is the article. If you've already landed on merbau and want the specific deep-dive, go straight to the merbau decking cost article.

Those are our published 2026 ranges, openly listed on the Endure pricing page. The general Perth market for installed hardwood runs roughly $315–$580/m² inc GST across published competitor rates. We sit at the upper half of that band. Why we sit there is the hub article on how decks really get priced in Perth: you can build a deck cheaply or you can build it to the 20-Year Standard with a 7-year structural warranty. You can't do both for the same number.

For comparison: composite decking at Endure rates lands between $540 and $760/m² inc GST depending on the board (composite cost article here). Timber still has the price advantage at the supply line, even with the higher labour cost timber carries.

There are a lot of timber boards in market. Four do most of the work for one reason or another, and each has a clear job.

Merbau — Perth's staple

The hardwood that replaced jarrah as Perth's default deck board after large-scale jarrah logging was wound back. Merbau is a hardwood that lasts decades outdoors, naturally oily (which is part of why it does well around pools and in coastal air), dimensionally stable in Perth's heat-and-humidity swings, and meaningfully cheaper at supply than the other hardwoods on the Perth market.

On most timber-deck briefs we quote, merbau is the answer. The dollar saving compared to jarrah, spotted gum or blackbutt is real and shows up in the all-in figure. If budget is a factor — and on most decks over about 30 m², it is — merbau is almost always the easy yes.

Recent Endure merbau projects worth a look:

• Victoria Park merbau bungalow deck — merbau across the deck, posts and beams of the pergola — the continuity argument made visible.

The deeper read on the species sits in the merbau decking cost article — lifespan, the Equisol maintenance approach, why merbau is actually good around pools, and what 50 m² of merbau looks like on a real Endure job.

Jarrah — the WA classic

Deep red, dense, beautiful, the heritage option. Used where the brief specifically calls for the WA hardwood look — restoration work on a character home, an architect-led build referencing local materials, a deck that wants the WA red rather than the merbau brown.

Jarrah supplies meaningfully above merbau. The look is the value. A jarrah deck is a statement. A merbau deck is a deck. Different briefs, different choices, both honest.

Spotted Gum — the contemporary architect's hardwood

Durable hardwood with a distinctive flame-grain, popular on architect-led contemporary builds. Spotted gum has a different aesthetic to merbau and jarrah — more variation in the board, more visual interest, slightly more demanding to lay clean because of the grain. It sits at a similar price point to blackbutt, both above merbau.

Specified when the brief wants the look, not when budget is the driver.

Blackbutt — the blonde-toned hardwood

Hard, dimensionally stable, lasts decades outdoors, lighter and blonder than the other Australian hardwoods. Reads differently against a modern white-rendered house than merbau or jarrah does. A genuine alternative to the other premiums at a similar price.

Fijian Mahogany — for the fully-exposed deck

This one is the standout pick for one specific situation: a deck that's going to live entirely without overhead cover, in full Perth sun. Fijian mahogany weathers and silvers beautifully. If an exposed deck is going to go grey over time anyway, mahogany silvers in a way that reads extremely beachy and coastal — works with the WA aesthetic rather than fighting it.

Supply for Fijian mahogany sits around $150 per square metre — above merbau, below the other Australian premiums.

A coastal job worth looking at: Cottesloe Fijian mahogany courtyard — a beachside build where the silvering is part of the design intent.

On a covered deck, the silvering is hidden by the roof and the difference compared to merbau is harder to justify. On an open-sky deck where the look is going to weather regardless — mahogany is the choice that ages into a finished look rather than out of one.

The most common question we get on the timber side of a quote is whether treated pine should be part of the conversation. The honest answer is no. Plenty of Perth deck builders offer treated pine decks — some honestly, with appropriate trade-offs priced in. We've made the call that for the kind of deck we build, pine doesn't earn its place on the spec sheet.

The reasons are practical. Pine doesn't have the natural durability hardwoods carry — the timber relies entirely on the chemical treatment for any kind of life. The treatment leaches over time (especially in ground-contact members), and Perth's heat and UV compress the lifespan further. The failure mode catches up to the homeowner inside a decade in most cases — meaningfully shorter than a properly-built hardwood deck.

The look is also different. Pine takes paint or stain; it doesn't carry the natural grain that the hardwoods do. If a homeowner wants a painted deck for a specific design reason, that's a real choice — but it's a different conversation about a different kind of build, and there are builders in Perth who handle it well.

We don't sell pine decks. If pine is the right answer for your budget and your brief, an honest cost-led Perth builder will do the job properly. If you want a hardwood deck built to the 20-Year Standard with a 7-year structural warranty, we'll do that one.

Most Perth quotes don't show this and it confuses everybody. The board is cheaper. The labour to put it down is not.

At our rates, timber deck labour costs noticeably more per square metre than composite labour — denser, slower, more time per board. Hardwood fights the saw blade, board widths vary, you select for grade, you cut around natural features. Each timber board takes longer to lay than a composite equivalent of the same dimensions: wedging, pre-drilling at the ends to stop the timber splitting, hand-screwing through dense hardwood. Multiplied across a deck, the time adds up.

The take-home: when you see a hardwood quote that is significantly lower than another hardwood quote of the same dimensions, the difference is almost never the boards. It's the subframe spec and the labour. Cheap timber-deck labour is the single most reliable signal that corners are being cut. The full read on labour is in the deck labour cost article. The full read on where the subframe cost actually goes — and why our subframe at $85–$95/m² is most Perth builders' upgrade — is in the substructure cost article.

Every hardwood deck we hand over carries the same maintenance approach, regardless of species. We only use Equisol. Penetrating oil, not a coating. Here's how the system runs:

At the supplier, before install. Every timber board we install comes pre-oiled from the supplier — including, critically, the underside. That underside oil is the one coat the board will never get again once it's down, so it gets done before it goes anywhere. The board lands on the substructure already protected on both sides.

