Working the Pile of Planks

This has been a long week at work, I haven't been sleeping well, and consequently I'm feeling a bit fatigued today.  The good news is that I have off from work tomorrow!  While most normal people are able to sleep in on their day off, I find that I wake up at the same time or earlier than I do when I have to go to work.  Hopefully I'll be able to sleep a bit later tomorrow morning.

Tonight, my son and I loaded deck planks onto the deck.  We also trimmed all the ends and re-oriented the planks that I had loaded onto the deck this past Saturday.  The picture below shows how I attached the chop saw to the edge of the deck.  This set-up worked well and was an idea of my dads.

I had loaded nine rows of planks this past Saturday, we loaded another fourteen rows tonight.
Tomorrow we'll start attaching some of these planks and attach some posts , weather permitting.

Blocking, blocking, blocking

Well, we got done the blocking between the joists tonight.  Frankly this was a job that I postponed as I don't really enjoy it.  I'm not really sure why, it's just cutting down some 2x10s, but for whatever reason it was something that I procrastinated with.  But with the deck planks ready to be installed, I couldn't wait any longer.  My son and I worked this most of the night with me cutting the boards and getting them in position, while he screwed them into place.

We're using screws in a lot of places that you might normally use nails for two primary reasons: 1) I don't have a nail gun and 2) I do have a Hitachi WH18DL impact driver.  This tool has tons of torque and is a lot quicker over hand nailing.  It was a birthday present from my wife as my Dewalt cordless screwdriver batteries were on their last legs (if batteries have legs).  If you are building a deck, an impact driver is the way to go.  Fine Homebuilding has a good video that explains how an impact driver works here.

After getting the blocking in place, we attached another plank using the CONCEALoc fasteners. I have come up with a home made tool to squeeze the planks together, but for the first two rows of planks I can't use it due to it being too close to the house.  Consequently I had to use a pair of wedges, one of which was screwed to the top of the joist, to bring the planks together. 

Rained out

We had a monster storm front roll through today.  High winds, heavy rain, lightning, and hail. The picture shows the leading edge of the storm.  Between that and the headache I had, I stayed inside and payed some bills.  

My family is coming home from NY tomorrow! 

A bazillion trips to the workshop

It was one of those days.  I wound up getting more tools out of the workshop that we filled half the tractor's trailer by the end of the day.

The day started normally enough, I cut down the 8' 4"x4" railing posts to two 4' posts.  The lumberyard guy recommended using rough cedar posts even though the radiance rail will cover it.  He explained that they have seen pressure treated posts crack and split the radiance rail post covers, sounded good to me, so cedar it is. My Dad was coming over and I figured drilling holes for the posts in the cooler basement workshop would be a good thing for him to do.  I realized that the lumberyard had sent one too many 8' posts. . . after I cut it in half.  

I'm using TimberTech's CONCEALoc hidden fastener system.  The fasteners clip into a groove in the first deck plank, after which the clip is screwed down to the joist.  The fastener has a second tang that (theoretically) receives the next plank.  The process then continues with subsequent boards.  

The fasteners require extra framing material wherever the deck planks have butt joint, so I moved on to attaching pressure treated 2x4s to the side of the joists.  I took my time with this as any misalignment between the joist and the 2x4 would mean that the two deck planks would be at different heights at the joint and people would be tripping on it for years.

I then started moving the deck planks from the delivery pile to the deck.  My planks are 12', 16' and 20' long and weigh about 3 pounds per foot.  The 20 footer weighed a good 60 pounds, and of course these planks had to go the furthest from the pile.  I moved enough planks to create a walkway.  I also moved enough planks to know that I should wait for my son to get home from NY before I moved any more.  If you are building a deck with TimberTech decking, here's a tip.  Their planks will have a small groove (not to be confused with the groove to accept the CONCEALoc fastener) along their length.  In a video on their website, they tell you to orient these grooves all in the same direction so that all planks will have the same appearance.  I didn't realize this until after I plopped a thousand pounds of deck planks down on the deck.  And yes, half of it was oriented in the wrong direction.

