Has anyone here built a big deck before? Im going to be building a 45'x45' deck behind the house, and then a 8' wide walkway coming up to my back porch that will be about 15' long.. and I have never built a deck. I know Im going with the composite decking so I wont have to water treat it every few years, and never worry about splinters..

Has anyone used the lil concrete pyramid footer things for deck posts? cause I dont want to have to bury all those posts.. .. Should I put them 8' apart? with 2x6 joists on 24" centers? any ideas?

I did the "design your own deck" thing at the Lowes website, and its saying that I need posts every 4' and 2x6 joists on 16" centers..


Any help, tips, suggestions on deck building would be appreciated.. Thanks.

 

i have built 3 decks before....with me parents, we used them little concrete pyramid things for the foundation work good though, takes a while to line them all up, but you can keep everything off the ground and keep it from rotting.

 

a friend of mine used the Trex boards and i was impressed with them but they faded rather quickly from "brownish" to a peach color..... you can look at my blog about my house and see pics of my deck me and my brother built. it took 3 nights working from sundown to 1-2AM to get it finished. i put my joist on 12" centers as i hate a deck that is "soft". i used 5/4 x 6 deck boards and 2x6 for the joist. i did the deck builder too on lowes and after getting udderly confused i decided to wing it i believe my deck is a 10x12 up top and 16x14 on the step down with a 1foot step all the way around. i used the deck blocks and i will use nothing but them from now on. what i did, and it prolly isn't correct, i made sure all the corners had good support and then guessed where the other blocks needed to go for it to be sturdy.

i know all my help is vague but if you think like i do then it will be clear as mud..... also i used a Senco Duraspin deck screw gun and used over 3000 screws (the duraspin is the way to do rather it is wood or Trex for the screws to look good and not splinter and whatnot....)

 

I personally do not know anything about building a deck other then the basics. However my company does contract out quite a few.

If you have an assumed name you may want to open a commercial account to buy your materials. Direct Dealer Members we use R.E. Sweeney out of Texas and their prices are about 25% less then Lowe's and Home Depot and they deliver for free.

 

Big decks go up just like little decks just extra material.

Composite lumber. Great concept that sometimes works great. Most of it has held up great so far but ther does seem to be more then normal faulty boards that don't hold up, crack and break. For the price I rarely use it anymore. Real treated lumber is half the price or less and will last decades with a minimum of work. Every couple of years just pressure wash it and spray it with some Thompson's sealer. Average size deck takes less then an hour every few years and it's done.

The little pyrimid concrete footings, work great but I still burry them at least 18 inches deep. They keep things from settling.

The spacing of the joist depends a lot on what your plans are for the deck. How much weight it will hold up to. You also need to check local building codes if your getting a permit for this project. The figures you are getting from Lowes take into account the max load ratings on your deck, things like hot tubs and such.

To **** off the tax man, here's a little hint. In most jurisdictions your are taxed on square feet of floor space in your home. If you attach the deck to the home it becomes a part of that floor space. If you make it free standing and at least 1 1/2 inches from the home you aren't taxed on the deck space. The the spacing with your local county office to be sure your is the same but I have done this on several decks and so far it has worked on all of them.

I would also recommend making a portion of it covered with at least some lattice. Just somethin for a shady spot to get out of the sun and enjoy the day.

After reading Benji's post I remembered somethin else he mentioned. No nails in this thing. All screws and bolts. This makes it easy to fix things later and make any changes down the road.

 

yeah no nails at all, they're trouble

 

im a mechanic not a carpenter but my brother is

 

We built a 12x25 deck on my house 3 yrs ago. I went with cedar for the decking. It's a little expensive and harder to maintain than treated but im just a cedar guy. I don't think i'd go as wide as 24" on center. I know it's cheaper but build it to hold more than you think it ever will. Here's mine after i stripped off the horrible first attempt at staining.





New more natural stain

 

Thanks to everyone who has given tips so far.. I noticed that I forgot to metion that the deck is being built around my pool.. its a 35' semi above ground..

As far as local building codes and permits.. that does not apply at all.. I dont need any permits and building codes dont apply here either..

I was not aware that treated lumber was so easy to maintain, if all I have to do is pressure wash it and spray some thompsons on it, i can deal with that to save some $.. The Materials are gonna run near 6g with all composite.. so if I can save a grand I'll be happy.. I had planned on using screws and bolts of course, but I think I will close the gap between my joists since I usually have parties with alot of ppl at my house.


Thanks for the tips ya'll!

 

you can probably cut that figure in half if not less than that. my deck cost me $1100 in materials.....

trex here is $37.97 PER 5/4x6x16 compaired to $14.97 for the same treated board