Loki's Deck

Day 1 - holes for the footings

Well it has finally started! After months of planning and waiting for council and others approvals...
The plan - build a deck with a covered pergola on the rear of the house. Also install a spa mounted flush with deck level at one end.
Dimensions are 11.5m x 4.0m, 0.4m off the ground at one end, and 1.2m off the ground at the other end.
Day 1 started with digging the holes for the footings. I hired a two man post hole digger, got a mate to help out, and spent the afternoon sweating and labouring away! I can tell you the post hole diggers are not for the feint hearted! On a number of occassions the thing lifted us off the ground and spun us around, at one time almost doing a full 360.
I eventually learned that the way I was holding the throttle caused me to lean on it oven harder when we hit a rock. A bit of adjustment with the style and I was then able to get my thumb to slip off the throttle if we hit a rock causing it to stop digging. However once we got through the layer of rock and into some clay/soil the best method was to let it dig in and hang on for dear life as it dug in and quite rapidly dug the rest of the hole.
Most holes however needed a considerable amount of poking with a crow-bar (is that what it's called? long steel bar, about 2m long?) Was it worth hiring the hole digger - I guess so. I had eleven holes to dig and all of them hit rock. A fair portion of each hole however was not rock and the auger simply ate that up.

Damage count - 1: Managed to hit one sewer pipe with the auger and had to repair that during the week.

I ordered 0.8 cubix metres of premix concrete for delivery. Turned out to be a lot easier than I expected - about 15 barrow loads and 25 minutes waiting time for the truck.

Added bonus - my two mates that I arrangeed to help with the concrete ended up shifting a whole heap of timber from the front to the back yard!

Tool count - 1 sledge hammer handle (borrowed from neighbour, snapped near head, and wasted one hour getting the old one out and new handle in.)

Fun factor - the missus offered to knock out the old brick stairs to the back door! (Something to do with "relieving inner tensions...") Finally I can sit back with a beer and watch someone else do some physical work.

Finally the real construction work begins.
Got a mate over to help me and we managed to set the posts, get all the levels right (using trusty clear pipe with water in it for levels), notch the posts for the bearers and then cut/set the bearers. Definitely required two people for this part with bearers 250 x 50 hardwood at 6.0m long (= very heavy!)
Posts are 90 x 90 kwila (couldn't find any suitable Australian sourced alternative that was readily available.)
Joists are 100 x 50 hardwood at 4.2m long.

Tool count -one drill. My 15 year old Makita finally gave it up and decided to stop turning. Going by the amount of sparks coming out of it the previous day I would say the brushes were stuffed.

Trips to Bunnings - one per day.

Now that the frame is up I find that if I stand on it and grab hold of one of the posts I can "wobble" the post and the attached bearer back and forth slightly. This is in the direction the joists run.
On closer inspection it appears there is some movement in the joist straps I've used. Perhaps that is one advantage of skew nailing the joists?

I'll have to go over them and put a few skew nails in as well, and maybe some bolts in the end joists to the posts to stop the movement in that direction.

I'm sure once the pergola rafters are on you won't be able to wobble the post, plus once the weight of the decking is on the joists they will be sitting quite hard on the bearers and won't move anyway.

Well laying the decking is certainly taking a lot longer than I expected. I have noticed however that I am getting faster and now have a method that I am happy with and is working well.

I've taken the advice from other members and am now using a string line to mark every 5th plank. I run the string across and then draw a pencil line across each joist. Then I cut the decking for that run and drill/screw on every joist. I've got a couple of clamps that I use to bend and stretch the board into position, and a long piece of scrap that is handy for extra leverage where required.
Then I layout and cut the boards in between, and space them using a heap of short lengths of dowel. This deck is in a bushfire categorised area and the decking has to have a minimum spacing of 5mm - the 6mm dowel I'm using is working well!

The decking is 86mm x 19mm grey ironbark. I chose this due to its colour, availability, it is fire retardant, and Australian grown. There is a list of timber that is suitable for use in a bushfire area - see my previous post about this. I also wanted to avoid using Merbau as I hear it all (mostly) comes from rainforests in Asia.

I'm using Macsim stainless steel decking screws, 10G x 50mm. Two screws per plank screwed at every joist.
The timber yard recommended and sold me a "Smart-Bit" for pre-drilling and countersinking. It drills a pilot hole, countersinks, and has a non-marking stop collar that ensures each countersink is at the correct depth. Great little tool, cost about $40, however has turned out to be useless for me :((. I snapped a few screws off and had plenty of trouble getting them in. In the end I had to drill a pilot hole with a larger drill bit, then put the smart-bit in the drill and countersink them. Very time consuming changing bits all the time when you only have one drill.
The drill bit in the smart-bit is 3.6mm. I ended up having to use a 4.0mm bit and ensure the pilot hole went the full depth of the screw. (Thats F14 hardwood joists I'm screwing into...)

After breaking more drill bits, more screws, more frustration and taking way too much time I went in search of something else.
I ended up at another hardware store and bought a "Carb-I-Tool" bit. Best thing I ever did! This is a drill/countersink bit, tungsten carbide, and is going to last! It has a removable 4.0mm drill bit that can be adjusted to the correct depth. Just to be safe I bought a couple of extra drill bits too. Total cost - about $50. I can now drill and countersink in one go - easy!