I snapped a chalkline to lay down the first board and found two joists that needed to have their height adjusted.  I'm still not sure how I missed these two joists earlier, but it required pulling the nails from the ledger trusses and adjusting their heights.

I attached one of the posts near the house so that we knew where to notch the first deck plank. Had some minor issues with the length of the drill bit + length of the drill being greater than the available space.  Probably shoulda' drilled from the outside instead of drilling the posts on the drill press in the basement, but at least my holes are plumb. Got the post installed and Dad asked "Don't we want to counter sink the heads of those carriage bolts so they don't interfere with the Azek fascia?"  The post had to come back off.

I put the first row of boards together and found that the factory cuts on the planks are not square!  The resulting butt joints would look terrible and meant that we would have to trim each end.  I created a makeshift table to hold the chopsaw off the edge of the deck.  The table is screwed to the edge of the deck, allowing the deck boards to be slid right onto the chop saw bed.

We started to attach the second plank to the first rows CONCEALoc clips.  In the TimberTech installation video, you hold the plank at a 45 degree angle, place the plank onto the clips, rotate the plank and you are pretty much done.  In real life, the planks did not go onto the clips at all. The planks are not perfectly straight, nor are all the joist heights, which leads to the planks falling out of the clips.  I wound up using two wedges, one which was screwed to the top of the joist to force the second plank onto the clips.  I had to repeat this every three joists.  After doing one board this way, Dad and I figured it was time for dinner (thanks again for dinner Dad!).

I think I'll work on attaching 4x4 posts tomorrow.

The building inspector stopped by for an inspection. . .

I was able to schedule an appointment with the town building inspector for 1 PM today for the structural inspection.  Passing the inspection today is important because without it I won't be able to progress this weekend.  The only thing left to do before he came was install cross bracing between the 6x6 posts and the headers.  I find I can't sleep well if I have something that needs to be done, and true to form, I woke up early today.  After breakfast and coffee, I got to work.

The cross bracing are 2x4's cut at a 45 degree angle and are just under 4' long.  I played around with the length until I was happy with the proportion of the braces with the rest of the deck. After cutting each 2x4 brace to length, I created a quick jig to position the brace onto the post. In all, there were 10 braces that were attached by deck screws.

After the bracing was done, I started to install some blocking between the joists to make everything nice and rigid.  I strung a string 6' out from the house, then cut 2x10 scraps to 14.5" long and screwed them into place.  Halfway through I got a ruler, measured along the top of the deck, and realized that the joists were starting to get off 16" centers.  Darn.  Keeping things on 16" centers is important as the decking plank ends should fall right onto the joist.  I had to pop a few blocks out and cut them down slightly.

About noon, I was about halfway through with the blocking and took a quick break for lunch.  I figured that I could finish the blocking after lunch before the building inspector came by at 1 PM.  Good plan, except the building inspector came by about 5 minutes after I went in for lunch. . . 

After he walked around, he said he was "a happy camper," gave me some pointers for the final inspection, and signed me off!  With that, I cleaned up the site and quit early.  I have to go to Lowe's before work to get a couple of supplies for the weekend.

Rim joists complete

I woke up earlier today and got outside after breakfast.  I had to get the two remaining rim joists on and install two 4x4 railing posts.  The posts had to be installed first because the carriage bolts that hold the posts in place couldn't be installed after the rim joists were installed.  

In order to install the posts I had to drill two 9/16" holes through the posts on my drill press. This would have been quick except that I still hadn't found the drill press chuck key from when we moved in.  Our basement is the one area that we have not completely unpacked since we moved into the house. I wound up digging through a couple of boxes until I was able to find the key. I look forward to getting my workshop back into shape this winter!

After drilling with the drill press, I clamped the post to the rim-joist, made the posts level, and drilled through the rim-joist.  I finished by using two 6" x 1/2" carriage bolts. 

Today was a perfect day for working outside.  80 degrees, low humidity, nice breeze.  This was a welcome change after last weekend.

After installing the posts, I was able to install the two diagonal rim joists.  Each joist that met the rim joist had to be tweaked to match the height of the rim joist.  A Bessey clamp made quick work of this.

