NEWCASTLE tradie startup Decktec has landed a distribution deal in the United States and Canada.
Carpenter Peter Hass came up with the idea for Decktec while he was working under hot sun at a client's home building a deck, painstakingly fixing every timber board to every joist, in 2015.
About 18 months later he had a prototype for Decktec, a deck spacing assembly that sits on the joist of a deck and allows a builder to lay boards with precision. Protecting the joists and allowing the timber to move, it has fixed and removable spacers and can be used with all natural timbers.
Mr Hass said a key benefit was that once laid down, boards can be laid from multiple positions rather than just one point as is standard: "If you have to lay a beer garden in one day, there's never been a way you can work from two ways, but using this you can have 10 tradies on one deck - no other system allows that," he says.
Decktec general manager Steve Byrnes said the company had just secured a distribution agreement with hardware firm Vinyl Trends, based in the USA and Canada, for its product, which is manufactured in Sydney.
"Vinyl Trends are a well-established distributor with a range of hardware products in all of the major big box outlets across both countries," he said, adding the first export load would be in April.
Mr Byrnes said the market in both countries was 14 times bigger than the Australian market and "the largest decking market on earth".
"Seventy per cent of dwellings in the region have decks and a high percentage still opt for lumber over composite decking. Traditionally America is highly accepting of new innovation, particularly time saving inventions," Mr Byrnes said.
With Decktec having patents and brand trademarks in place in South Africa, Europe, Britain and the USA, he said the USA-Canada deal was "another stepping stone for the Newcastle-based company's international growth strategy."
"In addition to geographical expansion, we have three new decking products under development to expand our range in the coming 12 months," Mr Byrnes said.
