r/Decks

Before adding the deck, our backyard access from our main floor was going down a narrow stairwell off our kitchen and through the laundry room. Now, it's straight off our dining room.

Total cost was 70k ina VHCOL area, including adding the 11ft sliding door and the supporting structural engineering work. Material is trex transcend jasper. Worst part was it took 10 months for our permits to get approved.

Last photo is the backyard "before". We still kept half of the lower patio uncovered from the deck.

What do you guys think? Feels solid as a rock. Overall I’m fairly satisfied with the results for my first deck, but I do regret half ass-ing the foundation by using deck blocks. This is a floating deck with no ledger. At the time, due to time constraints, I justified this choice because this deck is built on lot fill; basically sand. It drains extremely well. I hope that, to a degree, this moderates the risk of frost heave (I am in a northern climate), but only time will tell and having completed the project I do regret not pouring proper footers

I wouldn’t necessarily mind having to re-build due to aesthetic issues… I am mostly concerned that any heave could result in an unsafe structural defect, but I plan to inspect the deck annually for any changes that appear to be destabilizing

28x12/14
Max height off grade 30”
2x6’ joists w/ spans <6 ft
All joists 12 OC’
3 2 ply 2x8 beams
Maximum beam spam >4 ft
Simpson metal connections at all post-beam connections
Hurricane ties at all joist beam connections

I am planning to have a railing system installed around the perimeter and two small sets of stairs installed

Thanks to this community for all the knowledge that makes projects like this possible

(Not my deck) Oak Island, NC. Can doing this actually be safe if engineered right?

Inspector is coming in an hour, how am I going to do?

Shoutout to u/Deckshine1 for helping me

I made a post 2 months ago asking about how to remove the current stain on my deck and restain it. He told me that I would have to sand it all off and it’s a massive undertaking that will take forever. And he was exactly right, I just got the floor done, haven’t even started on the handrails or anything else

Before, after sanding, and after staining pictures are attached

I started with a corded 3x21 Bauer belt sander, absolute garbage. The first one broke on the first day, the second one stopped collecting dust within an hour of using it, even connecting a shop vac to it didn’t help

I took the entire belt sander apart and cleaned the whole thing out and I believe it started collecting dust again for a little bit and then started spitting it out again. Garbage

I also used a corded Bauer orbital sander. Garbage. Started bogging down within the first few hours of use

Thankfully Harbor Freight (and I do love HF btw) has a 90 day return policy

I coincidentally got a corded Ryobi orbital sander from an auction, that thing rips. 100x better than the Bauer

I still have to do the guardrails and steps but I am not looking forward to it. I regret ever starting this project. I should’ve taken u/Deckshine1 ‘s initial advice and washed the deck and just repainted with solid stain

We bought our house last year, new construction, and we have a massive roof deck. This year, I started noticing some large gaps forming in certain spots, particularly along one edge of the roof, which the first three photos are.

The first photo is especially bad, because the screws or joints? They are now at an angle as you can see.

The final photo is of one large gap in the middle of the roof that has formed, where there doesn’t seem to be any joint issues, but the gap is rather large.

I’m not aesthetically concerned about these. But I’m wondering if I need to be structurally concerned and if I need to have someone come in and repair things now before they get worse and create long term damage.

FWIW, most of the deck seems fine. It’s a big, 1300 sq ft roof so these are a small minority of boards affected.

This is the first time that I have hired a contractor to build a deck, so I have no idea if this is normal.

Can those of you who have technical expertise advise if this kind of crack shown in the picture in a brand-new pretreated cedar-tone board normal?

My contractor said that he would use some kind of party to fill up crack and then stain it. Is that an appropriate way to handle?

On vacation and stopped at a country store. This was the porch/deck roof.

We were hanging out on it and a few of us were unsure of how safe it is. At one point there were a lot of people on it watching fireworks and it just didn’t feel right.

I am planning out ideas to re-do my back yard. I’d like to replace that basement window in the center with a set of stairs and a door to access the basement. The yard slopes away from the house pretty good. Has anyone ever framed a deck over what would be the basement walkout?

Hi. Ive recently had this deck installed over my old slabs which were very slanted and uneven. The base was built over the the top of them. I then had to have it reinforced in the section shown to house a hot tub. Specifically a lay z spa hollywood. 4-6 full inflatable. 954kg filled 80&. 4x2 reinforced timber was used. Im nervous about it holding. My builder reassures me it will be fine but I suffer with anxiety and tomorrow is when I plan to set it up... Sorry if this is not allowed.

Going through some photos from my project… will be revisiting the framing and blocking of my project …should I also be discussing these joists for a brand new deck?

What's the least painful way to deal with the old nails?

Pull them out?

Pound them in?

Cut them off?

A while back I posted asking if the quotes I was getting were crazy or not (one was for 170 grand USD). The main deck is 63’ x 12’ the lower deck is roughly 10 x 10’. Everything is Trex transcend tiki torch and Havana gold with vintage lantern cocktail railings. Trex rain escape, under deck lighting, and closed in with vinyl soffit and pvc column wrapping. All in was 130 because of some additional demo required due to the brick piers being unusable (thanks previous homeowner).

Reposting this with some close up photos.

Ten year old deck, but the boards are very dry, chipped, etc. Would like to get a few more years out before replacing it. Was planning to soft-wash and stain, however one contractor I spoke with mentioned I should sand in-between. Is it worth the money/time to sand a deck this shot? Thanks.

Never seen this. Joist seems to bear down on a beam attached with a big bracket to a post.