All I have left to complete the structural work is install some diagonal bracing on the 6x6 support posts.  I'll give the town a call on my way to work and see if they can come out tomorrow afternoon for the structural inspection so that I can start decking this weekend.

It's all in the angles

This deck has a 4' bump-out that widens the deck from 12' to 16' (see July 3 post for the design / plan).  The transitions from the narrower to wider space is made by two 45 degree diagonals. Today's task was to cut the joists to the right length and angles before I had to go to work in the early afternoon.  Working from the ladder, I laid out my cut lines with a chalk line and square, then used a handheld circular saw to cut the joists.

As I was working through the layout and cuts, I starting thinking about the extra effort and resources to make the bumpout with the diagonals. It included:

Digging more post holes, more concrete, more 6x6 posts, more 2x12 headers, more Timbertech decking, Radiance Rail hardware, more math, more cutting, and much much more time.  Despite all of this, I'm glad that I put it into the plan.  I don't want a cookie cutter deck.  I'm also glad my wife talked me out of doing a curved bump-out!

By the early afternoon, I had all the joists cut to the right angle.  I also trimmed the outer header that the joists sit on.  

The two remaining rim-joists will have to wait until tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll have good weather, it's raining cats and dogs right now.

Another Pile of Stuff

Just when I was beginning to see the driveway again, the lumberyard delivered the remainder of the decking materials yesterday.  I haven't worked on the deck since Saturday and am feeling guilty, although my paying job has been keeping me very busy.  I'll be back on it on Wednesday weather permitting.  The rest of my family is heading back to our old home area in upstate NY for a week, so I'll be flying solo.  

I fought the heat and the heat won

It was hot today and it was not the Las Vegas Nevada type of dry heat. It was the kind of heat that had me sweating just thinking about building a deck. 96 degrees, high humidity, and no breeze. I'm glad I don't have to make a living doing this. I got a late start, getting outside around 9 am.  I probably should have woken the neighborhood with my work and started at 5 am and then quit at noon. Actually the neighborhood wouldn't have heard me because everyone has their windows shut with the air conditioning running.

My dad came over at 10 to supervise the work again this Saturday. Thanks Dad! We got dad set up with some shade and a fan, and he would help out more often than he probably should have.

My son and I started by attaching the joists to the ledgers, ensuring the posts were vertical as we did so. My son then started attaching hurricane clips to the joist / header connection. Ran out of the 1.5" nails to attach the clips to the joist. Sent my wife to Lowe's with the empty box and a nail. The Lowe's guy still couldn't figure out what the right nail to give her was. Fortunately my wife was persistent and came home with the right nails.

While the boy was attaching the clips, I snapped a string line at 12' out and another at 16' out to trim the ends of the joists to the right length. Used a square to mark the cut lines, then used a straightedge to trim the joists to the right length. Working on a ladder slows things down, working on a ladder on an uneven slope slows things down even more. The heat slowed me down big time, even though we were pushing fluids. By the end of the day, I had rim joists attached to the outside of the 12' and 16' sections, but still have to trim the two diagonal sections (6 joists) and attach two 5' 8" rim joists.

I'm beat. Normally we would have worked until 8 pm, but by 5 o'clock I was fried. Stick a fork in me done. By the end of the day I was staggering around, eyes hurting from getting sweat in them too many times. I fell asleep on the family room floor.  I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.

Joists Attached to the House

The last two evenings, my son and I were able to get all of the joists attached to the house at the ledger board.  Overall, it took about 2 hours per evening to get the joists into place and attached to the joist hangers.  My son also went out today and drove most of the 1.5" joist hanger nails while I was at work.  We then threw 2 2x10s on top of the joists and had the ceremonial first walk on the new deck.

The plan this weekend is to try and get the structural stuff done.  This could be a stretch due to the amount of work left and the high heat and humidity predicted for tomorrow.  I'd like to get the town's structural inspection done early next week so that I can start to put down the decking materials.  The remainder of my materials order shows up on Monday morning and includes the TimberTech decking, Radiance Rail, and other finish products.

