If you are building a DIY gazebo or buying ready-made gazebo kits, you are currently looking for gazebo floor ideas; when it comes to constructing a gazebo, there are several flooring ideas for a gazebo that, you will come across such as attached decks, wraparound decks, and other customized decks that you can build your gazebo on.
When deciding on the best base for gazebos, there are several factors to consider aside from the base of the style, such as cost, durability, and maintenance. But besides that, the biggest decision you will need to make is the material that will be used as the flooring for the gazebo. Traditionally it was easy to choose a base for a gazebo since wood was the only option; today, there are several options to choose from, making choosing the best gazebo floor quite challenging.
Due to the regular inspection, repairs, and renovation needed for wooden gazebos, most young clients we have worked with are looking for new alternatives; however, the majority of our gazebo floor installations are wood, with over 45+ homeowners saying wood is the only decking materials for gazebo and other outdoor structures.
This article will provide you with different types of gazebo floor ideas, including the best materials for gazebo floors and what each has to offer.
Gazebo Flooring Ideas
There are surely many options when it comes to gazebo flooring ideas; At the same time, wood is the most common gazebo flooring material used; other options are now becoming popular and proving to be a good foundation for a gazebo, especially if you are looking for cheap gazebo flooring ideas, or don’t have enough recourse to maintain a wooden gazebo floor.
Highlighted below are some of the flooring ideas for the gazebo; you must choose the best gazebo base and materials that will match your preferences and budget.
Gazebo Wood Floor
One of the most popular gazebo floor ideas is building a wooden deck, wood has proven to be one of the best bases for gazebos in the past, and even today, for many homeowners we have installed gazebo wooden floors, they have told us nothing compared to the feel and look of wood gazebo floors.
Installation of a gazebo wooden floor is quite easy compared to other gazebo floor bases, making wooden gazebo floors ideal for DIY gazebo builders; if you hire a professional contractor, the average cost of a gazebo wooden deck being $20-$50 per square foot, however, wooden gazebo floors require regular inspection, repair, and maintenance to ensure the stability for a gazebo is not affected.
Some of the problems associated with wooden gazebo floors include pests’ infestation, wood rot, wood splinter, and wood wrap that can affect the stability of your gazebo.
If you believe nothing compares to the natural look of real wood gazebo floors, then there are a broad category of gazebo wooden floors and options that you can consider; here are some of our recommendations.
Pressure-treated wooden gazebo deck.
One of the cheap gazebo flooring ideas when it comes to wooden gazebo decks is the use of pressure-treated wood; a lot of pressure-treated wood sellers use Southern yellow pine, and the wood from the southern yellow pine tree is put through a chemical process to harden it to make it resistance to all-year-round weather conditions, and environmental factors such as insects resistance making it an ideal gazebo base for hardtop permanent gazebos, and all year heavy duty gazebos.
Standard gazebo pressure-treated decks cost $15 to $25 per square foot; the cost can increase to $40 depending on labor and the complexity of the installation. While building a pressure-treated gazebo deck is inexpensive and ideal for DIY gazebo builders building a gazebo from scratch and are under budget, it needs long-term constant maintenance, such as coating, sealing, and pressure washing to maintain the pressure-treated wood look.
When constructing the gazebo base with pressure treated wooden gazebo deck, it’s important to make sure the deck is sanded to keep it splitter free; regular inspection, repair, and maintenance especially sanding, is required to prevent your pressure-treated wooden gazebo floor from cracking, warping, and shrinking a factor that can affect the integrity of your gazebo foundation.
Cedar and redwood wooden gazebo deck.
If Southern yellow pine wood is not easily available in your location, we recommend cedar and redwood gazebo floors with a rich natural wood color; they also naturally resist environmental factors such as rot and pest infections.
The cost of redwood wooden gazebo decks is higher at $20 and $40 per square foot compared to using pressure-treated wood; however, it’s important to note that installation, long term costs are the same; Cedar gazebo decks, on the other hand,, costs $5 to $10 per linear foot making it cheaper than pressure treated wood and redwood, but also require regular inspection, repair, and maintenance like redwood and pressure treated wood, making cedar decks ideal for homeowners looking for cheap gazebo floor ideas.
Some of the effects of using cedar and redwood for your gazebo base is that when exposed to environmental factors such as the sun, rain, and snow, its natural look will fade, and the wooden gazebo deck boards will shrink and split. Therefore, we recommend choosing cedar and redwood gazebo decks for all year-round permanent gazebo that will offer shade for the wooden deck all year round, prolonging its life.
Tropical hardwood wooden gazebo deck.
The most expensive gazebo wooden floor is made from tropical hardwood decks because these decks are made from exotic hardwood, which is long-lasting and beautiful. This type of flooring is used by real estate builders and homeowners looking to increase the value of their property by using exotic materials; it’s also popular for homeowners without a limited budget who want a gazebo base made from some exotic materials; some of the popular tropical hardwoods that we recommend for gazebo bases are Ipe, Tigerwood, Garapa, and Teak gazebo wooden decks.
Hardwood gazebo decks cost around $20 – $50 per square foot, and its worth it since this type of wooden gazebo deck can last up to 40-50 years with proper maintenance; Ipe is one of the most durable wooden gazebo deck material tigerwood is the most beautiful with a striped pattern, and rot resistant. At the same time, teak is loved for its natural oils that keep the wood looking fresh and is loved by homeowners who are not fond of routine maintenance of their outdoor spaces and the costs involved.
Plastic Gazebo Floor.
