Built a deck today AKA any carpenters around?

[Rivaltm]

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/P6120229redo.jpg

Spent today from about 9AM to 6 PM working on this - its eventually going to be a wheelchair ramp (Starting tommorrow on that part). It's a 12' x 8' deck

Owner needed wheelchair access, and a deck, so why not hit two birds with one stone?

Not a bad days' work for 3 people with NO experience building things larger than rifles and furniture.

we have about $500 in materials so far - a bunch of 2x8 pieces, 2x6 for the supports underneath, 5.5x12 decking, and 4x4's. Still some left over 4x4 and one 2x8x12 sitting off to the side, but most of the material has been used.

I figure once we get done building the 30 foot ramp and railings all around we'll have near $1k in it.

[swampdragon]

Yes, I've done some carpentry work.
Did you have a question?
Or, were you just curious?
How wet does the soil get there?

[Rivaltm]

Well do you have any tips for doing the ramp? Attaching to the deck, etc?

It can get pretty wet here - put the posts in concrete So hopefully water won't be a big problem

[swampdragon]

Well do you have any tips for doing the ramp? Attaching to the deck, etc?

It can get pretty wet here - put the posts in concrete So hopefully water won't be a big problem

Hmmm. Since you have already sunk the posts without pouring bases, I'd clear the dirt off the top of the crete you've used and coat the 4x4's with tar, or something of that nature from the base up about 6 inches.
As your 4x4s shrink and swell, you'll get gaps in between them and the crete that surrounds them. Keep the water out or they rot at the bottoms.

I would use metal brackets, similar to joist hangers to attach the frame of the ramp to the front face of the deck. Support the ramp every 3 1/2 - 4ft with more 4x4 posts.

Everything you've done so far looks pretty good.:up:

[blobman]

id say the door is gonna be a prob. with a wheelchair

[N/A]

Well, if you do it again, or on the ramp, there is one thing I was told i try to follow. Look at the end of the boards...you are looking at the growth rings. The rings form an arc. I was taught to place the board so the top of the arc was up. That way moisture that soked into the board would tend to "drain out" thru the open rings on the bottom. That placing the top of the arc down turned the rings into a "cup" and the water that soaked into the boards would tend to drain down into the cup of the arc and keep the board wet inside longer. Placing the arc of the growth rings up allows the board to drain and dry out between rains and dews....

[Rivaltm]

Thanks for the recommendation on the posts - i hadn't actually thought of the shrinkage issues. I'll have to see what we can do about that (the 4x4s were actually damp when we isntalled them - bad news I'm thinking)

The frame support and 4x4's were about what we were planning on using anyway - Sounds like we're good to go.

Never heard the grain thing but it does seem to make sense. At the time we put these on we just put the ink stamp on the underside

As far as the door goes, we Haven't finished with it yet. we're going to put a piece of 2x8 there to level things out a bit. That should be manageable with a wheelchair (this one will be pushed by another person). Apparently there's another step up just like that one once you get inside the door and they haven't had TOO Much trouble with it. That's likely to be the last thing we do.

[gewehr44]

The previous owner of my house built a deck & didn't know about (or perhaps care) the wood grain. Now many of the boards are cupped, kind of annoying.

[powerkicker]

Hang the ramp stringers with joist-hangers.

Put joist hangers on the joists under the deck and tie them to the band.

Do not exceed one inch of fall for every foot of run on the HC ramp.

Use galvanized deck screws to attach all deck-boards to joists as nails will back out and screws will not.

Consider through-bolts to fasten band to 4x4 posts.

Top handrail at 42" to top from deck surface.

Ramp should be minimum 3' clear between handrails.

Look down the stringer boards and joists. If the board has a crown"board is warped along it's length", put it face up so the joist looks like an upward facing arc from the side. This pre-loads the joist so it won't sag downward over time.

Make sure you leave 1/8" gap minimum between decking boards or just use a 16d nail as a gauge.

Make sure the deck is not dead level, but has a slight slope away from building it is abutting to shed heavy rain.

