|
I have always hated the stamped concrete patio we have. It's 16'x20' of blah old material. It's ground level and the staining of the pad has faded through the years. So I've been intending to build a deck for the past several years. I was going to do it the summer of 2020, but Covid wrecked that plan. Then in 2021 and 2022, lumber prices were nuts. This year, though, in the gap between lower lumber prices and higher everything else prices, I decided to do it. I live in a housing area with an HOA. It's generally toothless, but also generally annoying. To do any work like this, I need to pay them $75 and give them a set of plans so they can give me their blessing. I also need blessing from the County and the Township, both of which also require payment. I have had the basic layout of the deck in my head for a few years. Basically go over the existing concrete and extend it a bit. Have some type of pergola for shade. As I started to draw up the deck and plan the specifics, scope creep made it a larger project. I ended up going with a full ridge beam pavilion with a gable roof and a step down to a 18'x18' lower section of the deck that would be uncovered. Basic elevation looks like this:  Before I could do any work, I had to chase the permits. The Township really didn't care and approved in a couple days. The County has been very good to me about permitting and approval – homeowners are allowed to do any work they want on their property as long as it's to code. And the County doesn't go out of its way to bust balls, so I'm fortunate there. The HOA was a pain in the rear end, wanting more and more design specs, even though I fully filled out their form at the start which specified nothing more than what I originally provided. Ultimately, though, approved by all. HOA threw in a note on approval that it must be completed within 30 days. Lol. With approval, it was time to get started. Footings first. The deck would have two ledger boards, one for each level. It would also have 15 dug footings. A lot of this was first-time stuff for me, but I've done a lot of other projects, so I felt I was capable with the learning curve for each of the components of building. There are areas where I see now I could have done things differently. First was with the footing spec. I knew I could rent a tow-able hydraulic auger, and the rental place had 14” and 18” bits. From my calculations, 14” would be fine. The County specified belling out the bottom of some of them to 16”. Well, none of that really mattered, because by the time I was done digging, all of the footings were 18” wide and 36”+ deep. Here's the layout:  Before digging, I needed to open up some holes in the concrete patio where the holes were going. I borrowed a concrete saw from my contractor neighbor and made some cuts in the concrete. Here is a pic after my first cut:  You can see that I have a string outline of the deck, and also of the fence that I'm installing as part of the same project. After the holes were cut, I needed to get the concrete out of there. Concrete is hard, heavy, and doesn't want to move. I opened up one of the holes with a sledgehammer and breaker.  And looked at the prospect of doing 7 more and balked. I then rented a jackhammer and made quick work of the concrete (though it was still hard, heavy, and didn't want to move).  And with that, I had... 8 holes in concrete and 15 footings to dig. At the same time I was putting a Semco waterproofing membrane on the fence posts. I put this membrane on everything that was at deck beam level or below, hoping to provide a little extra time before rot sets in (though I'll be well gone by the time ANY of this starts to rot... house horizon is ~5 years or so).  And then I rented the auger.  It was May, and it had rained here, a lot. And the ground wasn't so much dirt as it was a gelatinous play-dough consistency sticky mess. It was really, really bad. heavy, clumpy, a real drag. After the first day, I had fewer than half of them dug.  So, I extended the auger rental for another day and did more work.  Around that time, I got a delivery in the front of the house.  For scale, the long boards and decking on the left of the pile are 20' long. There's a lot of weight in this pile of material. How much? Well, the delivery truck popped a wheelie in my driveway during the delivery (left side of the pic).  At that point, the project looked like this:  It looks a lot different now, but we've got a long way to go to get to now. More later.
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2023 18:51
|
|
EVERYWHERE 
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 23:23 |
|
|
I had to dig through that same soil type when I was doing this - And for what it's worth, that was 10 years ago now and it is my lasting memory of the Worst Thing about the project. I like the design you've got set up. Are you fully covering the roof or leaving it an open pergola?
