On Tuesday I spent the morning finishing off the deck joists and laying down the broken brick as protection for the landscape fabric and to prevent the critters from trying to nest under the deck. Considering the broken brick has a lot of sharp edges I don't think they'd find it a nice nesting spot. As well I plan on putting some lattice work around the deck frame so as to prevent their accessing this area. Around noon hour went out and picked up 60 12ft deck boards in anticipation of starting to lay decking. Here is a picture of what it looked like at the end of Tuesday. It ended up taking a lot longer to break up some of the brick as the day wore on.
On Wednesday morning we started by laying out the first two boards. These had to be cut out around the 5 posts that hold up the roof trusses so it took a little longer than the rest of the boards. I used a mason's line stretched tightly from end to end to help line up the boards. The string was moved 5 and 5/8 of an inch for each row. The boards were supposed to be 5 and 1/2 in wide so it gave me an 1/8 of an inch as spacing between the boards. On the whole it worked pretty well however some gaps were a little narrower and some were a little wider but the majority were narrower. By end of day Wednesday I had half of the deck done. Reason for slowness was that each board needed to be cut due joist spacing and I wanted to plan out some of the boards to try and space the joints as much as possible. As well I'm not as young as I used to be and getting up and down to screw all the boards was tiring on the knees. Here is a picture what it looked like at the end of the day.
On Saturday I first started out by installing a post at either end of the deck halfway between the vertical posts to help support the future railing. After looking at the prices have decided to go with Cedar for the railing and balustrades. The middle post I installed was a 4by4 that I notched at the top to accept a 2by4 that will be installed vertically under the top railing and then to insure it was in the middle the bottom part had to be notched around the joist. Once they were installed we could continue with installing the decking. Of the 60 boards I bought that were 12 footers and 3, 8 footers all were installed with the exception of 3, 12 footers. I did not install these as I need to install the floating floor on the cold storage deck first and I want to tie those smaller joists in with the larger joists. However we have a nice solid surface ready for the first party. Now I just need to find some nice patio chairs to go on the deck. So here is a picture showing the deck as it stands at end of day. The little bit of joisting you still see is left open to tie in the rest of the deck joists from over the cold storage area.
For the coming week I work Monday and Tuesday. I have Wednesday, Canada day, and Thursday off and then work again on Friday and Saturday. So hopefully on Wednesday for part of the day I'll start installing the 1by8 pine for my soffiting and continue on Thursday. I hope to be able to have the majority installed by end of day on Thursday.
Well for those Canadians out there happy Canada day on Wednesday and for those Americans reading this have a happy 4th of July on Saturday. Please enjoy the days and stay safe.
Harold
Lookin' really good Harold!
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