In the end, I am glad I did it myself (with some help from my dad and a good amount of help from my wife and kids) even though I ended tweaking a knee resulting in a minor surgery on it. I am pretty happy with the result and I think I was still able to do it in a way that added value without breaking the bank.
The last major piece was the steps and guard rails.
This wasn't easy by any means. While waiting for the weather to clear up so I could do the concrete work for the landing, I started drawing up the stringers, rail, steps and such. I got a bit ahead of myself though and decided to start with a paper stringer template with the plan to create a template out of thin plywood (luan) which is reasonably cheap and seemed like a good idea. I definitely recommend completing all the concrete work before creating any stringer template of any sort - no matter how hard you plan - there will surely be some difference in height between what you plan for and what actually is produced.
I think the template idea was ok but the execution could have been improved. I would recommend using contact cement if you want to use a paper template (onto a plywood template) to start with. This did give me a rough idea of what it was going to look like when done which was a nice validation before cutting any wood. If doing it again though, I think I would skip a paper template but still use a plywood version. The next problem was just accurately cutting out the plywood template - first make sure that all your lines are straight/parallel/square.
Cutting extremely accurately with a circular saw is difficult if you don't have a lot of experience or good equipment. I could have done this with my jigsaw but I don't think it would have resulted in as flat/smooth of cuts as desired. I was able to use my sliding compound miter saw to do a little touch up on a couple spots but if those spots had been anywhere other than where they were at then they would not have been accessible. Since I ended up doing some concrete after the template, I had to adjust the template further to come up with the final layout. This tweaking involved gluing a few small spacers to the template tread areas to fix an issue with the total height which was off enough to warrant fixing. Eventually I had the template in a usable shape and it was time to start shaping the actual stringers.
I had recently seen a technique on This Old House where they used a router and a template piece to make sure that all their stringers matched. I decided to do that so I picked up a reasonably priced 1.5" x .5" router bit with bearings at the tip. I learned a few lessons from this - make sure you cut the rough pieces pretty close to start with - like 1/8-1/4" so that you don't require as much routing. When I researched the bit, I noted some complaints about the nut coming off the bearings allowing it to come apart. I tried playing it smart and put some Loctite Blue 242 thread locker (all I had laying around) on the nut to ward off that problem. It did work - for a while. On the last stringer on the last section (the bottom of the bottom step) the nut came off while I rounded the end to the bottom and couldn't see what was going on. It felt like it was acting odd and I immediately stopped and found it was chewing up the bottom. Fortunately, I knew my concrete wasn't totally level so I was able to shave the bottom flat and use it on the high section of concrete. I took some time to relax a second and hunt for the missing bearings and nuts. I finally found them and it looks like one bearing overheated and I suspect that caused the Loctite to overheat and fail which allowed the nut to come off. The overheated bearing was burned up and useless - you can see that here if you look close. Not sure whether it could be classified as a design defect or whatnot. Anyways, at least I didn't need the bit for further work here. I'll probably order some spare bearing kits just in case for any future projects.
When I was done routing/cleaning up with a rasp - the stringers were all looking pretty good. I used some Simpson components to tie the stringers to the deck - you bend them to your particular stringers which was easy to do even by hand. I used SD screws instead of nails and followed the instructions. I was able to level the stringers pretty well. What I didn't check at that time was depth and I found later that bow in my rim board was causing bow across my 40" length away from the deck which left me a ~1/4 inch "high" spot in the center. I decided to roll with it and center the tread boards with even gaps at the back edge corners. The boards will still shrink some yet so it shouldn't be noticeable. Putting the treads and riser boards on was straight forward overall.
I did wait to tie the bottom posts into the stringers until I had the treads mostly in place. The concrete anchors I used have holes at the post for either nails/SD screws or bolts. I used SD screws for now but want to replace (or simply supplement) them with the optional 2 bolts per post. I'm not sure it will increase the stiffness any (probably not) but at least there won't be any screws pulling out over time.
The last part of the steps was the railing/balusters. This was the most time consuming part of the steps. Getting everything plumb was a challenge (let alone keeping it that way while putting pieces in place). Cutting the rails to the correct angle took creativity since my table saw and miter saw didn't support the angles I needed very well. My biggest complaint is the baluster connectors - they are a "dual" use pieces where you can leave it as use and use for flat mounting (like at the deck top) or spin the bottom of the piece which produces an angle so you can screw it into the stair rail to support plumb balusters. They were pretty painful to mount straight and get everything plumb. If I were to do another deck, I would spend the extra money and get face mount rails which I like as well (if not more) but do appear to cost a touch more. This part was definitely a 2 person job - love my wife and her patience with this part and I couldn't have done it without her.
I learned a lot building this deck and hope I can use that to benefit someone (kids, future grand kids maybe, neighbors, etc) someday down the road.
Hope you enjoyed my saga and that Jesus blesses any projects you attempt.
Proverbs 24:3
Through wisdom a house is built,
And by understanding it is established;
