To make our current living situation a little bit easier for the short ones in our family
(mainly Sam and the corgis) we decided to build a deck...
but we had to get a little creative at the end of our project to make it a bit more cost-efficient!
Before all of that - here are the items we purchased for the base of our 8'x8' pier and beam deck:
Concrete Footers (six)
4"x4" - (two) 12' long, cut to deck height
2"x6" - (three) 16' boards, cut in half
1"x6" - (eight) 16' boards, cut in half
Deck Screws - (two) boxes of 3" deck screws
We purchased most of our supplies at a local building store and yes... with current lumber prices...
it cost us essentially a paycheck!
Other supplies we had on hand or had to make another trip to the store to pick up include:
Safety glasses
Gloves
Stick-Level
Tape Measure
Drill, as many as you have people if possible for the last part
Table saw or Circular Saw, We also made use of a reciprocating saw
Heavy-duty rake, Used for leveling our dirty / removing rocks
If you're using this as a guide - keep in mind that your measurements will be 100% unique to your project. We had to make the 4"x4" posts for our center 2"x6" beams were an inch shorter than our exterior because of the slope of our land.
Step 1
Take your measurements and decide the height of your deck.
Length and Width: Most of our lumber we purchased was in 8' increments, making it simplest to build an 8'x8' deck. We were able to get the boards cut in half at the store to fit in our truck and save us the time of cutting the 16' boards in half at home.
Height: We wanted to replace the current steps to our Windjammer RV and not have a large drop down from the interior, so we decided to shoot for a 30" high deck. Each concrete foundation raises your 4"x4" posts up about 6", so we needed to cut our 4"x4" posts to 22" tall since the deck boards themselves added some height. The 22" per 4"x4" was just an estimate, as each post should be measured individually again before cutting. This is covered in Step 4.
Step 2
Double, triple, and quadruple check the measurements for your deck. You'll thank us later.
Step 3
We leveled the land and set our foundation blocks.
You should level the entire area of your deck, but since the area was relatively flat, we took a shortcut and just leveled underneath each of our foundation blocks.
Note: We have particularly hard ground, but if you are building on top of sandy or loamy ground, it is important to lay gravel below your foundation blocks to increase stability.
We did this with our rake, using the teeth to pull dirt and small rocks from the area and the backside to push the rock-free dirt back to level. We used our measuring stick-level to make sure the blocks were level by checking the dirt underneath prior to placement and the block themselves after they were placed.
Since we did not level the entire space, we had to make sure that each support block was set at the same height as those around it. We used a 2" x 6" board to lay across the corner blocks and put our stick-level on top.
As mentioned before, our center blocks were slightly higher than our corner foundation blocks, so we compensated by adjusting the height of our 4" x 4" posts in step 4.
Step 4
Cut your 4" x 4" posts to raise your deck.
In step 2 we determined we needed our posts to be roughly 22" tall to get us close to our 30" tall deck.
Cut your first corner post and put it in its foundation block.
This is where we decided to quadruple check some of our measurements.
Then, we rested our handy 2" x 6" board on the cut post and pushed it flush against the post to be cut. With the level in place on the 2" x 6" board, we raised/lowered the end near the uncut post until the 2" x 6" was level and marked the top of the 4" x 4". That mark was where we cut the posts.
Each of our corner posts ended up being 22.25" tall, except the two center posts, which were higher due to the foundations themselves being lower. We figured out their ideal height with the same 2" x 6" board and level method to mark these to the perfect height of 21.5" tall.
Step 5
Next, we attached two 2" x 6" boards to each of our 4" x 4" foundation posts, connecting two of them forming 3 rows. We did this by one person holding the board in its center while the other put a screw into one end. Before screwing the other end to the second 4" x 4" post, we put our stick level back on the 2" x 6" board and brought it to level before placing the second screw. We repeated this process 5 more times until we had our 3 rows of supports.
We did level each of our 3 support beams individually, but similar to how we checked the foundation blocks, we laid one of our deck boards across to ensure everything was still level.
IT WAS!
Now if yours is not, you can still fix this. You'll just need to unscrew your 2" x 6" boards and replace them either higher or lower to level out your top deck boards.
Step 6
Finally, we arrived at the part where our wobbly beams would become an actual deck! You'll quickly feel the entire deck stabilize after your first few boards are screwed into place.
We wanted to be sure we had enough prior to screwing any in, so we laid out all the deck boards across our supports. Quick level checks showed us everything was still good to go, so we each grabbed some drills and began attaching the boards! We used one screw in each of the 2" x 6" supports, for 6 overall screws in our deck beams.
*note*
If you don't get your boards perpendicular to your support beams, you could run into some issues like we did.... but you do have options!
It wasn't until we had about 1/3rd of our deck boards attached and realized the first board was not perfectly perpendicular to the 2" x 6" support beams we created. This was causing the ends of our deck boards to creep too close to the edge of our support beam, exposing it on one side. We quickly compensated by moving the next boards closer to the beam so it wouldn't become exposed, but this caused a diagonal angle to our square deck. The perfect task for our circular saw! Using its level line, we lined up the edges and cut the end of our boards off of each side to bring it back to straight lines.
Step 7
Enjoy your deck!
Oh, wait... if you're like us your deck could probably use a few stairs to make getting up 30" a bit easier!
Time for another trip to the store!
- peace, love, & dogs -
Sam + Jen
Comments