Winner: Jim Mosier - November 2004

Overview

Dear Deckbrands,

I just wanted to send this along to you to show off my deck. All in all I have about 5 to 7 days of labor into it, although it took me a little over a month to complete because I only worked on it during the weekends and a couple of evenings. I am kicking myself because I didn't take pictures at different stages of construction like I see on a lot of your deck-of-the-month entries, but I will make sure to do that when I make the front porch. Hopefully though, these pictures are enough to get me at least entered to be a featured deck. If you think I have a chance, I will take some better pictures after I clean up the yard around the deck and send them along as well as a few other angles.

So here's how it all came together:

It all started out with your 6x32 plan which I built next to the house. Originally, this was going to be the entire deck, but once I got it finished with it I was so impressed by how easy it was using the floating foundation system that I decided that I would add the 8x16 portion and rail it in too. I placed the support boards for the 8x16 piece on top of the same posts that I built under the 6x32 section and also secured the two support boards together with lag bolts every 3 feet. It may be overkill but I didn't want it to go anywhere. (..and it doesn't!)

I had seen pictures on deckplans.com where people had put in benches as railing and I really liked the look so I found the brackets online and ordered them so I could get that done. Next was the stairs. I purchased pre-cut stringers from the hardware store and that made building those a snap.

After all of that was completed, I started to install the handrails on the north side and realized how much room the grill takes up on the deck so I changed direction and added the 6x6 grill platform. I wanted to raise it a step to give it a little personality, so I secured it to the main deck with Simpson strong ties and modified your plan slightly since the main deck was providing support for the one side.

With the benches done and the grill platform finished, I decided to bite the bullet and take the thing all the way out to the pool - but the problem was that I had different elevations. What I ended up doing was taking your 24' splash deck plan as a base but only erected 4 sections (enough to come close to the same width as the main deck). I built these first to get the exact height that I needed. I then tied the two together by incorporating an interim step. I don't think you can see it in the pictures but the frame for the step is also made of 2x6's and is supported by 4 deck blocks and posts in addition to the Simpson strong ties that attach it to both the pool deck and the main deck. The front of the step rests on top of the main deck about 3 inches in and is the only side that is a 2x4 instead of 2x6. Underneath the surface boards, it is actually secured to the main deck with strong tie brackets as well.

I have seen a lot of your featured decks and I have always thought that the fancy decks were pretty much designed by professionals and were not something that your average person could do. This was not only my very first deck but it was my first woodworking project period. and it was so much easier than I had ever imagined it would be. You guys make a great product and your free plans are awesome. At first my neighbors thought I was nuts for not digging post holes and using concrete but now that it is completed everyone is impressed at how sturdy this thing is - solid as a rock - those cross braces really work well. The funny thing is that I have already have had 2 requests for me to help build decks using the deck blocks from the same neighbors that were criticizing them in the beginning!

If I had it to do over again, the only thing I would have done differently was to "think big" from the beginning and design the entire thing in advance so that I would not have the seam between the 8x16 and the 6x32 piece. Oh well, it still turned out awesome and I can't tell you enough how easy and fun it was.

Warm regards,

Jim Mosier