Deck Revisited

       Last December I reported on the nascent efforts to build a mammoth deck.  I didn’t realize it was a mammoth at the time.

     Here it is nearly six months later, and the deck still isn’t finished.  Part of the problem has to be my Scot heritage.  I didn’t know I had a Scottish ancestor either, but it must be so.

     When we visited Scotland oh so many years ago, we toured the castle on the hill overlooking Edinburgh.  A highlight was the firing of the cannon at 1 p.m.  Why did they fire the cannon at one instead of twelve noon? The guide asked the question, and provided the answer: “Typical Scots’ meanness,” meaning stinginess or thrift.  If they fired at twelve noon, they would have to fire twelve times.  Wait till one and expend only one shell.

      Something there is in me that hates to turn loose of a greenback. (At my age, I need to get over that and soon.  Better I spend it than my kids!)  Pressure treated dimension lumber is expensive.  With double 2 X 8’s for support beams

2 X 6’s for joists,

and 2 X 12’s for rim joist,

making the support structure was expensive.  That finally all got done in January.  Next came the varmint block, or “hardware cloth.”

      Next, the step challenge.  In exploring the cost of permanent-finish railing, it became apparent that running a continuous set of steps would be less-expensive (cheaper) than putting up a railing.  This step idea didn’t work.

  It required running 2 X 4’s, two per step, the full length of the deck.  No savings there.  Code requires a step stringer every foot when using composite decking.  That requires 2 X 12’s and a pad to rest the stringers on.

     A new piece of sidewalk is necessary to accommodate the “new” front door location.

      Most of the step stringer pad, I could do with the little mixer and Sakcrete.

      But the sidewalk was a little too large for the old mixer and the old man crew of one.  Bring on the Ready-mix and a crew of two.

      Next week, the steps.