DIY Deck
 

I'm rebuilding the deck at Twil's house.

There had been a deck installed many years ago, set directly on the concrete patio. The patio was (and is) covered by a roof for the first two-thirds closest to the house. The furthest third of the deck was open to the sky (and the trees). No walls, only the house on one side of the rectangle.

We had a lot of good times on the deck, it's a very well used and well loved extension of our living space. We'd eat and entertain out here, work on not-indoor-projects out here; it is lovely and useful.

Well, the deck itself wasn't very lovely. The orginal deck was in very shabby shape. You can see here the extent of the coverage the deck has under the flat corrugated plastic covering.
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You can also see how much more weather-beaten the exposed section was. There were pieces that had rotted away and laurel volunteers growing up through the vacancies. Much of this area was unsafe to walk on and all of it was unsightly and unused. It was time for it to go.
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Since I had no intention of preserving it, I decided to cut it up into manhandleable-sized pieces and manhandle them into the truck and out to the dump. Let the sawdust begin!
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A double chunk, a mess. Careful where you kick those boards out of the way!
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Half a truckload, half a deck gone.
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Here's a big hunk, you can see how well built it is. It was in the exposed area and it's sodden and heavy. Very fucking heavy--it tipped over a little bit and broke my taillight.
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Bit by bit I moved the deck to the truck.
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One last island of deck left anchored to a critical support.
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This section required a more surgical approach, so I got out my tree surgeon tools.
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Freed!
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Gone!
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Found it.
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Like a lot of projects, well, my projects at least, there are changes to the scope of the project that were not anticipated at the start of the project. Sometimes I'm suprised by what I find when I reveal some suspected but hidden fault, a leak, a crack, etc. This project had a lot of surprises.

Here we can see the extent of the first big surprise.

Now that the deck is gone and the patio is swept clean it's clear that the surface is uneven.
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I want the finished deck to be level. Drainage should happen under the deck, so I don't need a big slope on the deck boards. But I want it to be solid, strong, level underneath. This "foundation" is not a good place to start. I decided to think on it while I undertook my first big scope change.

Do you see how flat the roof is, I mean, used to be? In fact, right at the drip line, where the water drains away from the house directly onto the deck, that's where the deck began to get the wettest. What a dumb idea to drain the roof onto the deck. Why not a gutter and a downspout? Why not shed the water and the tree leaves and twigs away from the deck entirely? Well, let's do that. Surprise, more demolition. Time to tear the roof off the sucker!
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While we're going to the dump, why don't we just demolish those brick planter boxes? Sure!
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This represents something of a turning point, demolition is done, let's start building stuff! First of all, let's get some wood. And a taillight.
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We loved the light let in by the corrugated polycarbonate roof panels, we wanted to keep that part of the design, though with new panels since the old ones are in the garbage. But that flat roof, ugh. I decided to raise the roof. That meant new roof trusses. Since I did not want to reengineer the structure holding the roof up, I had to think about where the load on the trusses would be and where the trusses themselves would bear. I decided to use scissors trusses, a variety of vaulted trusses. I chose these since I knew I could not support them in the middle of the span. I also decided to make them myself.

I spent a *lot* of time researching the designs, watched a hundred videos on their construction, learned a lot, and eyeballed much of the process.

The design and construction of these trusses took a lot of time and energy. Partly because of my ignorance, partly because I was making up things as I went, and partly because they're bigger than any workspace I had, except right there on the patio. Here are the pics to prove it happened.

Measure
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Cut
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Layout (see how big it is? 22 feet across.)
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Tack the pieces together and add the next member
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Dry fit some more members
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See where they need to be trimmed, mark a cut line
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Repeat the process until all the pieces are next to each other
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Cut the pieces using the marks you traced
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The cut's a little wobbly there...
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It's about a two foot cut across a 3 1/2 inch width, and not much wood to support the shoe of the saw
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I used the offcut as a wedge between the two chords, more surface area in the joint overall. Also note that my work area is a couple feet beyond the edge of the patio.
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I was working with not perfectly flat boards on a not nearly flat work surface, the alignment was ... casual util I enforced it with a clamp. Once frozen in position with the clamp, I could connect them permanently with a gusset. Which could only mean more

Clamp, layout, measure, cut, repeat for all joints
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Eventually I got something I could tip up and would stand on its own. Here you can see all the members that comprise the truss.

