Terrace

These customers have a beautiful townhouse in downtown Toronto and they wanted a clean, splinter free, floor for their new child to play on. Our recommendation was composite from TruNorth Decking. We also recommended straight boards, without any breaks or gaps, to ensure that there was nothing to catch clothing on.

The initial job was to tear up their old deck which you can still see in some of the fencing. Not allowed to tear that down! We then built a raised sub-floor so that the balcony could run at the same height as their living room and it would be easy for the kid to step out into the backyard. A fun job with a place for a lot of toys and no risk of injury.


We often turn simple, rectangular, balconies into green spaces by adding some grass. In this Toronto balcony, we created a full entertaining area by creating two grass spaces, surrounded by different coloured composite. At the end of the balcony, we built a customized bench and wall.

The bench was built with a storage area underneath it to store cushions, etc. given that space is always an issue in a condo. The wall was custom fitted to the space to provide privacy but also to keep the cat from running to the other balcony :-).

On small balconies it doesn't make sense to make the floor design too complicated. Instead, picking one element and then decorating around it is the way to go. On this small balcony (40 sq. ft) in Toronto, the customer wanted something soft underfoot and decided on some faux grass throughout.

This is not the astro turf anymore that you remember from years ago. Suppliers have gotten a lot more advanced and the grasses are incredible! This one even has dead "thatch" woven in the grass so that it looks and feels like a real lawn. As well, heat is no longer a problem as the backing has air and water holes to allow the grass to breathe and cool down. Beautiful stuff!

The combination of grass and cedar makes for a beautiful terrace design and place to relax.

Cedar Condo Balcony With Grass

Artificial grass has come a long way and our friends at Design Turf are always there to supply us with terrific artifical grass.  This grass was their Natural 60 which is really quite incredible and I defy anyone to tell the difference except this stuff you don't have to cut!

This condo balcony in the heart of Toronto was designed using cedar on one side and artificial grass on the other.  The idea was to have a soft place for their child to run around as well as some nice decking to remind them of the cottage.

The cedar portion was installed using a staggered pattern to give the feel of a real deck (which it is) and was stained using Natural Cedar from Sansin stains.