Headers attached to posts

My goal while the kids were away was to get the headers attached to the posts with carriage bolts and start hanging some joists.  I completed attaching the posts to the headers tonight.  This proved to be a little trickier as the 2x12s were not consistent heights but instead ranged from 11" to 11.5 inches, sometimes on the same board.  I had to tweak one header or the other to ensure that the joists would make contact with both headers.  Drilling the holes with an auger bit worked well, but as I kept the hole the same diameter as the bolt to keep everything tight, I had to hammer the bolts through the 6" of wood.  This took up more time than I expected.  With 6 bolts to go, I thought of a trick my dad taught me to put some soap on a screw to make it slide through easier.  One bottle of soft soap later and the last bolts went in much easier.  I hung one joist, but found that the task will be much easier with my son helping out, so I deferred an hours work until tomorrow.  This gave me some time to whip the house back into shape.  :-)

Batter Up! Headers Up!

On Sunday, my Dad, son, and I went to the Phillies game.  The Phillies were playing the Arizona Diamondback and after being behind for most of the game, the Phillies came back to beat Arizona.  It was a warm day, even in the shade, but we had a great day.  One of the reasons we moved to PA was to be close to our family and this day would not have been possible if we still lived in NY.  Here's a pic of my Dad and my son.
After the game was over, my son and I came back home.  We had a smaller header to put up, which I wanted to get done before my wife and kids head to the beach for a couple of days.  This smaller header holds up the bump out in the deck.  My son is able to hold his own end of a 20' 2x12 and is consequently a big help to me.

As can be seen, our lot has a good slope in the back.  The posts ranged in height from 3.5' to 8'.

With all the headers in place, I'll be able to make more progress after work while my family is kicking back on the beach.  It would have been pretty sporty trying to land a 20' 2x12 on my own.The goal while the kids are away is to get the headers carriage bolted to the 6x6 posts and start landing some of the joists.  By the end of this coming weekend, my goal is to have all of the joists in place, get the deck railing posts in place, and be ready for the structural inspection. 

Saturday Progress

The morning started out in the garage, cutting down and notching the 6x6 posts.  I set up in the garage as it was going to get hot outside and the shade would provide some needed relief.  We had nine posts to cut.  As I only have a 7 1/4" handheld circular saw, I had to cut each side of the post, then gave my son some practice with the handsaw to finish off the cut.  If I was doing this for a living, I'd have a bigger saw.  But then again, if I was doing this for a living, my family wouldn't eat because I'm too slow!!!  After the posts were cut down to length, I created two 11" by 1.5" notches to accept the 2x12s.  I used the handheld circular saw to cut many 1.5" deep cuts.  My son and eldest daughter had a good time knocking out the waste, then cleaning up the joints with a chisel.

My dad (aka The Supervisor) came over at 10:30 and did a great job teaching the kids the finer points of chisel work.  One of the good memories I have as a kid was raising and re-roofing the roof of my father's house.  I was 13-14 years old at the time and I learned a lot in working with my dad.  Consequently, it's something that I want to pass on to my kids.  It was good having Dad around and watching him mentor my kids the way that he mentored me as a kid.

By lunchtime, we were close to having all the posts done.  We wrapped up after sandwiches and chips, then started erecting the posts.  I had put the post base brackets on while the kids were working the posts with my Dad.  We then brought the posts out back and started to put them up and level them.  We set up a fan to keep the supervisor cool out back.My son and I wrapped up the day by landing the main 2x12s header onto the posts and temporarily tacking them into place with some deck screws.  We did find that the 2x12s actually ranged in height from 11" to 11.5".  That took a little bit of tweaking to get the headers even. Lastly, we tacked a couple of 2x10 joists in place to keep the headers from tipping over.
Work ended around 5 pm and we subsequently went to a great party at our neighbors house.  Good food, good people, fun times.  My neighbor capped off the evening with an awesome (and sometimes mis-aimed) fireworks display.  Only one rocket ricocheted off our house!

A small oops. . .