Plastic is becoming a popular base for gazebos because they are easy to install, the gazebo base made from plastic doesn’t require regular long-term maintenance, and it’s also durable compared to wooden gazebo foundations.
Plastic gazebo floor kits are ideal for homeowners looking for cheap gazebo floor ideas; we have found that some of the popular gazebo plastic floor bases are made from plastic that looks like wood. However, it’s worth noting before taking that route that, despite what type of plastic you use, the look will still look synthetic rather than natural wood, especially when seen through the natural lights of the outdoors.
Plastic gazebo floors are ideal for the permanent hardtop, soft tops, and hardtops gazebos and locations with poor drainage foundations; however, they look best on soft top and pop-up gazebos since you will find gazebos under this category with gazebo parts made from plastic including roof, frame, and walls, deck tiles and floor bases. We recommend them for homeowners looking forward to style and designing their outdoor spaces because plastic floor materials are available in different colors and designs than wooden ones.
There are three types of gazebo bases made from plastic; they include PVC Gazebo floors, HDPE gazebo floors, and composite gazebo floors, which we will highlight below:
PVC Gazebo Floor.
PVC, also called polyvinyl chloride, is one of the popular plastic materials that are used to make gazebo bases; we recommend them for flooring for gazebos on the glass; not only do PVC materials ideal for easy patio flooring over grass, but they are also ideal for DIY patio flooring over glass projects including gazebo bases, this is because PVC decks are long-lasting and offer a maintenance-free base for gazebo.
PVC gazebo bases are cheaper to install than wooden bases, and the bases, when installed, look like natural wood thanks to the additives that are added during the manufacturing process, which make the materials resistant to pests and rot.
We recommend them for temporary gazebos because you don’t need them anymore; you can recycle the PVC Gazebo floor after use, providing a smaller environmental impact than other materials in this list.
HDPE Gazebo Floor.
HDPE Gazebo floors are made from high-density polyethylene, a material that is 100% plastic and looks similar to PVC; most of the HDPE Gazebo floor kits you will find look like and feel like wood just like PVC Decks; however, HDPE doesn’t give off toxic emission compared to PVC decks making it environmentally friendly compared to PVC. We recommend HDPE Gazebo floors for temporary gazebo installations.
Composite Gazebo Floor.
Decking is more popular than PVC and HDPE gazebo floors; this is because it’s more suited for foundation bases compared to PVC and HDPE; it’s made from wood, fibers, and plastic, making it tougher to withstand the harsh foundation material requirements of a base for gazebo.
You will find composite gazebo floors more comfortable than PVC and HDPE gazebo floors, especially when on bare feet, and for this reason, they are the number one material option for homeowners looking for cheap gazebo floor ideas; however, it’s important to note that composite gazebo floor bases require maintenance though at a minimum compared to wooden gazebo bases.
Fiberglass Gazebo Floor
We have had an opportunity to install one of the rarest gazebo floor bases in California, a fiberglass gazebo floor; we settled on a fiberglass gazebo post on a posh backyard with poor drainage since installing wood decks in the backyard would not be ideal and would be affected by water contamination, we settled on fiberglass floor deck to install a permanent gazebo structure.
The synthetic nature of fiberglass floor gazebo kits makes the material ideal for homeowners in locations with extreme temperatures and also areas that experience heavy loads of snow and rain. It’s ideal for snow and rain-affected areas; however, it’s worth noting that many homeowners don’t like that its smooth surface is risky when contaminated with snow or rain.
Fiberglass gazebo floors can last 25- 30 years with regular inspection, repair, and maintenance when properly installed.
Aluminum Gazebo Floor
Aluminum is also a popular gazebo floor base option; unlike wooden decks, it doesn’t require regular maintenance and doesn’t rot and decay; we recommend installing an aluminum gazebo for high-traffic gazebo bases, especially when it comes to the commercial gazebo or heavy gazebos-that require a stable floor anchor.
Some of the disadvantages to note since the base for the gazebo is outdoors, it’s hot when exposed to the sun, and another reason why homeowners don’t install aluminum gazebo floors is that it’s expensive compared to wooden and plastic gazebos.
Concrete Gazebo Floor.
Concrete gazebo floor is another idea for backyard flooring over grass; most concrete gazebo floors are poured-in-place concrete, precast concrete pavers, stone, or bricks.
The beauty of using concrete gazebo floor for backyard flooring over grass is that it’s easy to work with, especially when building a gazebo base for DIY gazebo builders; this is because concrete can be formed into much any shape imaginable, allowing you to attract curved configurations to match your gazebo shape which we all know comes in various shapes and styles.
We recommend concrete gazebo floors for all sizes of gazebo, especially large-sized gazebo, which will require many flooring materials; concrete being cheaper than all other materials make it the best choice for large-sized gazebos; we also recommend concrete gazebo floors for permanent, and heavy all season which requires a solid foundation and anchor base, as we all know the strongest base for a gazebo is concrete. We recommend permeable and porous concrete pavers for homeowners in wet regions to prevent water pooling in your gazebo.
If you are building a foundation for a gazebo, we highly recommend concrete gazebo floors such as pavers, which come in various shapes, colors, and sizes and can be laid in striking patterns.
Concrete gazebo floors are long-lasting and can last for up to 30 years or longer, and are known to over last wooden gazebo floors.
Conclusions.
We have listed some of the gazebo floor ideas, having talked about wooden gazebo floors, plastic gazebo floors, fiberglass gazebo floors, metal gazebo floors, and concrete gazebo floors, the choice of your gazebo flooring will boil down to your personal preferences, regardless of all other considerations.
