Deck And Patio
Decks - If you want or need a new deck, you should be sure you feel up to the challenge of designing and building a deck yourself. Otherwise, you should hire a contractor to do the construction. Get references and go visit other homes where the contractor has built or renovated a deck. If you are going to build the deck yourself, you have to design and size the deck to meet existing city, town or county codes in your area and use materials that are competent to handle the load and size of the deck you plan to build. To get your building permit, you really only need a simple drawing with associated dimensions. The house access to the deck and its proximity and design are critical to your enjoyment of the deck and to the look and attractiveness of the deck when it is viewed from outside your home. You will have to plan where the deck will be attached to the house, how much siding you have to remove and where you can find the most appropriate, stable framing in your house structure to be sure your planned location for deck attachment is solid and secure. You will need to determine how many support posts and footings you will need to support the deck size and weight and where the posts must be positioned to balance the weight distribution. You will need to know what size your joists, boards and beams will be and how far apart you will space the pieces. You will also need to determine what kind of wood you want to use (the most popular materials are pressure-treated pine, cedar and redwood). Here is a list of some typical material dimensions: * Beams - 4 x 6, or double or triple 2 x 6, 2 x 8 or 2 x 10 * Joists – 2 x 6, 2 x 8 or 2 x 10 * Stair Stringers – 2 x 12 * Deck Boards and Stair Treads – 2 x 4, 2 x 6 or 5/4 x 6 * Rail Posts – 4 x 4 * Railing Pieces – 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 * Deck Posts – 4 x 4 or 6 x 6 * Spindles – 2 x 2 * Skirtboard and Fascia – 1 x 8, 1 x 10 or 1 x 12 Consider pre-treated wood and sealant to keep moisture



and weather from damaging your new deck. You will have to get a building permit to begin your construction (whether you are building the deck or a contractor is doing the work for you). Patios – At last! An outdoor project we will recommend for even the novice! If you decide to build a patio, you may want to go with flagstones. They are fairly easy to lay and you can lay the border first and use that as a guide. Because flagstones are inconsistent in thickness, you will want to find the thickest pieces of stone in your batch to use as the border. Be sure your measurements are accurate and that the ground on which you will lay the flagstones is leveled and smoothed before you start to lay the stones. Lay out your border and then install the rest of the stones and be sure all stones are level before you mix your mortar to begin setting the stones in place. After you have tested the stones in place, remove all the stones and mix the mortar. The mortar is one part cement and three parts sand. Lay each border stone in place on the wet mortar and gently tap it into place in the mortar to be sure it stays level with the next border piece. If you put too much mortar in the base, it will come up between the stones and inhibit the grouting process after you lay the stones. Let the border stones sit for 48 hours to be sure they are set. Now use a string line to keep the stones level as you lay the filler pieces. Use small stones or cut pieces to fill in between the larger stones if there are gaps. Scrape out any excess mortar while it is wet and easy to remove. Once all pieces are in place, you will grout between all the stones and pieces to finish the project. Use a grout bag (like a baker’s decorating bag) to fill in the gaps with mortar. You can overfill the grout level and then scrape it dry (without smearing the flagstone). Use a trowel to scrape the excess grout. Now let it dry, and presto, you have a patio!


Here are some more home improvement articles...