We have the 7th tradie coming around today to look at our mud bowl (backyard). We've only had one quote so far and that was way out of our price range. It's only 5x15metres, so not loads of work. We want to replace the mud bowl with decking and paving, or just paving if we can't afford the decking. Ideally we'd have the water tank moved too, but that's not urgent.

It's getting to the point where we think we're going to have to try and do it ourselves. However, there are drainage type pipes that a professional would need to sort out and I dont really want to build a deck when the last time I did anything related to wood was year 7 woodwork class. (I made a tray).

I suppose there's always a Bunning DIY classes, but I would prefer a professional did it.

Also, has anyone used bamboo for decking? We were looking at merbau but the bamboo looks nice too.