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2023 03:00
|
|
|
The Auger looks better than the post hole digger i rented, which was the hand hold thing with a weedwacker motor on it. I was planning on doing the same thing but on a smaller scale, but have since just threw the existing deck in the garbage and might just go to a concrete patio for simplicity - I am sure i will be jealous when you have a deck though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2023 19:30
|
|
|
Raised by Hamsters posted:I had to dig through that same soil type when I was doing this - And for what it's worth, that was 10 years ago now and it is my lasting memory of the Worst Thing about the project. The roof is an old school gable roof with a full 6x8 ridge beam and rafters with double birdsmouth rafters. The roof deck is a single layer of 1x10s with a tongue and groove profile. Asphalt sheet and shingles over top of that with a ridge vent. The rafters and the rest of the pavilion structure is painted white and the roof deck will be stained a white oak like color and marine polyurethaned. For the deck, I was originally going to do helical piers, but the county wanted a PE stamp to do that. I contacted a PE and talked to him about my plans and he gave me a ballpark of $500. I was going to go with that, but once he saw the plans, he bumped it to $2500 and at that point, I just changed to standard dug concrete footings. So then I got to play with the lovely mud. Plus, the soil is clay after about a food, so once dug, the footings all filled up with water that didn't dissipate. My shopvac saw some unrated duty in this project. blindjoe posted:The Auger looks better than the post hole digger i rented, which was the hand hold thing with a weedwacker motor on it. The big auger certainly helped. There was a bit of a learning curve, but once I figured out the angles, it worked well. The auger surprise, though, was the Ryobi One+ 6" auger that I bought for the fence installation. It's about the same size as the auger you're describing. I got it just one a lark during a Direct Tools Outlet sale only because the 40V 8" auger was out of stock. I didn't have a lot of hope for the one+ auger, but that damned thing surprised me. It had so much torque, I couldn't believe it. It's got kickback and overload protection that kicks in too early, but again, after the learning curve, I could have made a series of holes with that auger for the main footings. In fact, I used it to deepen and enlarge some of the main footings, you can see it sitting in the second hole up in the picture in the first post. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Oct 5, 2023 |
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2023 21:06
|
|
|
So I had the holes dug, but they weren't full depth. Changing from the auger bit to the auger bit with 18" extension was just too much fuckery by myself. So, I got all the holes dug with the big auger, then returned it, since I had used up my 2 days of rental. Also, throughout the digging process, I had this playing on loop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbhP25EfjHM It was ironically soothing. Anyway. I was left with a bunch of holes that needed some more depth. I took some time with the Ryobi auger, a clamshell posthole digger, and a 5' steel pick. That combo works really well for making holes. I marked the holes as I got them to verified full depth with blue paint. Here's the project at 10 holes out of 15 at full depth: [img]https://i.imgur.com/HrSmDEf.jpg[/img But there's a lot more than just digging holes. As I was finishing up the footing holes, I turned my attention to the ledger boards. These were difficult to plan. The way it laid out, the top of the lower side of the deck would be right at the top of the foundation, which is back-poured cinder block. That's easy to anchor to with concrete expansion anchors, but I needed to get lower into the foundation to have adequate holding strength. So, I upsized the ledger board to a 2x12 and that gave me plenty of room to get the anchor bolts in the meat of the foundation and still have the ledger board go up enough. The other ledger board was more of an issue. My house is made with a floor truss construction, instead of floor joists. That's a bit problematic because conventional construction has a rim joist around the perimeter of the house, so you can bolt up a ledger board pretty much wherever. In my case, I could only put the ledger bolts in the center of the end of each truss, and that had to be precise. Again, problematic since my basement is finished with limited access to the actual trusses. Plus, code only allows 6" lag bolts to hold a ledger to the floor trusses. I think that's outdated, and some of the structural screws I used later in the project would do a far better job than the lag bolts, but since I need inspections, I'll do it according to their specs. So I was stripping the siding I needed to get access for ledger board mounting and found a little surprise. The concrete patio was poured after the house was finished. And whomever poured the concrete steps used the existing house as part of the form. So it was concrete directly against the vinyl siding.  And, even better, concrete directly on the 1x wood trim around the sliding door. And of course that leaked over time. So I pulled back the trim to find: Awesome. So, side project -- replace rotten sheathing. Bonus -- removing the rotten sheathing gave me direct access to the ends of the floor trusses, so I was able to mark exact locations for the ledger board bolts.  With those locations marked, it was time to put in new sheathing:  And with all that done, a strip of waterproofing membrane and that side project is done. Through all that, I was also finishing the footing holes and got them all done. I scheduled an inspection and, of course, it absolutely poured that week, so I had to use a shopvac to suck the water out of the holes for the inspection. About 2 full 10 gallon shopvac containers in most holes. It was muddy and not fun. Inspection passed and on to the next steps. About that time, I got a delivery of 75 bags of concrete. I thought that would be enough, and I was wrong. Total project used about 125 bags, and I'm glad that part is over, because hauling a dozen bags from Home Depot every couple days isn't fun.  With the concrete there, took a couple days and poured the footings. 3 bags per hole for the base, more when I set the poles. It was the first time I've done more than a couple bags of concrete and the more I did it, the more I started to like the material. I can see a cement fire pit project in my future. Stopping here. Next up is ledger boards and putting posts in holes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 18:33
