How To Keep Bugs From Coming Up Through Deck Floor

Traditional decking has a 1 8 or 1 4 gap between boards which is more than enough room for mosquitoes or other bugs to crawl through.

How to keep bugs from coming up through deck floor.

So it has the basic kind of 2 4 style decking on the floor. Cover the gap between the deck and the ground with a skirt made of pressure treated or composite plywood. What kind of bugs and how high is the deck from the ground. It seems screening the underside of the joists has the potential to trap debris that falls through the cracks.

In addition there are various chemicals that can be applied to the deck boards that not only protect it agains weather but keeps the bugs aways i cant remember the name right now but if you search it on the net you can find it. The crawlspace beneath is open as it is a post on pad foundation. In order to effectively protect against bugs a screen porch must be completely enclosed but if your porch wasn t well built from the start it is often the deck floorboards that were overlooked. We have a porch that was built around an original deck.

My first thought was to lay marine grade plywood over the decking but given the potential for water to enter through the screen and lay on the floor i m a bit leery. But there are little gaps in that floor and so even though the screens have been replaced around the walls of the screened porch and that s all tight i think maybe bugs are still coming in through the cracks.