Barry Wolk
04-30-2010, 06:12 AM
Actually, the project didn't take me 8 years, it just took 8 years to finish.
We threw a party to celebrate our 30th anniversary 8 years ago. Having a deck was very important to my wife as she didn't want anyone to fall out of the doorwalls at the party. I thought CAUTION tape had worked well up until then and couldn't understand her angst.
As a dutiful husband I started plans for my FOREVER deck. I resisted building a deck, because I HATE deck maintenance. We had Womanized decks at our other home and they were a PITA to maintain. I decided I wanted a maintenance-free deck.
I did some research and found a structural deck material called EON. It has a cross-section of an "E" lying on it's points with grooves in it's side for a concealed clip system that locks the boards to the structure and each other. The material is a wood fiber-plastic composite that is dimensionally stable along it's width but allowances have to be made for length expansion. I decided to make the deck seamless so made it the width of their standard material, 16-feet.
One of the other criteria was that the area under the deck couldn't be cluttered with a bunch of posts so I decided to transfer all the weight to two piers that support two schedule 80 stainless-steel posts with flanges welded to each end. The base flange is anchored to the cement pier and the top flange is bolted to an aluminum I-beam that's 14" tall and 8" wide extruded 5/8" thick.
That beam supports a series of prefab frames made of 2 x 10 wolmanized southern yellow fine pine, the heaviest wood in existence, it seems. Each 4' x 16' sub-section spaced the joists 12" apart, making a double 2 x 10 every four feet. I made these so that I could build the subsections on the ground and hoist them up in the air myself. These four subsections sit on the beam 12 feet from the wall with 4 feet cantilevered over the beam.
Starting at the house the boards were secured and locked together. One mistake and the end will be very crooked, as I discovered. I got it straight the second time. After the boards and side trim went on I installed an aluminum extrusion that holds a continuous light rope that casts quite a glow at night. Then came the stainless and aluminum railing.
The railing is 1 1/2" stainless schedule 40 tubing used in the dairy and food manufacturing industries. The fittings are industrial railing pieces from Hollaender.
That's as far as I got, just before the party I had a functional deck with a railing for most people with common sense. The intention was to put glass between all the uprights, but that would have been another maintenance headache, so I did nothing, for 7 years.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_3568-1.jpg
I get a call from my insurance company that they want to make sure I'm insured for the proper amount. They wanted to inspect the house for deficiencies that may leave them with exposure. The house got a clean bill of health, but the railing didn't. They wanted me to bring it up to code, which I resisted until I got a notice of cancellation. That's when I decided that I needed to finish the deck.
I love the view out of the back of our house so I tried for as little visual interruption as possible. I went with 5/32" stainless rope spaced 3" apart, meeting strict California code. I decided that glass corners would be little maintenance so I altered some stock fittings, fabricated some mounting brackets with holes drilled in the tempered glass panels 1" in and centered on each end. The screws that hold the glass are centered with 1/4 rubber gas line so that the stainless screw doesn't touch the glass. Sandwiching the glass are rubber washers with stainless washers to compress the rubber washers. The upper fitting has an elongated hole which allows the glass to move up and down with temperature changes and loading of the deck.
My FOREVER deck. It's done.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0671.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0673.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0674.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0676.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0691.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0693.jpg
We threw a party to celebrate our 30th anniversary 8 years ago. Having a deck was very important to my wife as she didn't want anyone to fall out of the doorwalls at the party. I thought CAUTION tape had worked well up until then and couldn't understand her angst.
As a dutiful husband I started plans for my FOREVER deck. I resisted building a deck, because I HATE deck maintenance. We had Womanized decks at our other home and they were a PITA to maintain. I decided I wanted a maintenance-free deck.
I did some research and found a structural deck material called EON. It has a cross-section of an "E" lying on it's points with grooves in it's side for a concealed clip system that locks the boards to the structure and each other. The material is a wood fiber-plastic composite that is dimensionally stable along it's width but allowances have to be made for length expansion. I decided to make the deck seamless so made it the width of their standard material, 16-feet.
One of the other criteria was that the area under the deck couldn't be cluttered with a bunch of posts so I decided to transfer all the weight to two piers that support two schedule 80 stainless-steel posts with flanges welded to each end. The base flange is anchored to the cement pier and the top flange is bolted to an aluminum I-beam that's 14" tall and 8" wide extruded 5/8" thick.
That beam supports a series of prefab frames made of 2 x 10 wolmanized southern yellow fine pine, the heaviest wood in existence, it seems. Each 4' x 16' sub-section spaced the joists 12" apart, making a double 2 x 10 every four feet. I made these so that I could build the subsections on the ground and hoist them up in the air myself. These four subsections sit on the beam 12 feet from the wall with 4 feet cantilevered over the beam.
Starting at the house the boards were secured and locked together. One mistake and the end will be very crooked, as I discovered. I got it straight the second time. After the boards and side trim went on I installed an aluminum extrusion that holds a continuous light rope that casts quite a glow at night. Then came the stainless and aluminum railing.
The railing is 1 1/2" stainless schedule 40 tubing used in the dairy and food manufacturing industries. The fittings are industrial railing pieces from Hollaender.
That's as far as I got, just before the party I had a functional deck with a railing for most people with common sense. The intention was to put glass between all the uprights, but that would have been another maintenance headache, so I did nothing, for 7 years.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_3568-1.jpg
I get a call from my insurance company that they want to make sure I'm insured for the proper amount. They wanted to inspect the house for deficiencies that may leave them with exposure. The house got a clean bill of health, but the railing didn't. They wanted me to bring it up to code, which I resisted until I got a notice of cancellation. That's when I decided that I needed to finish the deck.
I love the view out of the back of our house so I tried for as little visual interruption as possible. I went with 5/32" stainless rope spaced 3" apart, meeting strict California code. I decided that glass corners would be little maintenance so I altered some stock fittings, fabricated some mounting brackets with holes drilled in the tempered glass panels 1" in and centered on each end. The screws that hold the glass are centered with 1/4 rubber gas line so that the stainless screw doesn't touch the glass. Sandwiching the glass are rubber washers with stainless washers to compress the rubber washers. The upper fitting has an elongated hole which allows the glass to move up and down with temperature changes and loading of the deck.
My FOREVER deck. It's done.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0671.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0673.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0674.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0676.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0691.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg18/barry2952/House/IMG_0693.jpg