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5/17/04 - Monday night, after work... |
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| Got the left side of the deck boards cut straight. Looks much better now. | Here's a wider shot of the completed deck surface. Starting to look better. | |
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| Installed the ladder. When we got the pool last summer, I didn't plan on building a deck at the time, so we got an "A-frame" ladder. Since I didn't want to shell out the $$'s for a new one, at least this year, I converted this one into a deck ladder. Just a few cuts with the hack saw, some smoothing with the dremel grinder, and there you have it. | 5/18/04 - Tuesday night. Got home from work too late to go to karate, so I figured I'd work on the deck. I started working on the railing, but ran into some issues, and then got rained out. This is how far I got before I had to quit. | |
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| These are the issues I spoke about. First of all, the corner post. As you can see by this first photo, the post is not in the ideal spot. It is all the way to the edge, and part of it hangs off the edge. The reason is, the edge is slightly off-angle from the frame board (to the left of the post). So, since the post isn't cut at an angle, I had to choose either the edge board or the center board. | I centered the post on the end board. I'm still not sure if that was the best idea. One, because the top board is just a small triangle, and isn't anchored nearly as good as a full board, and two, because the post is only half-way against the side, as seen in the photo above. | |
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| And then there was the normal edge posts.... The 4x4 post is supposed to attach to the flat part where the two vertical end boards meet. Well, you can't put both lag screws in the center of the post, since you won't hit the center of any boards. So, I had to stagger them diagonally. | The problem with this is, unless you pre-drill the holes almost the size of the lag screws, the wood will split, since the holes are so close to the end. I'm afraid I'm going to have to rely partially on the strength of the top rail boards holding the railing together as well as the anchors on the post for support. | |
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