Winner: Roger and Kathy Balettie - March 2002

Overview

We bought an 24' aboveground pool for the backyard recently... knowing that we'd need to put in some sort of deck or access to get in and out! The pool is really big and takes up most of the back yard, so the deck would have to be placed to the side. The problem, however, was that the ground in the Texas hill country is very unpredictable, as far as digging postholes goes. You can sometimes dig without incident, while sometimes you dig down 6 inches and hit solid bedrock! I knew that I didn't want to deal with digging that many postholes for an elevated deck.

Yuck!

Fortunately, I stumbled across a solution, while browsing the Internet for deck plans. DekBlocks (with a website of free plans at http://www.deckplans.com/) has a really nifty product! They make a concrete deck pier that is part of their "Floating Foundation Deck System" and eliminates the need to dig postholes!

Yay!

This is a relatively easy project for 2-3 people to put together in a weekend, using this system. However... since my "team" consisted of me, by myself mostly, and the occasional help from Kathy when I needed a third hand, it took a little while longer!

I had the upper deck framework done in just a few hours. It is an 8'x8' square platform just under the top lip of the pool frame (about 5' above the ground). It was straightforward to get the 2"x6" support beams leveled and framed then "cross-brace" the entire structure. Once the deck surface planks were added, it was an extremely sturdy platform! And now... on to the lower deck section!

By this point, the major construction was complete, with the lower deck section combining with the upper to make a 16'x16' deck surface. I was working on adding the railings, stairs, and trimwork in this picture. I'll need to do some more tree-trimming after everything's complete... this deck is really getting big! :)

And it's complete!! Well... pretty much complete... I still need to add a small intermediate step from the ground to the first deck, but it's not that large of a step right now! All-in-all, I'm well chuffed with the way it turned out. I think I'll finally get to start enjoying the pool, now that the temperatures are starting to rise!

With the addition of lights, the deck becomes even better!

The water's great! Come on in!!!

Regards, Roger and Kathy Balettie