Rained Out

The goal is to have the deck done by Thanksgiving. Up until yesterday, we hadn’t had rain for months! I read last week that San Francisco was experiencing the driest year in 167 years…since they started keeping records of annual rainfall. Well, we’re now making up for it! I was able to spend a few hours yesterday, until it started raining so hard that I didn’t feel comfortable using the Skilsaw out there. Then, this morning I got three hours in before it started pouring. The forecast was “a chance of showers”! I have a 6′ x 20′ section left before I’m done with the decking. Then, the railing posts can go in. It’s looking good and the garden is loving this rain, I’m sure! According to the forecast, it’s supposed to start letting up around 2, and then we’re done for a while.

 

Deck Structure Progresses

So, work on the deck has been progressing now for a couple of weeks. The footings are poured, the structure is all but finished. I just have a couple of joists to put up on the main structure and need to finish up the lower section of the stairs. It’s coming together nicely. Lifting the 12′ wet pressure treated wood joists nine feet into the air (by myself) was lots of fun, but it got done. Today, I’ll be putting up those remaining two joists and then installing the railing posts. Hopefully, that will all get done today and we can start decking it tomorrow!

As a side note, this is the first deck I’ve designed and built completely on my own. I did the design for one at the architecture firm that is somewhat similar to this one, and have helped build several (the first was back in junior high school!). I worked pretty closely with the engineer on the design of this one. One of my goals was to minimize the thickness of the deck structure. The old deck had a big beam that sat below the deck joists and a bunch of cross-bracing. This deck uses Simpson brackets at the post-beam connection. It makes it so that I don’t need the cross-bracing and could move that beam up into the platform.

Also, the new footings go down 24″ deep and are 24″ square. The old footings went down maybe a foot and may have been 12″ in diameter. Over 35 years, one corner of the old deck had settled down an inch or maybe two. Hopefully, this new one won’t settle much. It feels rock solid right now!

I’ll post another update once we have some decking secured!