Stone, blocks, pinning... Man I have spent a tremendous amount of time and thought on this issue.

I absolutely must have the frame solidly supported. If the blocks shift or slip out that would be bad under thousands of pounds of water and electricity. I could pin the block in place with a piece of sheet metal I guess.

The gravel is cheap though and not especially inconvenient to acquire. That truckfull cost 16 bucks. Haven't worked out how many trucks full I'll need though.

Plus I do really like the vertical support the gravel provides. Ffs I drive on it in the driveway. That's reassuring. Seems solid.


Thinking thinking thinking....

When I said pin them I meant an angle nail or straight down.
You might want concrete blocks directly under the tub, they're super heavy, as you know.
That stone may hold moisture but the concrete should at least help keep it from coming up from the ground.

Around the 500th photo of cutting the supporting blocks, I wondered if it would have been easier to just order a load of gravel, rake it out level, and build on top of that? And then I saw your picture of the gravel load. LOL.

That's a huge project! Lots of work, and I see SonOfV in some of the photos. Isn't he in NYC now? It takes forever to do projects in your spare time.

Looking good. I'll be interested to see the final product.

Very cool!

Bummer. At least he was able to supervise some of the early work, make sure you did the job right! :thumbsup:

I will file this under; Go big or go home!

This is easy, cut down a tree, carve a frame, then buy the ugliest fabric you can find.
A fabric that will make your carving look good. ;)

^^^spam

Sorry man, put it in the wrong thread. :o
I can't delete it, have to get one of the people with the power.

JUST KIDDING!

In other news...

I filled a few of the bays in deck framing this weekend and I *love it *. It is absolutely solid. Bombproof.

The screens at the bottom do their job perfectly,.... Where I put them in, that is. I found one small spot, a inch across or less that I'd overlooked. Sure enough, gravel was leaking out. It'll work out OK though.

I managed to unload about 3/4 of the truck before I had a little accident with the wheelbarrow. I had a heavy full load and I crashed it, broke the handle, went ass over teakettlle into the grill and hurt my hands. I hyper extended my thumb enough to bruise my palm. Hurts like a bastard. Pics later.

I have a replacement handle set and hardware in the car and once I have the wheelbarrow repaired, I'll be able to unload a truckload in one night.

V,

What kind (species) of wood is that? you're laying it right on the concrete. I'm skeert.


why not say fuck the concrete, dig a few footers and put posts up and hang it like a normal deck?

The wood is I don't know, probably fir or pine or hemlock, but it's rated for ground contact, Copper Azole pressure treated.

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The superstructure is just regular premium 2x4 material, picking the straightest each time I went shopping.

As for digging and posts and footers.. good question.

The short answer is I could only have the top of the deck about 3-6 inches above the height of the concrete. Otherwise I'd have to step down from the deck to get into the house. I didn't have room to build a deck that "thick".

Here's the post with a longer explanation and a picture for reference.

And here's a post with a better view of the step in front of the door to the house. It's a chunk that's almost level with the threshold of the door to the house. At the very beginning of this project, I thought about taking out all the concrete, digging down, laying some gravel and making room for piers and posts and beams like you describe. Then the prospect of taking out all that concrete made me achy and tired. Noooope. Plan B was born, and you're lookin at it.

Ok, some updates:


So, here is the first wheelbarrow load of gravel I dumped into the frame. I want to offer a word of thanks to xoB for helping me with the idea of the blocks as a ramp. I got the idea from his help on an old thread about my car ramps. Still, I hadn't forgotten. Thanks xoB!

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Anyhow, DUMP!

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More dumping.

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Lots more dumping and screeding and tamping. Looks good doesn't it?!

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This is what remained in the truck by the time I'd broken the wheelbarrow. You can see the bucket; it took about four buckets to make a wheelbarrow full. I don't remember exactly, but I might have loaded five buckets into the wheelbarrow--not sure--might have just been tired and frustrated. That ramp, ingenious though it may be, is not a smooth run up to the top of the frame.

No pictures of the crash or the cursing. The wreck of the wheelbarrow is on the side yard, waiting the installation of the already purchased replacement parts.

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This bay shows the little patches of hardware cloth I tacked to the inside of the frames to hold the gravel inside the frame. I feel gratified that my intuition made real performed so well. It does exactly what I intended.

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So here is another shot at a different section (and a wider shot of the same location) that shows how well the wire mesh works. When it's installed, that is. The little section on the left I'd overlooked an it's about an inch wide, I didn't see it from the inside, didn't cover it, and look, it leaks. I think once the gravel is tamped solid and locks in place the leak will stop. This sharp edged gravel does lock in very, very nicely.

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