Saturday, June 18, 2011

How to do Decking

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A deck is a great place to have at home and most people want to have one. Unfortunately not too many homes do come with a deck already installed. In many How to do Deckingcases you would just accept the home as it is, but if you aren’t afraid of bending your back a little, you can have a great deck installed in less than a day.

Before you do anything, you need to have the design of the deck in your mind. There are a number of shapes that a deck can have, and you need one that you like. Just going online and looking at different shapes will give you an idea of what you want.

This is the hardest part of all. If you already have posts, or pillars to which you can connect your deck’s bearers you’re lucky, if not you will have to install these posts yourself. The simplest way is to dig a hole a couple of feet deep, and install a concrete pillar there to the height that you need. Pour a little concrete around the pillar to hold it steady, and you are done.

You need to place the pillars so that they provide support to the bearer logs. Generally speaking putting a post between 5' and 8' from each other is recommended. The bigger the bearer logs, the longer can be the distance. For most normal decks 5' should be sufficient.

The bearers are the load bearing structure of the deck. These bearers connect the outer edges of the deck, and also rest on the pillars so that they form a rigid structure. The bearers are also connected to the home wherever you want the deck to be built. This needs some careful planning because you need to calculate how much distance you need between each bearer. Too much distance will make the deck weak, and too little will make the deck too heavy.

A simple rule of the thumb is to have bearers all around the edge of the deck, and have as many in the middle as you feel fit. Generally you need to keep a bearer around 4' from each other although this distance can be altered a little based on your desk’s design.

The joists are the connectors. They are basically smaller logs of wood than the bearers and are placed around 500 mm from each other. Extending this distance too much is not advisable because the planking for the deck will become too weak and “give” under you when you walk. You nail as many of them as you can, and alter the distance based on the size of the deck. The direction in which you nail the joists to the bearers should be perpendicular to the direction you want the planking to be.

This is the last step in the construction of your deck. You just nail in the planking. Ensure that the planks are all tight up against each other without any space, and nail them on to the joists. Generally two nails to the board on every joist that it sits on is recommended, and more is not needed.

The length of the decking boards needs to be correct so that they sit on a joist at both ends. If you have a board that stretches out over a joist, cut it down so that it sits on the joist at its end. If not, the extending portion will break off eventually.

Also when putting two planks lengthwise to make your deck, ensure that each plank sits on half of the joist. This is to ensure that the plank is supported on both ends.

All this needs some planning beforehand, and this will probably take you more time than the actual work. The mathematics need to be spot on, and even a couple of inches difference in size will only increase your workload when you do install the deck.

Take your time, plan everything out, get the measurements absolutely right, have the schematics done correctly with the lengths written in. Try to get sizes that are as close to what you need as possible, or try to work with premade sizes. This will not only reduce your workload, but will also save you some money because there will be lesser wastage.


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