On site, every cut gets oiled. A fresh cut exposes raw timber to weather. Every cut on every board on every Endure timber deck gets oiled before the build moves on.

At the finish, the whole deck gets Equisol. The full surface, before handover. The first oil is included on every Endure timber build.

Why Equisol specifically. It penetrates the timber rather than coating it. You see it the first time it rains — water beads off the deck and runs. That's the timber being protected from inside. The contrast is coatings — surface films that look great on day one but trap moisture inside the timber over time. The film fails, the surface flakes, the deck looks worse than if nothing had been used. Equisol is like conditioning your hair — brings the oils back into the timber, keeps it protected, doesn't form a film on top.

When to recoat: the homeowner doesn't need a calendar. Watch the surface. When water stops beading off, or the deck starts looking a little dry — that's the signal. Most Perth hardwood decks need recoating every 12–18 months for the best result, sometimes longer on covered or low-exposure decks.

For homeowners who'd rather not handle it themselves: DeckCare is our productised maintenance line — yearly clean and oil on the schedule, by the same crew that built the deck. The full annual-cost picture is in the deck maintenance cost article.

A working answer to the most common briefs we see:

Most decks → merbau. Especially anything over 30 m². The dollar saving compared to the other hardwoods is real, the timber performs, and the maintenance schedule with Equisol holds it for the long term. The default answer until a specific reason says otherwise.

Pool deck → merbau. Counter-intuitive but true: the natural oils in merbau make it a genuinely good performer around water. Combined with the Equisol maintenance approach, merbau around a Perth pool holds up well — and the warmth of timber underfoot near water is something composite can't replicate. Detail in the merbau article.

Fully-exposed, all-day-sun deck → Fijian mahogany. If the deck is going to silver regardless, choose the timber that silvers beautifully.

Heritage / restoration / architect-led WA aesthetic → jarrah. The look is the value. Specified when the brief calls for it.

Contemporary architect-led build with a specific grain brief → spotted gum or blackbutt. Either works; the choice is aesthetic.

One. What's the subframe spec, exactly? Treatment level (H3 or H4), joist spacing, fixings, ground clearance, joist tape. A vague answer is the same flag here as anywhere — the timber on top doesn't decide the lifespan, the structure underneath does. Full detail in the substructure cost article.

Two. What does the labour line cover, and what's the build day-count? Hardwood takes longer to lay than composite. A quote with a labour line that assumes three days for a job that genuinely needs five is a quote about to lose money — which means corners on day one. A real builder will tell you what crew over what days. The labour cost article walks the gap.

Three. What's the oil schedule, and is the first oil included? Which product? A hardwood deck without a real maintenance approach is a deck that goes grey and loses surface protection. The first oil should be on the quote. The product should be named (we use Equisol). The follow-up plan should be a real conversation, not a generic line.

The full version of the three-questions framework is in the hub on Perth deck pricing.

What does timber decking cost in Perth per square metre? Supply + install for an Endure-spec'd deck at the 20-Year Standard build spec: $440–$540/m² for merbau and $500–$580/m² for the other premium hardwoods (jarrah, spotted gum, blackbutt, Fijian mahogany). The general Perth market lands roughly $315–$580/m² across published competitor rates.

What's the cheapest timber decking option in Perth? Merbau, by a meaningful margin. Merbau supplies dramatically below the other Perth hardwoods at the board line. Across a 36 m² deck the board-cost saving compared to jarrah, spotted gum or blackbutt runs into thousands of dollars before labour and structure are even counted.

What's the difference between merbau, jarrah, spotted gum and blackbutt? Merbau is the staple — naturally durable, oily, the most cost-effective hardwood deck board in Perth. Jarrah is the WA classic — deep red, dense, expensive, beautiful. Spotted gum is the contemporary architect's hardwood — distinctive grain, lasts decades outdoors. Blackbutt is similar to spotted gum with a blonder tone. The choice is partly budget, partly aesthetic, partly brief.

Why don't you sell pine decks? Pine doesn't have the natural durability hardwoods carry, the chemical treatment leaches over time, and the failure mode in Perth conditions catches up to the homeowner inside a decade. For the kind of deck we build — to the 20-Year Standard with a 7-year structural warranty — pine doesn't earn its place on the spec sheet. Honest cost-led Perth builders will build a pine deck properly if it's the right call for your budget and brief.

Is timber decking cheaper than composite in Perth? At the supply line, yes — meaningfully. At the labour line, no — timber costs more to install per square metre than composite (denser, slower, wedging and pre-drilling). The all-in gap ends up smaller than the raw board prices suggest, but timber still wins on initial cost in most cases. The lifetime picture flips: timber asks for ongoing maintenance, composite barely does. The full read is in Timber vs Composite Decking in Perth.

What oil do you use on Perth timber decks? Equisol. A penetrating oil that conditions the timber from inside, rather than coating the surface. Water beads off when it's working. Coatings (surface films) trap moisture inside the timber and fail visibly over time; penetrating oils condition the timber from inside. The first oil is included on every Endure timber build. After that, recoat when water stops beading off — typically every 12–18 months.

How long does a timber deck last in Perth? Properly built on a subframe that holds, and maintained with a real oil schedule, timber decks typically last well into the second decade. The two variables that decide the answer are the subframe (built to spec or not) and the maintenance (real Equisol schedule or neglect). The species itself is a much smaller factor than people think.

If you want a real timber deck number for your dimensions, your block and the species that suits — not a ballpark — that starts with a conversation. We'll walk through your aspect, the substructure spec your job needs, which species lines up with what you want from the deck, and what the all-in figure looks like.

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No obligation — just a real conversation about your deck.