Guess who spent many years as a professional carpenter? :up:

Good luck! It looks pretty good so far.

[swampdragon]

+1 on using screws and carriage bolts whenever possible.

I like the blue or tan coated deck screws vs galvanized, but I'm sure that's just a personal pref thing.

[Rivaltm]

Well we got the frame for the ramp built today - we did use joist hangers for the ramp stringers. It's a 2'4" drop and we have 24' of ramp - so just a little more than 1' per foot, but not much more.

The ramp is 51" clear between handrails - so a bit over 4'. PLENTY of room in there

We used the grey coated screws for everything - not sure what they're called. They're a bit shiney actually, and they strip WAY to easily for me

We didn't use carriage bolts yet but I'm going to go back and add them. We just used about 6 4" screws at every contact point for the stringers. Rather than cutting them off we buried the ends in concrete (the last 4' or so descends into conrete - shouldn't be moving anywhere!)

The woman we're doing this for came out and watched us (with her caretaker) for a while - nice woman, but boy is alzheimers sad to see!

The spacing has been 1/8" using paint stirring sticks. Perfect guess on our part!

The thing has a slight slope away from the building (Which was entirely accidental), but we figured after we found it that it would be good for rain. Common sense and dumb luck have helped us out alot

My question is, are the carriage bolts absolutely necessary? if yes, how many would you recommend (3-5?)

[powerkicker]

Carriage bolts aren't an absolute necessity but two per connection through the band into the 4x4's wouldn't hurt...Not required, just good insurance.

[Rivaltm]

alright we got the rest of the decking finished and all the rails are up (Except the top, needed 2x8's instead of 2x6's, stupid mistake)

now All we have to do is put the tops on, and put up all the little cross bar thingies. (between the top rail and the bottom rail, can't think of the term at the moment). there's about 180 of them to install - getting a nail gun to finish the last 150 of them!

After yesterday we thought we'd be done today, but we still have a couple of hours of work left for tomorrow, THEN we'll be set.

[powerkicker]

Be sure to post pics of the finished product.

:useless:

[Kadmos]

stiles

[Rivaltm]

out toward front yard from deck -
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150238.jpg

gate -
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150236.jpg

up the ramp -
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150233.jpg

Threshold to house-
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150237.jpg

Sidewalk to ramp threshold -
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150235.jpg

Finished product -
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b300/Crimsonshrew/p6150234.jpg

It's not absolutely perfect in every way but it's pretty darned good for first timers.

We spent about $1100 in supplies and gas

about 40 hours of labor

We split $1400 4 ways - so $8.75/hr - not terrible, it was for a friend, so i was MORE than happy with the pay

I'm satisfied with the results for sure, darn thing is SOLID

More money for the FAL addiction I've got going right now

[HKroniK]

Beautiful ramp man, Im truly impressed, as you said you and your guys had 0 experience. Well done. The last job I did for my dad's company was a deck with a wrap around ramp for the disabled daughter of our customer. I'll post pics when/if I find out how I can put cell phone pictures on my computer.

[Rivaltm]

thanks!

yup 0 experience total between us

we watched the guys who built our ramp and deck (on a rental house) and used other decks as "models", but as far as actual building a deck goes, nobody had so much at put down a plank before.

whats a wraparound ramp?

[HKroniK]

Ramp wrapped around the deck, The ramp shot down the side of the rear of the deck(opposite the house), then made a right hand turn to a platform, then sloped down to meet a concrete walkway. It would be easier to explain with pics.

[Arnulf]

Looks like good....but why 12X8?

[Rivaltm]

The lady that had us do the project wanted it big enough to be useful for something other than just entering the house. The ramp is for her mother, who still lives in the house but was recently confined to a wheelchair (alzheimers is terrible!). The daughter lives not 75 feet to the right of where i took the picture (neat place, tough to describe though).

When the inevitable happens and her mother no longer lives in the house for whatever reason, she's going to use it like a bed a breakfast type of deal, so the ramp will be good for luggage as well as a Bbq grill and chairs.

we made the ramp 24' rather than the full 30' because of a retaining wall that leads to another entrace.