new deck antics...

honestly how much flex do you think i will have with the spacing as it is? i mean the weight of the deck is supported over 28 pillars on the ground it isnt like i have 1 on each corner and thats all.

 

The problem will be deflection of the decking material between the joists

 

I'm building a deck as well I'll post in another thread. good luck man

 

well im going to pick up more support beams and blocks on wednesday. ill pull up the decking and add a support in between every one that i have, that will change it to 14" on center which will be more than enough to fix the problem and that should only set me back 1 day of work on it so that's not too bad

 

If you have not already purchased the additional deck blocks.... possibly consider another option. You have plenty of "foundation". Would it be cheaper to install "headers" in the 2'4" direction at the two center most deck blocks, (they are made to accept joists in both directions) and then add a new joist centered between the existing joists, from the rim joist to the header at each end, and between the headers in the middle. Saves you the hassle of leveling more deck blocks to match the ones already in place. Seems like based on that size.... The net difference in materials is a couple 16 footers to cut into headers and some joist hangers vs. 24 more deck blocks.

Just my $.02. Post a picture when you are done!

see attachement...

 

well I added 6 more support beams ( put one in between every existing 2) and supported them with more deck block. so now my beams are 14" on center.
im almost finished securing the decking only have a few more lines of screws left to put in.
the last step is to build some stairs.
I only need 1 step going from the deck to the ground as it is only about 17" high where the stairs need to be. I will be building a simple 3' wide box stair for that.
but I have to put 2 stairs going from the deck to the back door , the problem there is that there is a 1 foot gap from the edge of the deck to the concrete below the door. so it will not be fully supported on the bottom. im guessing I will need to secure a board to the concrete and than build onto that, but I have never secured anything to concrete before. the good thing is that the concrete is not going to a basement it is just a slab so im not worried about leaking from a screw hole getting in the basement.

 

just about finished, have to build one more stair going off the corner of the deck to the side of the house. finished enough to put the patio stuff on it and enjoy a nice family bbq tho.

 

Nice job

 

Looks like it will serve it's purpose well.

However, I would go through all your decking and make sure it is oriented correctly. From looking at your stairs, about half of your boards are "upside down" meaning the grain of the wood, as it expands, will begin to cup upwards on the edge of each piece of wood, which will then hold water and speed up the deterioration of your deck surface.

That may not have made much sense, but take a look at this and it explains my point very clearly. What he says makes sense, including putting the "bark side down" if the bark side is in terrible shape.

 

thanks for the advice, this is the first deck I have ever built, I knew it wouldn't be perfect, and the kicker is that it is a rental house, the landlord paid for all of the materials and I just built it. ill check things over again tho

 

no railings?

I'm jealous that yours is done before mine

 

So I'm supposed to start working on a platform deck as well.

It's going to be a low platform that covers the putting green in this picture plus it will cover the area where the Elephant Palm is (wife hates that tree).


The putting green is outdoor carpet over a cement slab. There's about a 2" lip where the brick path meets the putting green. Near the house there's a brick box that runs the length of the green. To be level with the brick by the shuffle board, I'd have to build it up to just under the top brick on the brick box. The whole slab angles to the left and back toward the house where a drain pipe carries water away.

In the area of some of the large rocks, I'm going to make an octogon shaped hole in the deck and fill it with stone (maybe make a simple water feature).

Can I just drill into the slab and bolt in a mount bracket for the deck posts near the back and let the wood rest on the putting green cement near the brick path? I think the slab is pretty thick. I'd like to have a pergola over the deck as well similar to what's in the right of the picture above the plant bed.

 

being as low as it is I didn't see any real reason for railings
. it isn't 100% complete, but should be by this weekend. your deck is in a whole different class than mine, I just dropped concrete blocks and leveled a deck on it, pretty simple to be honest. you built a real deck