My monster deck project

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ohiobrewtus

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Yes, I said deck, not the other. Although it does make the think of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour 'deck' bit.

Since the homebrewpub project is still on hold (I just bought a friggin monster pump that 4 different contractors told me would take care of the problem), we've moved on to another project at the house - building the monster deck.

The back of my house is a bit odd, as the 3rd car garage sticks out in the back, leaving 15.5' to the actual back of the house, then there's a 14x14 sunroom off the back of the house, leaving me with an "L" shape that's 32' x 29.5" at its longest points, resulting in a deck that's roughly 700 sq. ft.

I'm capable of building this all myself, but SWMBO wants to be able to have dinner on the deck by her birthday (9/21) and it would take me basically forever to do this myself and get everything right so we hired a contractor to dig the holes, set the posts, and frame the joists. I'll be doing the deckboards, the railing, balusters and lighting.

Anyone that knows me knows that I tend to go a bit overboard on projects so without giving too much away I'll say that the railing involves stone columns, lighting and wraught iron balusters. You'll have to wait for pics to see it, but hopefully it's all going to look very good together.

MODS - feel free to move this if it should to in a different forum.

3rd car garage off the side of the house:
deck003.jpg


View from the corner behind the 3rd car garage:
deck006.jpg


Sunroom off the back of the house:
deck002.jpg


View from the corner of the sunroom and the house:
deck005.jpg



Progress updates to follow.
 
Quite a project. I had a sunroom slab poured out the front of my house when I added a garage. They had to tear out the slab for the old garage & the old sidewalk to do the sewer line, so including a 12x12 pad wasn't much extra. Now that the old garage door has been walled in, I'll tackle the sunroom.

It never stops.
 
Build it and they will come (party at Ohiobrewtus's house). :D

Nice holes, can't wait to see the rest!
 
Update:

9-15-08001.jpg


9-15-08002.jpg


That's SWMBO (brewinmama) and Brewgirl #4 off to the right.
9-15-08003.jpg


9-15-08004.jpg


More pics to come soon. Much more has been done, I just haven't taken more pics yet.
 
And of course you are going to use that new composite decking to do this with right? :D

For what that would cost, you could just buy a new house.....:)

Looks good though...I just finished up adding a basic 16 X 16 deck onto our new sunroom/keeping room, and the hardest part was getting the angles right for the rails on the steps......
 
And of course you are going to use that new composite decking to do this with right? :D

For what that would cost, you could just buy a new house.....:)

Looks good though...I just finished up adding a basic 16 X 16 deck onto our new sunroom/keeping room, and the hardest part was getting the angles right for the rails on the steps......

I looked at Composite decking, but at 3x the cost of pressure treated.. no thanks. I have too much money tied up in other things for this deck already... no way I can handle 3x the cost on over 130 deck boards.
 
Nice Deck

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7Ue5emo6I]YouTube - Blue Collar Comedy Tour - BIG DECK - starring Drew Carey[/ame]
 
4x4 posts 3 feet down in concrete. Joists are all 2x10. I actually didn't do any of that work though. It could have, but I'd still be working on it at Halloween. These guys slammed it out in about 4 half days.

Anything in future pics will have been done by me. Not sure if that's good or bad yet... I'll tell you after it's done. :drunk:
 
Looks like the joists are on 24" centers? I think composite requires 16" or even 12" if you run diagonal.

Is the deck freestanding or is the ledger attached to the house?

Didn't use composite. The stuff is too expensive. No diagonal runs, 2' on center is plenty. The deck boards are on now and there's no give anywhere on it at all.

Ledger board attached to the house.
 
4x4 posts 3 feet down in concrete. Joists are all 2x10. I actually didn't do any of that work though. It could have, but I'd still be working on it at Halloween. These guys slammed it out in about 4 half days.

Anything in future pics will have been done by me. Not sure if that's good or bad yet... I'll tell you after it's done. :drunk:
Cool, I like using 6x6's but some say it is overkill. If you have any questions let me know.
 
Me thinks someone doth compensate :D

For some reason, Ed your post brings to mind all of the Enzyte commercials :ban:

Nothing to trim around the deck to make it look bigger, so he had to go large from the start! :)

Looking good, getting ready to tear out my falling apart crap deck that came with my house and put in a Mahogany deck that does not have leaning railing and a diving board like bounce.
 
Deck envy - I just wish I had a back yard!
Looking good, and I hope you enjoy making it. Nothing like building something that last more than a year that you like, and nothing worst than a POS that you pulled out of your Arse and lasting over a decade and people asking you to fix it, when all you want to do is travel back in time to kill yourself for making it.
In other words, you can throw some plywood over the beams and keep meet your SHMBO wish, but keep the final product in mind and make to your standards.
Best of luck.
 
I'm working on this today so I'll have more pics up later tonight, but here are a few that I took last night.

Step up 14X12 deck where there will eventually be a hot tub. There aren't deck boards on this yet because I have to redo some plumbing on the sump pump outlest right below this area.
9-17-08003.jpg


Closer view of the 3 2x10's making a joist to support the weight of the hot tub:
9-17-08002.jpg


Brewgirls #1 and #2 playing on the deck:
9-17-08001.jpg


The steps from hell (although I did finally finish them this morning):
9-17-08steps.jpg
 
Nice job dude, those steps look great. Its smart to make sure the hot tub area is re-enforced. Those bastards are heavy when you factor in the water and people...
 
