# Two and a half years....



## dpach (May 12, 2009)

Here's some finishing pics.


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## macdonlg (Feb 26, 2008)

thats a great job. The deck is beautiful. The only (minor) criticism I can give is that I would have made the steps for the deck wider. It would have made the deck flow better into the garden and made it more inclusive of the garden from the house.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Man, what an improvement, that looks great. I am sure glad you beefed up your deck from the original one. You are not new to wood working that is for sure, you should be proud of what you have done.:thumbup: Is the deck your design? I like it a lot, I like it all a lot.


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## dpach (May 12, 2009)

jiju1943 said:


> Man, what an improvement, that looks great. I am sure glad you beefed up your deck from the original one. You are not new to wood working that is for sure, you should be proud of what you have done.:thumbup: Is the deck your design? I like it a lot, I like it all a lot.


Thanks for the compliment. Yes, the deck is my own design. It sits on 12 foot deep footings, and everything is way past minimum code. The railing is my own design and everthing was custom made. I even cut the spindles down from 2x4's, routed a round-edge pattern on all four edges (leaving 6 inch ends that are square-edged), and hand sand all 200 of them. They mount into a 2x4 with a dado cut underneath with a screw down from the top. Then to hide the screws, a 1x4 is screwed on top from underneath. That way there are no screw holes visible. 
The only screws visible from up on the deck are the floor ones. The entire railing is either screwed from outside, or hidden.

Because of the 2x6 top rail cap, I had to make a custom hand rail for the stairs. A little thought and I think it turned out alright.

It does pay to have all the tools (compoud mitre saw on stand, table saw, jig saw, skill saw, router on table, Dewalt orbital sander, dremel tools, Dewalt impact and drill set, plus all the levels, string levels, etc).

Needless to say, the inspector was more than happy.

Now we're just waiting for it to dry down to about 15% moisture and then using SuperDeck transparent stain (contains 3 oils) to treat it. Then the finishing touch will be solar post cap lights.


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## dpach (May 12, 2009)

macdonlg said:


> thats a great job. The deck is beautiful. The only (minor) criticism I can give is that I would have made the steps for the deck wider. It would have made the deck flow better into the garden and made it more inclusive of the garden from the house.


 
I had the same thought about wider stairs, but unfortunately I have to get a second snowmobile trailer around the corner of the garage between the garage and stairs in the winter. That's the only reason they are limited to 38 inches wide.


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## SteelToes (Oct 5, 2010)

Great job , your house looks about 22 times better now


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## Doc Holliday (Mar 12, 2011)

Nice friggin' deck! Nice friggin' everything! Looks modern now.


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## Doc Holliday (Mar 12, 2011)

Nice friggin' trailer storage.


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## dpach (May 12, 2009)

Thanks Doc. Been a lot of work. Here's after staining: Solar cap lights are on the corners, now just to add matching black post caps on the rest of the posts, and a couple of beer!


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## Doc Holliday (Mar 12, 2011)

I actually looked through this thread a few days ago and was amazed at the the difference in the place. Awesome, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing the lights all lit up at night. I'll bet it'll look brilliant.

Hats off to you, Sir!


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## Clutchcargo (Mar 31, 2007)

Nice job.
Couple questions on the deck structure.
What are the posts close to the house supporting? 
And with that said, why did you decide to not make it fully free-standing?


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## Snav (Aug 20, 2009)

Fabulous - I love the work! And I love your wood-choice. :thumbup:


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## dpach (May 12, 2009)

Clutchcargo said:


> Nice job.
> Couple questions on the deck structure.
> What are the posts close to the house supporting?
> And with that said, why did you decide to not make it fully free-standing?


 
Because there is a cantilever on the house (the bay with the garden doors), it is against code to attach the deck to it (can't have a ledger attached to the cantilever). This means there was only going to be a 16" ledger on the side of the cantilever closest in the picture. (Check out the pic with the back of the house with just the ledger attached and you'll see the short 16" ledger). That is not enough ledger to support the weight that area of the deck could hold, so a post has to be put in for code to support that area of the deck. I put a matching post in on the far end of the ledger just for cosmetics so both sides matched plus if I ever want to enclose it, there is a post to use for the enclosure.

Thought about going free standing, but I would need another couple of posts around the cantilever area (with another triple 2x12 beam) and I was going to be nervous enough drilling 12 foot deep piles that close to the house without hitting the weeping tile that goes around the foundation. Plus the posts in front of the cantilever would have to come out another foot from the house to allow for the post hole auger (mounted on Bobcat with 12 foot deep auger) and that means I wouldn't be able to fit my trailer between the posts.


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