|
|
|
I like how the blurry reflection conveys "god drat it. well, at least the internet will appreciate extra bullshit". My Dad's first project after retiring was to build a front porch. It went pretty well, but he was pretty angry about how out of square the house was, and ran into the engineer's dilemma "Do I make the porch square to someone in the future knows I know what angles are, or do I make it match the drat house"
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 20:05
|
|
|
It was time for the ledger boards. It took a lot of time to figure out lag bolt placement, since code specifies a staggered bolt layout within certain parts of the board. My situation complicated that because I have that big concrete step that is just low enough to make this plan work. I ended up with a 2x12 board notched to fit around the step. Here was the layout of the right ledger board:  In all, the installation of the ledger boards went well. The right side pulled hard against the house with every lag. So, even though I'm not thrilled with the lag bolt requirement, they will do the job just fine. The left board was drilling into filled block walls. I have a Bosch SDS drill that made quick work of those holes and regular expanding concrete anchors cinched that side tight, too. I don't have pics specifically of the ledger boards, but here they are in the process:   Here you can see that I threw a 6x6 post in one of the footings just to get a feel of the dimensions. Also you can see some string and batter boards that I've got to establish the level of the tops of the joists. Now here's where I deviate from traditional process. Conventional wisdom says to slope a deck 1-2* to allow for water runoff. Timbertech (the decking I'm using) specifies something closer to the 1*, so my initial shot was about 1.2*, just a little higher than their spec. Normally, the next step would be to mount the posts in the footings, then build and install the beams, then the joists. I didn't have that much faith in my ability to do all of that with the accuracy that I wanted. So, I focused on the most critical part of the deck -- the step from the first level to the lower level. I took a 20' 2x12 and secured it to the side of the house's bump out at the joist level. I got the 1.2* slope and secured it in place with scrap wood support.  The next morning, I got the laser level out to make sure everything was right.   I found out later that most of this was a mistake. The next step was to start on the low side and established the perimeter. I put joist hangers at the ends of the ledger board and hung some 20' joists. I supported them with scrap wood screwed in to hold them at the right level. Lines up perfectly with the 2x12 guide board in the last step. Awesome.   Around that time, I started to think about the six 6x6 posts that would support the roof, and started to lose confidence in my hole placement. I was right to be concerned. I made a mock-up of the post layout with 2x6 lumber in the holes and 2x4 lumber holding them in place. This was a great idea, because it showed me that I had a good bit more digging to do. I completely missed one hole by about 12" and another couple by a good 6". So... there was more digging.  Also in the above pic you can see the temporary 2x6 boards I was using in place of the beams on the low side. I was doing that to establish the height needed for the posts and make sure those holes were correct. Mostly, yes, but a bit more digging to be perfect. Here's where the fun starts, actually building. I got the posts cut to the correct height and put three coats of the Semco waterproofing membrane on them. Anything below the joists is covered with this stuff. I seems like a great material -- easy to apply, seems to keep out water. We'll see over time. Or, maybe not. The pressure treated lumber has a life expectancy of about 40 years... hopefully I add to that with the membrane, but realistically... I'll be long gone from here by the time it starts to wear.  Here's the first beam in place. It's 3 2x8 boards glued and nailed together, mounted to the posts with Simpson post caps.  Second beam shortly followed, here freshly planed.  Next step for the beams was to coat with the membrane, then top with joist tape. I know, this is overkill, but I'm not doing it again. After that, I turned my attention to mounting the tall posts. I filled the footings up to the original concrete patio level and gave them a brush finish to help water runoff. Again, overkill, but not doing it again.   You can see some blotchy areas on some of the 6x6 posts. This is PC Woody 2 part epoxy paste. I really like this stuff. It mixes easy, fully cures in 24 hours, cures rock hard and workable / machinable, sticks well when applying, I could go on. The only problem I had is that I never bought enough of it. I started out with 32 ounces, then ordered 48 ounces, then another 48 ounces, and I've only got a little bit left and need more. https://www.pcepoxy.com/products/wood-repair/pc-woody/ Once I had all 6 posts mounted, I clamped the laser level to the top of one of the posts, found which post was the lowest, then marked all the others to match that height. I cut the rest of the posts down and, amazingly, I was within a half inch of the design height. 
meatpimp fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Oct 15, 2023 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 15:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 23:23 |
|
|
Okay, this thread isn't dead, nor is the project. I worked on this solidly from April until the weather turned in October. I have a lot of updating to get to today's status, but I do have the decking down, rafters up, etc. There's still a good bit of trim/finishing with the decking, primarily cutting in and supporting the picture frame detail. I also have to do all of the roof. That's what put me over last year... I needed space to lay out the boards. 1x10x12 boards I cut a tongue-and-groove profile in to use as the part of the roof that you'll see when inside the pavilion. I need to stain them and get some bombproof polyurethane on them before I can install them, and I had no room in my garage when it got cold. Anyway, it's getting to be Spring again and I'm anxious to get back out there and finish it. As a recap, here's what I looked out at last April: And, jumping ahead, here's where it was at October (and mostly similar now): 
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 16:27
|
|