My project: Lowish deck - work in progress with step by step

Hi folks,

After absorbing lots of great information from here over some time while researching our decking project, I wanted to contribute back here for anybody else coming along in the future.

I am certainly no expert but love shopping at the big B, have my fair share of tools (many of which I have even used once or twice) and consider myself competent enough to be dangerous :U

Many thanks to the regular contributors, especially UteMad and Bloss amongst many others (sorry for not listing everyone). Many observations have been taken from Raff's project (http://www.renovateforum.com/f77/raffs-low-deck-73294/) - I think there used to be photos but they don't seem to be there now.

Anyway, onto my little project. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand so, here are a couple of pics from my plans (hopefully there have attached ok). I had to get council approval even though the deck surface is only 450mm above ground level - the requirement was probably more so due to us attaching a shade sail to the house as part of the same project. The plans were drawn in Google Sketchup (free edition) if anyone was wondering - it is such an awesome tool for this type of thing.

Basically the deck is about 6.3m by 6.7m with a quarter of that missing (if that makes any sense).

Footings: 300mm diameter x 600mm deep
Stirrups: Pryda full stirrup anchors with 375mm/450mm leg
Bearers: 140 x 45 F5/F7 H3 treated pine
Joists: 90 x 45 F5/F7 H3 treated pine
Decking: 90 x 19 Merbau - to be screwed down

Dist. between bearer stirrups: 1.1m
Dist. between bearers: between 0.85 and 1m
Dist. between joists: 450mm

As with just about every other DIY project (on here and that I have done), it is over-engineered.
The only difference between the plans and what I plan doing is, in the plans I have shown posts into the ground, but I have now decided to put the bearers straight onto stirrups into the footings. There is around 200mm between the ground and the bottom of the bearers. This fits within Pryda's recommended maximum of 300mm between the concrete and the bottom of the post anchor saddle (refer Pryda - Home). I am thinking of building up the footing slightly just to reduce the unsupported height a little.

Current progress: All footings marked out - the courtyard looks like a medical zone with all of the red crosses.

Well, for now, I'll leave it at that. I'll post some current photos soon and will update with my progress over the next month or so. Of course, as with most projects, the deadline pressure is being imposed by she who must be obeyed and, you can probably guess that Christmas is it - with only about 5 weekends between now and then.

I'll report back soon,
Jusso.

Attached Thumbnails http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ad-smaller.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...on-smaller.jpg



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