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Once I knew how it would come together, I got the idea that a saw guide could be screwed to the workpiece to help me make a straight(er) cut.
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Now I had a repeatable process, I worked past sundown to finish enough components for all five trusses
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On the next set of cuts I tried a different strategy. I put two boards on top of each other and set my cut depth to the thickness of the board plus a small amount. This left a "line" to cut along for the next pair of boards. This particular cut wasn't as easy to use a saw guide and was much shorter to let me more easily made freehand.

There were ten trusses, I worked on the last four as a group, some boards had two cuts, so this cut had to be repeated sixteen times. Having a repeatable process helped me be more consistent.
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More posts, more blocks, more wedges, more trusses.
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Measure, measure, measure, cut--gussets.
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Five gussets on each side of each truss, glued and nailed in place. That's over a gallon of glue and over twenty-five pounds of nails.
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This is a gusset at the end, but it shows the nails prominently.
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Hammered in but not hammered down.
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I need to flip them over to get to the other side, here it is mid flip.
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I made five of these, they took up a lot of space, heavy and awkward to deal with.
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The trusses rested on beams that extended perpendicularly from the house to the end of the roof. And by beam I mean one 2x4, twelve feet long. I decided to sister a 2x6, twelve feet long, to the original beam. I had to reconfigure a joist hangar to attach one end to the ledger board on the house (after and before)
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This is where I attached it.
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Then then I slotted in one end of the sister-beam.
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And I was halfway there. Well, a quarter of the way, since I had to do the same on the other side.
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I got it connected on both ends, nailed it to the original along the length, liberally. You can see that they're not level with each other where I'll need to put a top plate for the trusses to rest on.
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I decided to thin down the original (higher) board. I made a number of relief cuts and then knocked out the chunks.
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I applied this technique all along the beam where ever it was higher.
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The board on top perpendicular to the beam will become the top plate for this beam.
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Your doggo is so skinny. Give that girl some treats!

Then topped it with the top plate, and nailed that one down too.
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The other side wasn't nearly as misaligned.
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Top plate (number two) installed.
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Surprise, more nails. Nails through the top plate into both the original beam and the sister-beam.
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Here you can see how the old beam and the new beam were halfway supported by the original post. I replaced this post and all the other two original posts and added two new posts.
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I attached a giant bracket to the top of the new 4x4 pressure treated post.
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I jacked up the adjoining beam
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This relieved the weight enough for me to pry the post from the beam.
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I repeated the process for a post in the center of the beam, and you can see the wider board means the original narrower beam board doesn't bear on the bracket. So I made a couple of wedges and slid them in the bracket under the narrower beam, knocked them together until it was snug.
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I followed this same procedure with the beam across the deck, parallel to the house. This is a long span, 22 feet, so I used two boards, supporting the joint in the center.

