Today (4th of July) I set the concrete deck blocks, beam and framed the deck. It was approaching 100-degrees so I also got a little red skin tone.

First I had to determine what height the deck blocks needed to be, knowing I would have a short 4×4 treated post and a 4×8 beam on top. With those, I needed to make sure that the height was correct so the joists could rest on the beam and be level (with a slight downward tilt for water runoff).

I then dug into the dirt/rock (uggh) deep enough to set the block and the post and beam would be at the proper height to hold the deck level. Given my yard has a slope to it, I had to dig out a channel between blocks to allow for the beam.

I nailed the rim joists to the end of the ledger and connected the inner rim board. Before tacking anything or setting the beam, I first needed to square up the deck by using a little geometry. Carpenters called it a 3-4-5 triangle and math nerds would use the pythagorean theorem (a2+b2=c2). After you square the deck, then tack the beam to the posts (or use metal post caps and secure it). Then tack the rim joists to the beam (I used decking screws).

You can now proceed to cut your joists to size and set them in place. I cut, then set, then fastened them just to be more like an assembly line (process freak).

Soon all the joists are set and you need to secure them with screws and/or nails. I used joist hangar nails to secure them to the ledger (in hangars) and used both screws and nails to secure them elsewhere.

Since I didn’t need/use joist hangars on the outer rim (given load rests on the beam w/ my design), I secured the joists first to the inner rim board with 2 screws and 3 nails each for extra shear strength. The last step is to attach the outer rim board as seen above.

There you have it, a fully framed 12′ x 14′ deck. I still need to figure out the design for the benches and steps so this coming weekend I will get materials to finish the job and next week shall order decking (deciding on synthetic or wood still). I hope you enjoyed my step-by-step so far and will post more when we prep for concrete patio and sidewalk Friday and Saturday.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Knowledge, My Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. This post has been viewed 2,784 times.