The steps from hell are finally finished:

9-17-082001.jpg


Another view of the steps from hell. Man these were a PITA, but I'm happy with how they turned out.
9-17-082002.jpg


Railing is partly up on one side, and two of the columns have a scratch coat on them. The masonry place only had 3 sheets of lath so I'll have to finish the rest another time.
9-17-082003.jpg
 
Looking good! When's the hot tub delivered? I had one for 10 years and have been without for 2. My back and knees miss it.
 
Not sure on the hot tub. We had one at the previous house, but sold it with the house. Luckily for me, my dad owns a pool and hot tub place so when we can afford one we'll get it at cost + shipping. :rockin:
 
Why so thick and bulky with the railings? Aren't you sacrificing a lot of room? How are they going to turn out?

I'm wrapping the columns in stone. The deck is roughly 700 sq. ft. so no, I'm not worried about 8 2'x2' columns taking up too much room. :D
 
I'm wrapping the columns in stone. The deck is roughly 700 sq. ft. so no, I'm not worried about 8 2'x2' columns taking up too much room. :D

Very cool and fast work. And you want those big columns to put your drinks on too.
 
Good idea!

Maybe inside of the columns, a kegerator at each post, so you never have to walk too far?

I like the way you think. A Sanyo in every column, with 2 perlicks and a drip tray. Too bad the columbs are only 18"x18" before they get the stone treatment. :D

I will certainly have my Sanyo setup out there for parties though. :mug:
 
Where's the fire breathing Dragon fire place going?

It's not a true "monster" project without some freaky flair.

Maybe it's just the perspective of the photo but, you might want to re-consider blocking that access plate on the junction 90 feeding your electric service. While I agree that it would be a rare occurence to ever need to pull that plate, it would also be Murphy's Law that you'll need it exactly 2 days after youve finished the project.

Just an observation.
 
Looking good so far. As a personal taste thing, I think the stone columns are going to look a little "weighty" sitting on top of a wood deck. I think 12x12 would have been a little more balanced but I'm admittedly talking out of my rear and look forward to seeing the finished product.
 
A monster deck? I know you've always wanted a bigger deck, OB, but is this really the way to go about it? I mean, as everyone always says, it's not the size of your deck, it's how you use it. Sure, the guy down the street might have a bigger deck, but is his wife really happy? Maybe he only uses the deck once in awhile. Maybe his wife wants to invite other people over to share the deck, but he's too shy. Maybe he didn't use pressure treated wood and his deck is sagging. But either way, now that you have a monster deck, be sure that you know how to use it. Make sure you're safe, because you could really hurt someone---you may not realize how big it is until it's too late...
 
How do you plan to "finish" the bottom part? Some trellis type structure with clematis or honeysuckle growing up it would be beautiful and smell epic when in bloom.
 
Very nice. I too plan on a deck and back patio in the 'future" but nothing this epic. That's huge deck! Looking forward to seeing the stone columns and how you finish the bottom. I just received fair warning from my mom to NEVER to lattice work when we build a deck. She just got done repainting theirs and apparently painting lattice isn't a hobby she would like to pursue!
 
Looking good so far. As a personal taste thing, I think the stone columns are going to look a little "weighty" sitting on top of a wood deck. I think 12x12 would have been a little more balanced but I'm admittedly talking out of my rear and look forward to seeing the finished product.

I was thinking the exact same thing. LOVE the idea of wrapping the stone around but was thinking it would look better if the columns "continued" below the deck to the ground. Lot more $$$ though. Your hell steps look fantastic though. Really adds a lot of class and allows the deck to flow out onto the yard. Well done!
 
The skirting will be deck boards running vertically down from underneath the 2x10 bandboard that ties the outside of the deck together. SWMBO said absolutely no lattice and I tend to agree. I don't want to have to get my arse down there to kill critters that can sneak through the holes in the lattice.

As for the columns, I've done a few stone jobs before and did a bunch of research (including local 'parade of homes' shows) and I've seen columns from 12" to 3'. The framing for my columns was 18"x18". By the time I add 1/2" osb, a layer of 30# roofing felt, metal lath and a scratch coat or mortar on all sides plus stone that ranges from 1" to 2.5" thick and the mortar to hold them on they will end up being *roughly* 24"x24" depending on where you measure them from. Measure from a thick stone to another thick stone and it could be pushing 25.5". I'm having 26" x 26" pier caps made that should provide an inch or so of overhang at the top as long as I use some of the thinner stone at the top.

I didn't finish up tonight until after it was dark, so no pics. I had to rework the freaking steps (not the steps from hell - the other set). I needed to move them over 5.5" so that the end column would have the same overlay as the rest of them and still line up with where I want the hand rail to be. Cutting them loose was the easy part. Thankfully my neighbor came over to BS and he helped be move them so I could re-attach them... man I hate doing things twice. All of the columns on the other side are fastened to the deck, wrapped in osb and roof felt. I only got lath on one column, so I need to finish that up tomorrow along with the scratch coat on all remaining columns.

How detailed does everyone want me to get with pics and such? I've just been posting 'overview' type stuff because, well, this is a homebrew forum, not a deck building forum - but I'll post as much as everyone wants to see.
 
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