Now that the concrete posts had several days to dry, I went out to remove the wood boards that were used to hold the 1/2" post anchors in place.  The boards sat across the top of the sonotubes.  Unfortunately, the concrete had settled by about 1/2 - 3/4" and exposed more of the anchor bolt because the wood board held the bolt in place while the concrete sank.  With this much of the bolt exposed, the post base plates would not fit.  Bummer.  This method had worked on the last deck that I had built, but I also mixed a much dryer batch of concrete than what I ordered from the pre-mix supply company.

I had two choices: cut down the bolts or add a second layer of concrete.  The concrete settled unevenly, so this made the choice to add some more concrete an easier one.  Fortunately, I had a bag of concrete left over from when I put my son's basketball pole in.  

I purchased a concrete adhesive which would allow the two layers of concrete to bond.  This got painted on last night and allowed to dry.  When I got home today, my son and I mixed up the bag of concrete and re-leveled and raised the tops of the posts.

After dark, I went outside with my laser level and established the correct height for the nine 6x6 posts.  I can't say enough about the laser level that I own: A David White Mark 2 LC.   I purchased this several years ago at Home Depot for about $80-$90, about the maximum that I wanted to pay for a consumer level laser.  I've found myself reaching for it often for different jobs and it's been dead accurate each time I've checked it.  The level sits on a camera tripod and also self levels.  The only drawback is that the laser is not bright enough to be used outside during daylight.  I get around this by using it at dusk / dawn or using an open shoe box with an eye hole and a slit to allow the laser to illuminate whatever I'm trying to measure.

Tomorrow, the plan is to work on cutting down and notching all of the posts.  If time allows, we'll start to get the posts erected.  The supervisor (my Dad) is coming around 10:30 to ensure we aren't goofing off.  Party at 6 PM at the neighbors for a post July 4th bash.  I've seen his stash of fireworks, it should be a good show. . . 

Post Holes Are Done. . .

Yesterday, my friend from work showed up right on schedule with his Kubota tractor.  He had a 12" auger attached to the PTO on his tractor.  His tool made quick work of the nine holes that had to be bored.  Even so, we still had several hours of cleanup to do as we had to enlarge the diameter of the holes to 14" to meet the town's requirements and clean out the bottom of the hole.  While the auger goes down over 3', there is quite a bit of dirt left on the bottom of the hole that needed to be removed.  As we have clay soil here, this turned out to be more work than I was expecting.  Thankfully, my son was there to help out!  It's funny that by the end of Sunday night cleaning out the holes, I was pretty spent.  My 13 year old boy however went to go play basketball with the neighborhood boys after we were done.

On the last deck I built I had rented a two man hand held auger to dig holes in clay.  The clay won.  Having the tractor saved at least a day of hand digging (and my back).

After we had the holes cleaned out, we stuck the sonotubes in the holes.  Several of the holes were slightly skewed, so trimming the tubes was necessary to make them level.  I marked them with my laser level sitting inside the holes, then cut them level with my saber saw. 

Monday morning the town building inspector came by, stuck a ruler in each of the holes, and gave us the green light.  The concrete truck came an hour later.  When I did a price comparison between buying bags of concrete and renting a mixer versus having a metered concrete truck delver the concrete, the price for the truck was slightly less.  The convenience of not having to hump bags of concrete and mix it was a huge timesaver.

My wife and son got into the action.  I poured the concrete from the wheelbarrow, my son would hoe it into the hole, and my wife would get rid of any air pockets with a piece of rebar.  I used 8" x 1/2" anchor bolts set into the concrete, which I temporarily attached to some scrap wood so they would sit at the right height.  

All in all, it took just over half an hour to fill the nine holes using 1 1/4 yards of concrete.  After getting the posts done, I attached the joist hangars to the ledger board.

The rest of this week is pretty busy and I won't be able to work the deck again until this weekend.  Until then, we'll watch the concrete dry. . . 

Ledger Attached

I spent the better part of the day completing the ledger installation.  Instead of using lag bolts, I used 5" carriage bolts spaced on 16" centers.  While the added strength of using the carriage bolts is a definite plus, the downside is having to install the washers and nuts on the inside of the house.  Our basement ceiling is insulated, which meant that I had to peel back the insulation to expose the inside of the rim joist.  This certainly is more time consuming (and itchy) than installing lag bolts and I can understand why many pros use lag bolts.  After the rim joist was finished, I completed flashing it.  Finally, I rechecked my post locations to ensure that their positions were good with respect to the ledger.

