Looks nice!
Maybe a small ramp or angle/chamfer at the door ?
That looks like a big stumbling block, if not for you, definitely for guests.
Would have been nice to have an actual tracksaw to cut the end boards where they meet the border boards, but I got it pretty straight with a chalk line, clamped 4ft level as a straight edge for the circular saw to run against. The varying width (especially towards the ends of the boards) and curves in some boards drove me nuts. You can see a few spots where the gap is just much larger than elsewhere.
Wait until it dries a couple years. The boards shrink in length as well
I used the cedar tone when I built my front deck/porch, the ends were perfectly cut to the same length. A couple are now almost a half inch shorter than the others.
All in for the lumber, screws (they add up!) and tape, it cost me about $700.Thanks for sharing! I think your deck came out great and what a huge savings to do it yourself!
I am about to start working on my deck - a solid 15' up in the air - and reading this thread has given me more hope that I will be able to complete it.
Going with Timber Tech here because my deck is 8'x12' and while it's "more" its easily within budget. The bigger problem is time and some small engineering challenges to be tackled first.
This is what I bought (varying lenghts)Nice job. To me, it looks like just "raw wood" instead of pressure treated.
The stuff we have available here looks like this:
It's funny - when I lived in washington that's what I was used to seeing also. Down here in Texas they just call it all Ground Contact (GC) and it has the appearance of normal wood, if not a green tinge that fades with some time.Nice job. To me, it looks like just "raw wood" instead of pressure treated.
The stuff we have available here looks like this:
There's definitely still a green tinge to the stuff I used - in fact there are some spots that are/were just straight green blobs. They are all "GC" as well.It's funny - when I lived in washington that's what I was used to seeing also. Down here in Texas they just call it all Ground Contact (GC) and it has the appearance of normal wood, if not a green tinge that fades with some time.
Thanks!Great Job. I Have a deck about 4x the size of yours thats about 30 years old and started ripping it out. It was in such horrible shape and i knew i had to replace the boards when i was walking and literally one of the boards disintegrated and my one foot fell through. I went with a composite though. Maybe i'll start a thread on it.
Whatever you do, don't use deckover. that basically accelerated the death of my old deck. Didn't realize it till i saw a huge settlement/recall. too bad i missed the cutoff. just use a traditional stain/sealThanks!
Yeah - as stated earlier, composite was the ideal, but I'm happy with the wood. Mine was in pretty much the same state - step on a board and hope you don't crunch through.
I have yet to stain/seal (and then post final pics. We had a long drought here and I was going to stain/seal it as I thought the wood was ready. Now we've had like 3+ days of just constant, slow soaking rain. So it's wetter than the day I bought it. I know it's not *really* getting ruined being unsealed, but it's making me nervous.
Whatever you do, don't use deckover. that basically accelerated the death of my old deck. Didn't realize it till i saw a huge settlement/recall. too bad i missed the cutoff. just use a traditional stain/seal
There's definitely still a green tinge to the stuff I used - in fact there are some spots that are/were just straight green blobs. They are all "GC" as well.
NIcd! Hmm, wonder why that board cracked so soon. Not even through a winter yet.I just wanted to post some "finished" pics now that I have it stained/sealed. All in all it turned out as good as, if not better, than I had hoped. There's lots of "mistakes" as I previously mentioned, but I LOVED the project and learned so much. Thanks to everyone for the tips and suggestions and help along the way. Truly rewarding creating things with your own hands. I love tackling these things around the house every summer.
View attachment 82348
Gotta love seeing that water bead up. But damn if I don't hate that shrinkage that screws up the nice straight line. And one of those boards already cracked!
View attachment 82349
and I think I mentioned earlier that I may start in on building a couch? Well I did...
LOTS of mistakes there but learned a lot more again. Still have to sand (should have done that before building) and stain. There were some serious complications too with the 2x3 and 2x2 that I purchased not being normal dimensions which threw everything into a tizzy.
View attachment 82350
End grain cut. Pre prime/stain. Pre-drill. Hand nail/ screw.
That's common. The only way to limit cracks and splits is to use hand selected premium material and pre drill everything, or use a composite decking.NIcd! Hmm, wonder why that board cracked so soon. Not even through a winter yet.
There's never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over.yeah - I figure it was lack of pre-drilling. I gave up on that except for the ones where I had to but two boards on 1 joist. It was just way too time consuming.
By the time this deck has to be replaced/redone again, I better be moved or dead.There's never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over.
End grain cut. Pre prime/stain. Pre-drill. Hand nail/ screw.
Thanks for the info guys. I’m having a deck rebuilt and enlarged using composite materials. I’d love to be doing it myself - but that back injury of mine from 2009 is the gift that keeps on giving. I’d save something like 8k doing it myself - such is life.That's common. The only way to limit cracks and splits is to use hand selected premium material and pre drill everything, or use a composite decking.
Sweet! Nice job man 👍Humble brag bump..
I finished the couch and made a table too (I've learned a lot of tricks and things along the way!) REALLY enjoying the work. This is woodworking stuff that I always dreamed of doing
I have some wood left and will be working on a matching chair next
Then I will build a proper work bench/table in the garage too
View attachment 82861