In this picture you can see the two new posts.
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And here you can see the first of two reinforcing sister beams across the deck.
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When I got those super heavy duty brackets, I picked them up from the local Habitat for Humanity. I got them for five dollars each, the same bracket at the big box store was about fifty-five dollars. Jackpot! But as you can see, I should have gotten five not just four. This joint could use one but I only had this little sheet metal brace.
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Now you can see the second half of the long beam installed.
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The latticework and beams and posts are all in good shape row. It's time to put those scissors trusses up on the roof.
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This shot is a little out of sequence, one truss is already on top, but it give a good view of the frame of the old roof. All the new trusses are going up here. There are a couple boards laying flat on the roof as skids to move the truss toward the house. There are two board sticking up vertically in the back of the roof where I'll tip up the first truss. It will rest against these backstops to keep it vertical while I get the second truss onto the roof and braced to the first truss.
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You can also see that by now they've all been painted gray.
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The tips of the trusses rest on the top plates of the beams. To locate the trusses neatly on the top plates, a notch is cut, called a "bird's mouth".
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Kicking one end up
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then looking for this bit of overhanging top plate.
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I tried sliding them up these skids too, this was harder.
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Here you can see how I put a post next to the house to keep the truss from tipping over toward the house and when I got the second one up, I used a couple of braces with some cleats on them to hold it upright and the right distance from the previous one.
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The bird's mouth notch fit over the top plate.
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You can't see it in the previous picture but the truss is pressed up against a block like this against the ledger board.
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Now a block to be moved against the truss
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and locked in and nailed down. This was repeated for each truss.
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From underneath you can see the unpainted flat boards used as planks to walk on, the gray trusses, the white lattice. The little sections of wiggleboard would eventually be removed, I just didn't know it yet.
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Another shot showing the installed trusses and the perpendicular boards are called purlins. The purlins will directly support the corrugated roofing material.
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Shots of the roof being installed
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also some mostly vertical braces to secure the trusses.
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Now the remains of the fence on one side has to be removed
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fence gone
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and so is that wiggleboard.
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Lattice looks clean now, but needs painting. Look at the roof on the top of the purlins!
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All the roof is on now, and a tidy stack of lumber under shelter!
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Now I only have eight foot long 2x4s for the frame, I decided to make four squarish frames, put them in the corners leaving an empty cross-shaped space in the center.
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A super wide shot of the whole area with one frame laid down and three stacked upright.
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Another frame laid down with some supporting material underneath to make it solid underneath and level on the top
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And another corner frame laid down. I left one side open so it would fit around the pier block post base.
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Here's a look at an "arm" of the "cross" of unfilled space.
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This picture is a little out of sequence, we're clipping the corner off this square, just so it fits better into the flow of the deck. SonofV handling the Hackzall. I love that tool. The saw's awesome too! (j/k son, j/k)
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cut cut cut cut
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separated
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and the wound is covered. It looks better now, doesn't it? You can see all the frames in all the corners now.
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Cutting some pieces to fill in one of the empty spaces
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starting to dry fit the little rectangle
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they all fit, now let's build it
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and drop it in
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So let's talk about the concrete for a minute. There are plenty of cliches about the value of a good foundation. For cause. This foundation has some good points and some faults.

Pros
already in place
strong
waterproof
cheap

Cons
not level
difficult to remove
not level
quite high relative to the threshold of the door to the house
not level
not expandable
not level

I'm sure the balance of these attributes is obvious. This is a poor foundation. Poor maybe unfair. It is a foundation that will be difficult to work with and build on. Y'know, the important parts of a foundation.

I thought of tearing it up, moving it out, digging downward and laying a bed of gravel which could offer good drainage and a compacted solid level foundation. Upon which I could place pier blocks. Upon which I could place and level strong beams. Upon which I could easily place the frame. Upon which the deck boards could be laid. Ah, such a beautiful dream.

But the prospect of breaking up all that concrete and hauling it away, or using it as rubble... suffice to say we did not choose that way. It was easier (at that moment) to just build on it, after all the old deck was built on it. I have come to regret this decision.

The keen observer probably has noticed in some of the pictures pieces of wood underneath the frame. These are shims and blocks and spacers to support the 2x4s that comprise the frame joists.

A word here--the distance between the threshold of the doors to the house down to the surface of the concrete patio is about four inches. I don't have much height/depth to work with. This deck will basically be a floor--very thin.
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The concrete is strong, and there's no way I'm going to crush a 2x4 on edge, but it will sway and bow if I have it suspended between two (short) posts. And if I don't raise the bottom of the joist, I won't have a flat level surface to attach the deck boards to. Do you see my dilema?