One challenge to this job is that our home is on a sloped lot.  The ledger is 8' off the ground at it's lowest point and the posts will be 10' tall.  Working off a ladder slows everything down.  On the positive side, I set up a temporary workshop in the basement.  Having a walkout basement door is a timesaver over the last deck when I had to retrieve my tools out of the basement shop.

Tomorrow's tasks:  Get the post holes dug and prepared.  Monday the town's building inspector will be coming by to ensure I'm down 36".  The concrete truck will be coming later that day.

Happy July Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!  The plan for today was to get the nine holes for the deck posts dug and go to my sisters for an afternoon party.  A friend from work, who has a tractor with an auger attachment, was going to come at 11 am to dig them for me.  We've got clay soil here with lots of rocks, so the mechanical advantage he can offer is huge!  Unfortunately, with the rain that we are getting today, we decided that it would be best to wait until Sunday to dig the holes.

Since the supplies showed up yesterday, I started prepping for the ledger by cutting away the siding, peeling back the house wrap, and installing ice and snow shield.  The shield will provide a barrier to keep water away from the wood in the house.  While it is not cheap ($70 for a 3'x50' roll), it will serve to preserve the houses woodwork.  We also started to install the ledger boards.  The post holes locations are also laid out and ready for digging.

This deck materials that we'll be using on this deck are:

 - TimberTech Earthwood Decking (Tropical Teak)

 - TimberTech CONCEALoc hidden fasteners

 - TimberTech Radiance Rail (White)

 - Azek Fascia Trim (White) 

I had built a 16' x 20' deck at our last home in NY using the same railing and fascia, but had used Ipe' for the decking material.  I had pre-drilled, countersunk the screws, and then plugged the holes to create a smooth hidden fastener surface.  The result was beautiful but very labor intensive.  The main reason I am not going with the IPE again is not the amount of work to it took to install it but the ongoing maintenance required.  Because IPE is so dense, it did not accept a sealant well and I found I had to reseal it each year for it to retain it's rich dark look.  I wanted something less labor intensive this time, which is why I went with the composite.

Town Codes

The town that I live in approved my building plan earlier this week after a three week wait.  One surprise is that they require concrete supports to be 14" in diameter to support a 6x6" wooden post.  The lumber yard did not have 14" sonotubes so I purchased 18" tubes.  I then made a cut lengthwise down the tube and squeezed it with a ratcheting strap.  When I reached 14", I screwed in a couple of drywall screws to keep it from springing apart.  Problem solved!

Deck Building

Since we've moved in, we've primarily focused on getting things unpacked and getting the house in order.  I think we're in good shape with respect to being able to live in this house.  Some of the minor projects that I've completed include:

Installed blinds in the bedrooms.

Ran CAT-5 cabling for the home network.

Started getting a lawn established. (More on that later)

Put a small 8'x'12' flower bed together.

Put up shelving.

Installed a ceiling fan

The first major endeavor is to build a deck off the back of our house.  Our lot is sloped with a slider off the kitchen that currently has an eight foot drop.  I've designed a deck that is 32' long and 16' deep that runs along the length of the kitchen and family room.  I used a free program from Google called SketchUp that is amazingly powerful.  It didn't take me long to learn the basics of how to use it.  I also found great YouTube tutorials on this site.  

Here are two pics of what the basic shape is.

My goal for this project is to be done before labor day while being able to enjoy the summer. The lumberyard truck just dropped off all of my framing supplies, so it's time to get to work!

The intent of this blog

After living in upstate NY for 18 years, my wife, three kids, and I moved to Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Both my wife and I grew up in this area and it's good to be near our family again.  We had shopped the PA housing market last summer and found one of the last lots in a new construction neighborhood.  After seven long months, our house was completed and we moved in this past February.  In this blog, I'll mainly focus on the work necessary to convert our house from a clean white walled canvas onto which we'll paint those things that makes our house feel like home.

Our house in December