Deck Project

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Steve D

Member
Steve DeWeese
We have just wrapped up a little outdoor woodworking project that has consumed quite a bit of time the past couple of weeks but generated some nice cash flow. Rob, aka McRabbett, was my wing man for this project. The client had an existing deck on the second story, which was a typical rectangular builder's deck. They wanted to add a new deck underneath off of their walkout basement and also wanted to dress things up a bit. I came up with a design to add a little architectural interest to the decks and create some additional useable space. This was easy to accomplish on the lower deck because it was all new construction. In order to add the same detail to the upper deck, we needed to add a new center support beam, cut out the center of the the existing outer frame and extend new joists which are cantilevered off of the new beam. I also designed the railing to use an aluminum baluster and custom posts fabricated from 4x4's. Rob did a great job coming up with a mortise system where we could hide all of the screws and leave a very clean appearance. He also created massive amounts of PT shavings hogging out the mortises with a combination of forstener and router bits. There are a ton of pictures in my gallery but a few highlights are below.











 

clowman

*********
Clay Lowman
Corporate Member
Wow.. that's one nice deck! My wife wants me to spruce up mine. Did you go with typical PT lumber?
 

quid_non

Wayne
Senior User
What an AWESOME deck! Beautiful job guys. I'm looking to replace mine as we speak. Seems LOML won't let me buy any more power tools till I start - that's a good reason not to put it off any longer.
Thanks for the pics!
 

Steve D

Member
Steve DeWeese
Clay,

It is pressure treated lumber; that is what the client wanted. It is the "Top Choice" lumber from Lowes. I have to say the grading standards on their lumber has gone down hill quite a bit. We had to pick through a lot of lumber to get good useable boards. That "Top Choice" grade used to be nearly flawless from them. I'm guessing the increased demand from the hurricanes last year caused them to open up their grading specs.

clowman said:
Wow.. that's one nice deck! My wife wants me to spruce up mine. Did you go with typical PT lumber?
 

DaveO

New User
DaveO
Awesome Steve. It's amazing what a little bump-out and some nice angles can do to a boring old deck. I like the metals balusters also, they really add a touch of class. I am sure that your client is very happy with the results :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Dave:)
 

thrt15nc

New User
Tom
That is gorgeous. Projects like that are great. The extras on the beam in the 4th pic tell me the work was done by someone that takes a lot of pride in things they do. Great job!!! Beautiful scenery!!
:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
Tom
 

sapwood

New User
Roger
Nice job gents :icon_thum

I like the railing as I'm so tired of wooden pickets, especially the difficulty of cleaning or treating them.

Thanks for sharing a job well done!

Sapwood
 

dozer

Moderator
Mike
Really nice deck i'm sure your customer is very happy they will be enjoying your work for a long time.
 

cpowell

Chuck
Senior User
Wow, all I have to do is look at the picture of the table with the great view and I can see myself enjoying a very cold beverage...or two... with friends.

Great design, clean lines. Beautiful work.

Chuck
 
M

McRabbet

Steve and I really enjoyed the collaboration on this project -- we were even rewarded with freshly baked pies by the client with a week to go (and boy can she cook!). We both pride ourselves in doing it right and this deck shows our workmanship off very well -- all of her neighbors are jealous! We plan more projects together so we can keep up with our version of WG Disease (we each bought needed tools as part of the materials cost and I bought my new P-C Mitersaw from my end of the profits). Thanks Steve for including me!

Rob
 

clowman

*********
Clay Lowman
Corporate Member
Steve.. where did you get your ballisters? This is alot like what my wife wants, except she wants a pergola on one end.
 
M

McRabbet

clowman said:
Steve.. where did you get your ballisters? This is alot like what my wife wants, except she wants a pergola on one end.
Clay, I see Steve is off-line, but I can answer your question. The balusters are from Lowe's and come five to a package for about $25/pkg. They are powder coated aluminum and are designed to be screwed onto two vertical rails with the upper rail capped with a horizontal rail (all 2 x 4's) and spaced at 3-1/2" between each 1" baluster. They are supplied with square drive screws and plastic washers to set them off PT lumber. As Steve mentioned, we mortised the three rails into each post to eliminate visible fasteners and then each rail section was lag screwed onto the fascia of the deck with two 3/8" x 4" lag screws per post. There were 33 posts and over 100 mortises (corners are double), plus a 1-1/2" x 7" notch in the lower end of the post where attached to the fascia.
Rob
 

Steve D

Member
Steve DeWeese
Thanks for all of the positive comments. This was a fun project but was definitely a lot of work. You can see the hillside we're on and all the lumber had to be carted up and down, old decking and railing too. We were working for a while on that upper deck with the old railing off. It's a heck of a view but not for the faint of heart with the railing off. We tore off and replaced the old decking a row at a time to prevent an unscheduled visit to the lower deck. The new railing had to be set in place section by section. Rob held the sections in place while I dangled off the edge to lag screwing them on.

Rob was a tremendous asset on the project and it was nice having two people with a good sense for things to catch each other on the occaissional brain fart. As Rob said, the client is extremely pleased with the outcome of the project. The only problem we now face with our little collaboration is that we have more people asking for our work than we have time to accomodate.
 

NCPete

New User
Pete Davio
Alan in Little Washington said:
Nice lloking deck!:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

Hey, could you send some of that terrain out east. Gettin' tired of the flat land!:-D

What do you mean Alan, I just drove through Washington County, and I saw a hill! :rolf:
 

WoodWrangler

New User
Jeremy
Amazingly awesome. Not often that you see a double deck'er.

Do you recommend any books/sites that teach someone how to build a deck like that? I've love to add one of those to my house.
 

NCPete

New User
Pete Davio
Steve D said:
The only problem we now face with our little collaboration is that we have more people asking for our work than we have time to accomodate.

That is a very good problem to have! And when that happens, it only gets worse! :eusa_danc
 
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