My poor little GMC 12V cordless drill/driver though is not handling the job of screwing. One battery is good for about 60 screws, the other battery about 30 screws. I am getting pretty good though at using the 240V drill as a screwdriver but without the clutch of the cordless you need to be very careful. I hold the drill "pistol-style" using only one hand, and my little finger on the trigger. I keep the speed slow and when the screw stops I let the drill twist in my hand. I guess you call this a basic torque control!

Anyway I finally managed to get one day's work done without breaking anything and without having to go to the hardware store. I've wasted so much time having to stop work, pack up, drive to the hardware store and back again.

Oh yeah - the pencil count is now at 5. For some reason our dogs enjoy eating pencils and will happily take any pencil left laying around and not being watched :~.

That looks great.:2tsup:

Nice to see some hardwood framing. Cheaper than TP, and you can go for bigger spans as well.

I'm not surprised at the workout your drills are getting. It puts a pretty heavy strain on them going into Hwd at slow speed. You could try hand pressure on the chuck to go that last bit of distance.

Oh, and I feel your frustration with the pencil issue. I had the same problem building my deck. I 'mysteriously' lost four pencils, but eventually found two of them in the yard full of teeth marks. :wink:

G'day.
You can get rid of the "Wobble" by running 2x1 bracing diaginally under the joists. That worked on my 13m x 3.6m deck.

Speedbrace is good for that. If that doesn't fix it, then you could run a cable with a turnbuckle from under your outer bearer, down to the bottom of the next post towards the house.

i notice an open piece down the other end of the deck & have a vague recollection of a discussion about a spa? is that your plan for this?

in any case, lookin great! i'm enjoyin the view & all i've got is a couple of photos. mind you, i'd probably spend just as much time at the bottom of the yard lookin back at the deck itself :U mmmmm ironbark...

Well I can finally say that 90% of the decking has now been laid. This process turned out to be a lot more time consuming than I expected however I am very happy with the results.
I've attached a pic showing how I spaced the boards before drilling and screwing. There seems to have been a few people asking questions about this recently. I can confrim that the mark and screw down every 5th board first method works well and ensures the boards are laid straight.

I can also confirm that it hurts when you step on a board that isn't screwed down and it flicks up and you fall down the hole :-. I'm now sporting a very large bruise in the inside of my knee and thigh :(.

Yesterday we started on the beam for the pergola. I wanted to keep the view from the deck and house onto the bush unobstructed so opted to skip extending the centre pole to the pergola beam. So in the end I ended up with a span of almost 6m. The beam I've used is 290 x 45 F27 hardwood. Very heavy and very expensive, but specified by the engineer and I quite like the look of it. It took some muscling to get it into position though.
Interestingly the beam at the house (the ledger for the pergola?) is a lot larger than I would have expected. It's 190 x 45 treated pine - again as specified by the structural engineer. When I discussed this with them they said that as we don't know the structural capability of the lintels over the windows and sliding door we need to span those areas. He went as far as saying that the beam should be fastened to the wall on either side but not above the windows/door.

And yes brynk that is an opening at the end of the deck where the spa will be set in :U.

That's a huge span in the guts. It looks like about 5.5 metres.
What are your plans there since there are no handrail posts, or am I just jumping the gun?

Edit: Oops. Ignore the question. I should have paid more attention to your post. :doh:

Geez that looks great.
Good work, I wish I worked as fast as you did....Check out my post for my latest update on laying deckboards. I work full time and dont have much time off, so I only get about 1 hour of daylight per night and then all weekend. I am hoping to have the boards laid by this sunday night.

I began using the "screw down 5th board" method...Read my post for an update on this its right HERE

Good stuff though Loki, Much respect for you.

Any updates Loki? Hows it all going...got the spa in yet?

Here's a quick update on progress. We've had a couple of days with rain/thunderstorms which has slowed me down a bit, plus I had to go into work for one day (which I managed to trade for an extra two days off in lieu!)
The pergola's taking shape and I ordered the Suntuf roofing. Should be getting that next week sometime. Unfortunately all of the rafters have significant markings on them and I am having to clean them up before installing. There's a combination of water/timber stains, strap marks, and timber mill stamps. Being in a visible position I wanted them to look good so have been sanding them with a belt sander. Worth the effort though as they're looking great now!
Looks like we've got some sunshine today so I'm hoping to finish off the pergola frame and then work on the fiddly parts of the deck (against the house and around the posts.)

And no Oohsam the spa hasn't arrived yet - got to wait another 3 - 4 weeks for that to arrive. It means I'm going to be left with a hole in the deck for a while...

As for the gap in the middle - that's where the stairs will go. See a new post I'm about to create about that one.

cheers!

Looks good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loki429

As for the gap in the middle - that's where the stairs will go. See a new post I'm about to create about that one.

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Awaiting with interest.

I hope it's not going to be a boring, narrow, straight staircase. I'd go for something quite wide, and wider at the bottom so it draws you in to the deck, and I'd put the stringers underneath, so the treads 'float'. A few ideas come to mind.