The Completed Deck

Here is the completed deck. The only thing not done is a bit of paint around the pre-primed pine skirt boards (the white boards you see), the customer was to do that themselves. Other than that, done deal. Speaking of the trim boards, they are a great way to dress up your deck a bit without spending to much and they are easy to install. One thing to remember is to allow for the width of the trim boards when you install your decking material, in this case 5/4″ thick by 6″ wide pressure treated pine decking. You want the edge of the decking to hang over the frame and trim (box and trim) about 1″. This is helps with weather protection, as well as being more visually pleasing.

Also notice how we built the deck approximately 7″ down from the thresholds of the french-doors. By leaving a step-up from the deck into the house (7″ is a comfortable stepping distance and meets code requirements) you add additional protection from rain and particularly snow affecting the structure of the house years down the road. If you have enough space from your door threshold to the ground you should always add this step (between 7″ and 8″ is a comfortable step and meets code requirements for steps), even 2″ or 3″ is better than nothing (there is no minimum riser height for steps, just a maximum).

The Azek kick-boards are also evident in this picture underneath the french-doors. Pre-primed pine or other composite boards besides Azek could have also been used. Azek boards aren’t cheap, but the area directly below the threshold of a door always takes a lot of abuse so the more protection you provide the better and composite materials do not rot so obviously they are they best choice for a kick-board. Don’t put siding under your door. Sure, you CAN do it, but it won’t last as long as the other siding that surrounds it.

You can also see how the single step we built for this deck tied beautifully into the concrete pad we discussed in the previous part of this series. We also installed some lattice on the open end of the deck. Being aesthetically pleasing is only one of the benefits of lattice, another is keeping the critters out.

Looking for some more info on decks? Here is an article about the concrete footings for your deck by Paul from Homeowner’s Blog. If you need some more info on decking materials you can visit Renovationtrends and check out an article they have up. I will also be getting into decking materials in-depth soon enough.