Deck - Week 11

This weekend I finished all the railings including the stairs

All that's left is the cleanup of all the debris under the deck and the installation of the lattice-work privacy screen above one side of the railings and all around the base of the deck.

Here you can see the landing at the base of the stairs.

Deck - Week 10

Installed a few more railings this weekend. Including another stair railing. Only 4 more to go.

The stair railings are getting a little bit easier but are still really mickey-mouse in the way they go together. The screws they come with strip immediately and I've had to use a hacksaw and start over on several of them. I won't be using the provided screws anymore, instead opting for stronger coated exterior screws. At the bottom of the stairs you can see the landing I poured Saturday.

Deck - Weeks 8 and 9

No real work happened on week 8 except for adding a couple of railing sections. Dad came out on weekend 9 to help with the stair railing. Those turned out to be very frustrating to install and we only got one section completed.
We did manage to get all but one railing post installed and we set up the form and frame for the concrete landing.
If the weather holds for next weekend I might get the remaining level railings in place and maybe even some more stir railings. Plus I'll pour the landing and clean up some minor details.

HNY rolls 200k

My 2000 Civic hit the 200,000 mile mark last Friday. I had the camera in the car and couldn't resist marking this milestone.

Deck - Week 7

Starting to plank the other side

Saturday started out nice so I planked the other half of the deck and also finished the step from the kitchen door.

Saw setup on the deck

Having the saw on the deck made things go much faster. Less up and down the stairs saved a lot of time.

Completed step and second half of the deck

Sunday started out rainy (typical I can't seem to get two full days each weekend) but cleared after noon so I finished up some fastenings along the center line, step and outer frame.

One lonely railing

I installed one railing as a reference and also as a test to see how they go together. The railing system we chose has very vague instructions. Now that it's in place, the rest can be built using jigs developed from this first section.

Deck - Week 6

Picture frame completed

Once again Saturday brought rain. Fortunately it was only intermittent showers so I was able to get some work done. I laid out the locations for the railing posts and finished the outside edge of the picture frame boards. I also added another joist to provide a place to attach the board that runs up the center of the deck.

Starting to look like a real deck

Sunday's weather was beautiful (seems like a trend that's going to continue next week-end). I got half the deck planked. The CorectDeck CX is really easy to work with, but because of the picture frame, every board is custom fit and time consuming. Next week should go a bit faster as I'll have the saw on the completed part of the deck so there will be a lot less up and down the stairs.

Deck - Week 5

Miter saw setup

It rained all day Saturday so not much was accomplished. Actually, it pretty much rained all week putting a serious damper in any progress. I manged to get a tarp setup underneath the deck to protect the new saw while I cut stair planks. I got a few stairs installed before the rain became too miserable to continue.

A few stairs done

I'm using vinyl trim for the stair risers to match the railing. It didn't rain Sunday so I was able to get all the stairs done plus the framing for the step off the kitchen door. I broke 3 T15 bits while screwing down the CorectDeck CX decking. That stuff is crazy dense. So it was off to HomeDespot to get more T15 bits and a new set of drill bits and a quick release adapter. My new 12" sliding compound miter saw is working well. Kerry said Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, Merry Xmas, Happy, Birthday, etc. for the next few years for that one. The weather is supposed to be good this week, so I should finish the blocking and kitchen sliding glass door step and be able to get started on the picture frame before the weekend. Forcast is showing rain for Saturday again... Blah.