This deck will be very thin, and variably so. *sigh* This part of the job will take a very long time, solidly supporting the joists in each part of each frame. I went through a few different versions of how best to accomplish this. I tried fitting the proper thickness of wood (well, really, everywhere this is the ultimate goal) but with different attempts to secure these little posts. Nails. Shims. Construction adhesive. Other blocks of wood.

I have finally settled on friction. The early efforts of this method involved me eyeballing the distance between the bottom of the joist and the concrete, cutting a section of 2x4 the right height/thickness, test fitting it, and if it was perfect, *WONDERFUL*. If it was really loose, maybe find another spot nearby to fit it into. If it was too tight by a lot, I'd have to stand up again and walk to the saw, grip the fragment and trim it a little. Walk back, kneel down, fit it in again.

I eventually learned the hard way that I could not rest on the frame while I did this, screwing up the distance and the level. I could not tap the block into place with a hammer, screwing up the level. I could not shim it firmly with wedges or shims, screwing up the level. It really just had to be finger snug. Scores of times. I started to say thousands, there aren't thousands of these blocks. It felt like it, and I made many more trips back and forth than there are actual blocks. Tedious as fuck. Regret.

What will keep those little blocks in place, you ask? You ask good questions. You will get your answers, stay tuned.

Back to the goddamn frames and blocks and knee pads and ibuprophen and sawdust and colorful language.

THIS is what I'm talking about. The board across the gap between the two corner frames, come on. I can't put the deck boards on that!
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Here's the section built and dropped in but not blocked up.
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A closeup of version 1.0 of the leveling blocks. Secured with other blocks and boards and nails.
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Version 2.0, secured with construction adhesive. Both of these sections were really low, low enough to accommodate another whole 2x4 thickness plus another chunk plus some thinner pieces plus some wedge shims.
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Version 3.0, frickin frickshun. The little chunk of cement-board at the bottom center was my marker as I tried to remember where I'd just measured.
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Speaking of measuring, I eventually realized that this eyeballing method was hopeless, and I bought a caliper. It's not designed for this kind of setup, though it did an adequate job of indicating the distance from the concrete to the bottom of the board.
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Not leaning on the board, marker in place
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Carry the caliper to the board to be shortened, line up the end of the caliper with the end of the board, mark where the "upper" jaw hit the bottom of the board, make a mark.
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Extend the mark so I can see it under the saw.
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The mark
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The placement
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The cut
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The result
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One
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Two
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Three
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Times a thousand
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Time for another flashback. As I said, the old deck was old, but ... we used it. We were careful not to fall into any holes, we looked up at each other and not down at the ugly decrepeit deck. It was ok. But Twil decided she wanted a HOT TUB. Oh yeah. To get a hot tub, we needed a new deck. Which brings us to this picture.
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The hot tub will be going in this corner. A hot tub is super heavy so this part of the frame is getting some cross braces to strengthen it. You may notice it's floating in midair! Not really, I just raised it up so I can work on it without kneeling. I can't tell you how fucking tired of kneeling on the concrete I became. So I brought the work to me. Just... so high.
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I decided to work to align all the joists with at least one block, because otherwise I'd just be pushing each bay further out of whack. You can see I started on the side hear the center of the patio and worked toward the edge. Then I realized the trouble I was headed toward and put in a center line of blocks.
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Then I filled it in as I could easily reach. Spoiler--each of these intersections will be getting its own supporting block. Yay, more kneeling.
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All blocked in!
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All dropped in.
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It's not super obvious from here, but you can see the previous center section on the right side of the picture? It's been leveled and supported. The new corner section is just assembled and lying on the ground. My method was to make it, then level very precariously with blocks in corners and maybe a couple midspan, then attach it to the previous section with many nails. This corner section is much lower as you can see in the bottom center of the picture. It will get raised up then attached to the frame on the right. That gives me one solid side as a reference.

Like I said all those intersections get supporting blocks. I eventually caught a break when a family friend came over and we turned last round of these blocks into a two man job. He is young and limber and agile enough to get the measurment while standing, passes the caliper to me, I transfer the measurement, cut the board and hand him the caliper and the block, repeat, repeat, repeat.
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The last section of the open space is filled with a frame.

