The Deck - Saga continues

The Deck - the saga begins

Over Thanksgiving week I made some progress on the deck - all 6 holes dug and concrete poured.  I ended up working on it spur of the moment because the weather was good.  This was more work than I had hoped.   I didn't have time to get a cement mixer and hand dug the holes (about 24-26" deep).  I purchased 3 12" x 48" long concrete tube forms and cut them in half. I took scrap 2x10 from the old deck and made 14" square (interior) by 6" deep frames.  I placed and filled the open frames with concrete first. Prior to this I made plywood tops/covers (cut in half for easier removal).  I cut round holes in the tops and tacked the tubes to them. After I filled the frames I added the cover/tube combo and filled them.  After 1-2 hours, I put the anchors (j/l-bolts) in the concrete and smoothed it again.  I ended up using 25 80lb bags of 5000psi high early strength concrete.  I could have probably gone with a lower strength concrete. At this point it was the Friday after Thanksgiving and I needed to wait around 3 days for the concrete to cure.

Here are a variety of pics from the work.  Probably leave some of these artifacts on a disk for the new owners of this house once we sell (hopefully this spring).

          

Below is the hardware used to meet code for the railings; either one of these is used directly with each rail post or 2 are used on either side of a post (to joist or blocking depending on location).

Below is the box of bulk aluminum balusters I purchased from Lowe's. Buying the 64 packs was cheaper by a bit ($2 each versus around $2.50 from what I remember). There were other places on the internet with cheaper prices but I figured Lowe's was fairly reliable and quality should be reasonable which left me with less worries.  The only thing I *may* have done differently though would be using a face mount baluster - I think that would be easier to install than what I will have to do.  The face mount balusters may be more expensive though - doesn't really matter to me at this point since I am pretty much committed to my plan so I didn't look into it.

 Here are the connectors for the balusters (one shown) - they come with screws.

Here are the connectors for the balusters on the stairs.

These HeadLOK conectors were used to tie the 2 2x10's together to make beams and I also used them to connect the front rim joist to the other joists (3 vertically through face of rim into the end of each joist). I am able to sink these enough that I should not have a problem mounting the rail posts.

I used some #10, #9 and #8 structural screws for the various hardware connections (post bases, post caps, inner flange joist hangers, full hurricane ties, single side hurricane ties).  My links may not be to the exact ones I used but they are close - make sure you use Triple galvanized/G185 coated items.  I had some trouble sourcing hardware (finding it in-stock) so I had to shop around or order online for a few items.

Below are the collated screws for the screw gun I bought (shown farther below).  This is for the decking mainly.

I used these LedgerLOK screws to tie the deck to the house for lateral support.  In my case, the ledger isn't transferring any load to the house foundation but simple stiffens things up for lateral support.

Here is the collated screw gun I picked up.  I have not tried it yet.  I skipped the cordless model since I don't see heavy use of this after the fact and batteries tend to be dead (either discharged or just plain unusable in one prior case) when I do need to use tools.

Here are the concrete tubes I used.

Here is my first batch of concrete.

I continued working on a model of the deck using SketchUp 2014 (free/non-commercial version).  I had tried using this before and found it somewhat painful to use.  I had wanted it to work differently than it does.  I finally broke down and watched some how-to videos on it from their site and things improved.  There are still a number of things I don't like about it but for a relatively simple project it works pretty well. It doesn't look like they offer the free version any longer (I didn't check very hard) so I don't know if the newer versions work better.

Below is where the design is at right now.  It is a basic freestanding design using drop beam construction.  I did attach it to the house for some later support (which is in the building code). It is mildly over-engineered by choice and should last a very long time.  There are still a couple of minor adjustments to make with some due to the hardware for mounting rail posts.  I'll mention that more later.  I also don't have the steps included yet; I am still working out the details for that. According to code I will require more concrete work for the steps.

I took a couple days off to work on the deck before my parents arrival for Christmas. I was able to prep a bunch of stuff but rain prevented real progress. Now it is nearly Christmas and my parents are here.  My dad has helped out a ton to get the posts, beams and most joists in place.  I am grateful for that extra help - it is just a difficult time to have friends help with all the holiday planning and such going on.  Even with the extra help, I wasn't able to get as much done as desired since a huge amount of rain moved in.  It has been raining for 2-3 days now and our clay soil is impossible to work in; you sink well over an inch and it is slippery as can be.

So far there have been various challenges that we were able to overcome for the most part.

• One of the early challenges was getting the 16' 2x10's home - for that I used our 5x10 trailer and made 2 upside down u shape pieces that fit against the side of the trailer and go 24" high to the top of the sides.  I bolted those to the sides of the trailer.  I took the tailgate off the trailer which then allowed my to hang 3' of the 2x10's over the front and 3' off the back of the trailer.  I used tie downs wrapped around the wood (centered in 2 piles) and attached to hooks on the trailer walls to keep it from moving.  This worked really well (and safe) - no problem with the wood hitting the truck while centered.  
• Another early challenge included unavailability of various tools or hardware locally (without ordering or driving an hour or 2). 
• After reviewing the tension ties along with my model I realized that the final 2 joists were going to be too close to allow the tension tie to fit between them.  I ended up moving the last interior joist flush with the exterior joist to provide the room.  I'm hovering around code compliance on the 16" OC spacing but it is real real close. The good news is this should strengthen the stair stringer connections quite a bit.
• We also had some difficulty getting things squared (quickly) - this was due to both differences board to board and a huge amount of rain which caused some warping in number of places.  A large bar clamp helped get some pieces in the desired location before screwing together. 

The only bad thing so far was tweaking a knee while doing the concrete work.  Doctor indicates it is probably the meniscus and that I have about a 50% chance of it healing on its own.  After a cortisone shot the pain is lower at least.  It is slowing me down a bit but things still need to get done so..  As long as God grants me the strength, I'll continue working through this.  My bigger concern is my father overdoing things.  My parents have now headed home and I think my dad survived ok - but pretty tired.  Praying that the back-pain won't be too bad after he gets home.

I figure one more blog entry will cover the remaining work.  Off to Lowe's to measure the stair stringers so I can add it to my SketchUp model.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and were able to celebrate Jesus birth wherever you may live. I know some readers live in places where it is crime to worship Jesus and punishments are atrocities against mankind - my heart and prayers are with you.