Building a new deck #1: The Start

Well I was working on building the deck and I kept saying. Take some pictures. But, it didn’t get done. These pictures are from before putting on the deck surface.

The deck is placed just outside a small deck that goes between the screened porch and the Solarium. We have a spa in the Solarium room.

The deck is basically 16’ X 16’. It’s 14 feet to the beginning of the curved edge. One end is tapered to match the sidewalk that goes around the house.

I’m using deck blocks that are just placed on the ground. No digging involved, except in my case I had to dig to make the blocks level. What you could do is stick a 4X4 in the top of the bolck and cut the 4X4’s level. In that case no digging.

I got a day laborer to help place the blocks. The 65 yr old knees do do well getting up and down and leaning on knees all day. We set all of the blocks on the first day.

The blocks are placed in rows 24” apart. I’m using 2X6’s as my deck surface. If you use 5/4 wood then you need the block rows 16” apart. The cost is greater using 5/4 lumber. You use more blocks and the deck boards are $3.00 more expensive. The blocks are not suppose to have more than 5’ between them in a row.

I used 2X6 as my frame and for all of the edge boards. The curved boards are 5/4 that I was able to bend with the help of some pipe clamps. All of the edge boards are screwed with 3” screws into the ends of the joists. The curve section had 2X6 stub joists screwed onto the last joist.

I then used some plastic conduit to mark the curve. Put screws on each side of the conduit at the end and one in the middle. I shaped the curve to what looked good and marked it on the joist sections. I then cut them off to the marked line.

The deck surface will be at ground level on the outer right corner.

It sits on the existing deck, at the house side.

It is actually a little off the cement on the solarium side.

The job is being overseen by my “Construction Supervisor”

The plywood is being used to lay on as I did the electric work.

When we bought the house there was a tree in this spot and a light went up the tree. Last year i noticed that the tree was leaning. This year a took the electric off the tree and I just pushed it over. Cut up all the wood. Now a deck is sprouting in its place. The electric is now being rerouted to the edge so that if I need to get to it, It will require removing a couple of deck boards.

The plans are to use a rope light across the edge of the deck where it meets the old deck and the sidewalk side. We are creatures of habit. I didn’t want us to fall and not remember that the deck is now there when it used to be grass.

My helper Dan, my son, is helping to screw down deck boards.

You will notice that we are using pipe clamps to pull all of the deck boards tight together.

I wonder how do i get 17’ pipe clamps. The wood is quite wet so I assume that the cracks between the boards will appear as they dry.

The supervisor back again. He never leaves for long.

-- Retired in Delaware