We measured and cut the pieces
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Then we dry fit all the pieces.
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We lifted up the joists and locked them all up with a crosspiece so we could nail one end, repeated on the other end.
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And dropped it into place. After dark. Still not blocked up.
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There were sections around the perimeter that still needed a little frame building. Because I needed to put them in around the posts, that left some parts unbuilt so they could fit. Now I made some boxes and nailed them to the existing frames which were solid and level.
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before
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after (reverse angle, next night, at night)
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Some places got extra reinforcement like more cross braces

before
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after
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This edge, which is the path to the side of the yard, lots of traffic here.
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How will I keep those friction fit blocks in place? I'll surround them with a bed of this.
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I figure I'll fill the frames with gravel, locking EVERYTHING in place. I'll screed it level and it will lend even more support between the supporting frame members. There are no pictures of this because my truck still has this first load of gravel in the bed.

Why is it still in the bed? Because I'm not done overengineering this frame. I thought, what will keep the gravel from leaking out under the edges of the frame? Luck? My good looks? Hahahahahaa! Um, no. This hardware cloth will though. Just enough to pin the bottom to the concrete and a couple staples into the wood, that the weight and jaggedness of the gravel will lock itself in place.
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I then noticed that the blocks on the edge of the frame would not have the benefit of being surrounded by gravel. What would keep them in place. I felt the vertical movement would be secured by gravity, and they're definitely not going to move inward toward the gravel, but out toward the yard? Yeah, that could happen. I was going to put a little steel strap on it just to tack it in place, but then Twil saved the day by suggesting that the skirt/frame around the edge of the deckboards be wider so as to cover the deckboards, all of that 2x4, and the top section of the blocks on the border of the frame. EXCELLENT suggestion!
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There will be more pics to come. I took a bit of a construction break to compose the text and select the pictures for the story to this point. I've been thinking about you, my friends, throughout this project. Many times I wish I'd had the opportunity to consult with you as I worked through this ordeal. And it has been a labor of love, but still an ordeal. I started in April / May of 2017, just about the time I went to the hospital for trouble with my congestive heart failure. And in June 2017, I offered to help my unemployed friend replace the clutch in his only vehicle so he could search for a job. That's another thread, but it definitely took up a huge amount of time and energy after work when I could/should have been getting the deck done.

Anyhow, here's where we are now. The frame is 98% done. I only have a few places to install those screens. Then I can unload the gravel. I drive by the place where I get the gravel on my daily commute, I'll wind up getting a load the day after I empty the truck, maybe one a day (hahahaha, riiiiight).

Once the deckframe is packed with gravel, then the deckboards. I have lots of ideas on that phase of the work. More to come! I welcome your input so, don't be shy. Don't be mean, but .. don't be shy.

Awww, thanks Clodfobble. You're right, Jack is super, super skinny. Was skinny, he died a few months ago, these are some of the last pictures we have of him trotting around doing dog work.

We loved him very much, I absolutely promise you he was not deprived in any way of any food or love or attention.

Did you have to Were you supposed to get a permit for this job?

Chisel off the mismatches in the concrete, fill the cracks, and astroturf. Walking, it would undulate like a real lawn. :lol:

This change in roof design will dump water off both sides instead of the back, isn't that where the foot traffic is?
Lots of stone to avoid pinning the blocks.
Man, that's a lot of work and expense... and you haven't even got the wind chimes up yet.
You Sir, are a glutton for punishment.

Or, this is what the motivation of putting you and your woman into a hot tub on the regular will do. :D

Permit will probably be required for the electrical work to bring 220 V out to the deck, probably will also bring a couple 120V accessory circuits..

I will do whatever grunt work is needed for the electrician.

This.

The change in roof design will shed the water to the sides. One place we walk under every day, and I already have a gutter below the eave and above our heads in that area. Pics of that later