DIY Deck

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Look how fine and straight grained this wood is. This is one of the 2x4s I used as a wraparound frame. After the lower part where the frame was concealed, I added a cedar 2x4 flush with the top of the deck and against the edges of the deck boards, shown here on the north side, west side (pre-installation), and south side.

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The roof is held up by five posts (and one side attached directly to the house). I replaced all the old posts and the new posts are secured to these concrete piers. The old posts just sat directly on the old concrete, that endgrain soaking up the water. We'll be flooded before the bottoms of these posts get wet.

The first one here extends beyond the edge of the deck because the post is directly under the frame of the roof. That frame dictated where I'd have to put the post, though I could have built the deck frame wider like I did on the north side of the deck where corner got nipped off and the ten foot deckboards were used. But I didn't, leaving me with this ... beauty mark. The other posts are represented here.

They're all at different heights relative to the surface of the deck--another manifestation of the unevenness of the underlying foundation. These piers are directly on the concrete patios wherever they needed to be placed and they're all the same height. The frame and deck got made level at the top. This shows the varying thickness of the deck structure.

Now I'm going to hide these concrete blocks.

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Five posts, each cover has two halves. Each half has four parts, 5*2*4 pieces. Fortunately, I'm making only one component, albeit ten times.




Dry fit.




Screwed together.

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Tested on the bench.






Tested on the deck.






It works very nicely, I'm happy with this low profile design. It does the job of hiding the concrete piers and it uses the same size material as the deck, same wood.

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Four of five of them turned out as expected, but one... I'll need to trim it. The deck looks good!

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I admired the deck after those installations, super happy with the result.




Complete deck, before cleaning, before staining:

https://panoraven.com/slider/ZANrIxIOgJ



In the morning, I could see it in a different light, literally. Look how dirty the deck is. We've been walking on it, of course, and it's pretty filthy, especially the high traffic patterns. This has to be cleaned up before the deck can be stained. Clean it to stain it.. heh.

Dirty.




Dirty.




Dirty.

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In a five gallon bucket I mixed hot water with about a quarter cup of TSP and used a car wash brush to wash/mop the deck thoroughly. This is a serious cleaning solution but super stealth. No scrubbing bubbles, no mountain fresh scent. I did see a brown wake of muddy water stream from the trailing edge of the brush when I scrubbed back and forth.

I'll tell you something else, not captured in a picture. I was walking around the deck to take some of these pictures and I walked through the wet areas... Well, I slipped, cartoon style, feet and head at the same altitude, legs making a oval blur--blam! That spot was slicker than wet ice. After that I walked like a penguin.

Here are a couple before/after shots.

The observant reader will recall my expressions of fondness for the beauty of this wood. I imagine the exasperated replies "If you like it so much, why don't you marry it?" Whoops, I meant to say "Take a picture, it lasts longer." And so I have. It doesn't look like this anymore.

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Here are a couple more before/after shots.

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Stain and bucket.




Bucket and brush.




Deck and stain.

I know it looks shady. It is shady. Those things are "shadows", I remember them from my time in sunny California.

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The wood is really "thirsty", I am working a section at a time, putting on enough to cover it and brushing it until it's well covered.




As I move to the next section, the first section appears much drier.




When the third section's done, the first two no longer look that different. There is that one board with the really blue end though. What's up with that?




Now all four sections have a first coat on them.

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Here is the last little bit of the fourth and final section, all around. Next I'll make a trip around working on the skirt and edges, it's a little drippy in places.








Oh, here's one side of the "door mat" This side was down since it was built. As a consequence, it's a little wet in spots and it has had really no foot traffic. It did not absorbe the stain as readily as the other side. I can flip it whenever, right now, this is "up".

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The post base covers needed staining too. The wood from these boards also didn't get any traffic, and came out a little lighter than the main span of the deck. It looks ok though.








See the lighter door mat area?

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After the second coat, now let's walk around it a bit.

The vines going up through the frame are live virginia creepers, seen in several of the early pics. We took out the fence this vine had grown on and I was very careful to keep it as intact as possible. I expect we'll have a living curtain (summer and fall only) with a little doorway sized passageway next to that big buckeye on the right side.

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Moving around, that corner will be covered by the hot tub, and soon!

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Before and after.






Before and after.