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.

Pouring The Concrete Landing For The Stairs

Ok, now it’s time to pour the concrete pad that will serve as the landing for the stairs. As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, this is a much bigger landing than we would normally use for deck stairs. Because this deck is low to the ground and will only have a single step we decided to make it go the entire length of the deck. Aesthetically, this was definitely the way to go, as you will see with the finished product.

Sometimes when doing concrete landings for a deck we will build the stairs first and temorarily support them and then pour the landing last. Doing it that way avoids any possible issues with the stairs and landing lining up perfectly, which can be tricky when dealing with long staircases. That method was not an option in this case and would have created more issues than it would have solved.

In this picture we see Harry applying the edge to the pad. He is using a concrete-edging-tool for the task. This type of edging tool does a beautiful job of creating the edge and leaves you with a nice rounded edge for your pad instead of a square one that is bound to chip. Because this is such a long slab we will also indent lateral lines into the pad every 4′ or so with a special tool, like the lines you see in concrete sidewalks. These lateral lines called control joints provide a weak point that allows you to determine where the concrete will crack over time instead of nature. The ground shifts, it’s a fact, and all concrete pads develop slight stress cracks. The application of control joints, aggregate underlayment and re-bar are essential to a creating a beautiful concrete pad that will stand the test of time.

Rd.com (Readers Digest) has a pretty good article on installing your own concrete sidewalk/walkway here. It’s the same idea when creating a long stair landing.

Next I’ll show off the finished product.

Framing The L-Shaped Deck

This is a great shot of the almost completed deck frame, and Harry posing. This deck was framed 16″ on center using 2″x8″ pt (pressure treated) southern yellow pine, which also happens to be the most common and one of the best exterior framing materials available. While 2″x6″ stock would have satisfied code requirements for our maximum spans, we chose 2″x8″ for the added structural stability and to reduce deflection (bounce).

There are still a few things left to do on the frame as it is pictured. You will notice that there is only a single box making up the perimeter of the frame. The ‘box’ is the perimeter of a floor-system frame, usually made from the same stock that your joists are made up of (makes sense, as you will be fastening your joists to at least one side of the box). We always use a double box for our decks, you don’t have to, but again, it adds to the overall structural stability of the system. If you leave the second layer of the double box off until the end of framing, this gives you the opportunity to face nail the joists through the face of the first box layer. The nails commonly used for framing are not long enough to penetrate through a double box and provide a proper fastening system. That being said, joists that are being ‘hung’ on a box, such as this (and most decks), should never only be fastened with nails. To properly fasten floor joists hanging on a box they should be fastened with both nails and joist-hangers.

Aside from completing the box, the concrete footings still need to be poured. After giving the footings enough time to cure the 4″x4″ pt posts will be installed from the footings to the bottom of the box and the temporary supports can be removed. Always use PVC or z-rated galvanized post-feet between the concrete footing and the pt post. The post feet will properly anchor the 4″x4″ post to the concrete footing and prevent it from deteriorating over time.

We’ll pour that long concrete footing slab next in part 3.

Pre-Deck Construction Preparations

Here we have the preparations for a pt (pressure treated) deck underway. The vinyl siding has been removed from the lower portion of the walls to allow for the deck to be properly anchored to the exterior of the house with a 2″ wide pt ledger-board such as the ones lying on the gravel in front of the french-doors in the picture.

Those french-doors, by the way, are a beautiful solid pine 6′ wide series from Andersen. Also notice the black strips below the 2 Andersen doors. Before the doors were installed ice-and-water moisture barrier was applied to the rough openings of the doors, taking care to lay over the Tyvek underlayment to provide maximum protection against moisture and the elements.

Gravel aggregate, a few inches thick, has been spread on the ground under where the deck will sit. Laying down some gravel is particularly important when you are building a deck that will sit close to the ground such as this one will. The layer of gravel aggregate will help in preventing plant growth and moisture build-up underneath the deck.

The 4′ concrete footings that will support the weight of deck will be poured into those yellow sona tubes you see in the ground. Sona tubes are great for giving you a strong consistent structure for your footings. Why 4′ deep? Here in New England you have to get below the frost line with any sort of base-structural support, such as our concrete footings for the deck. Going this deep prevents the footing from shifting and cracking, insuring a long life or your new deck.

Lastly, we have the trench located in front of the main row of sona tubes in the picture. This will provide for the long concrete landing that we will be pouring for the stairs coming off the deck. This customer wanted long steps going the entire length of the deck. It was a lot of concrete for a landing, but it sure did look good when it was done, as you will see.

Next up: Framing the deck.