Technical > Home Improvement > I built a deck.

I built a deck.

Wow uncovered quite a few problems with the porch.

I was expecting some problems with the porch, but didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. It had dropped almost 3" at the far end.

The people who built the porch were obviously morons. They built it over about 18" of the old cedar deck. The deck was original to the house in 1985. The porch addition was in 1991. It appears that it was just sitting on concrete squares with minimal concrete poured underneath.
The animals, termites, and carpenter bees were fun too.
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...because I care.

reply to nunya
Nice work. Not bad for a sparky. :P

reply to nunya
Definitely nice work, buy why not go the extra distance and have it from corner to corner?
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Getting it Done.

$$$$. This is a "for profit" house, not a live-in house. I just did enough so we can get it sold ASAP.
Using the existing footprint was the easiest and fastest way to get county approval as well.
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...because I care.

reply to nunya
Only 2 4x4s are holding up the hanging extention?
Is that even legal?

You seriously can't tell those are 6 x 6's when compared to the 4 x 4's on the deck? Yes they are "legal".
1 PT 6 x 6 post can support (vertically) about 15,000# (give or take). The entire sun porch probably weighs less than 8,000#.
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...because I care.

reply to nunya
Even with 6x6s that doesn't look so secure to me, having an extention with only 2 pieces of wood holding it up!!

reply to nunya

reply to nunya
Looks good! I'm about to embark on a deck expansion myself (hopefully next week). Current deck is 10'x8' and I'm expanding it to be a total of 10'x20'.

We priced out the materials and ended up deciding on composite decking (not Trex, but a similar brand) for the floorboards and composite handrails (just the top where you place your hand, pickets will be pressure treated).

I'm sure that's too much investment for a flip. Interestingly, a coworker is flipping a place here in southeastern CT. He got the place as a distressed sale for a song and has a lot of room for profit (I think!?!).

I wished him luck.

reply to The Pig

reply to nunya
Nice job nunya. Renovation is usually such a joy, just like Gump's box of chocolates. +1 to AMD.

I see we have a structural engineer in our midst.

/sarcasim

reply to nunya


Looks very good! Definitely an improvement that will help the sale bottom-line I would say. A nice elevated deck like that is always popular.

reply to AMD Phreak

reply to nunya
And all in 3 and a half minutes!

Always fun finding the hidden structural issues....

reply to Hellrazor
LOL, wonder if the old carpenter addage is true to electricians. Do they bring home their weight in staples?

reply to nunya
Very nice, since you are selling no big deal and it is likely code, but a cross brace on the 6x6's at the end would help with the New Madrid fault this is very near. These 'soft stories' as we call them are what let go in an Earth quake and that whole extension would sheer off.

Fixing that porch just made this less likely to happen as it adds lateral force structural support.
Does the local building code also require bolting the foundation to the framing on the house?
Just curious.

Nice job on the deck and the video, loved the music.

The county made me add lateral (seismic) brackets that pass to the interior (main) joists via threaded rod.
They no longer allow a ledger as the sole source of support.
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...because I care.

Nice work. Feel like travelling to PA? Carpentry and mud are things I try to stay away from.. heh

Interesting how all the pics had just about the same light. Dunno if I could remember to take shots of a job in progress, I tend to get caught up in thinking how I want to do things. Love the 3rd pic... bush is g-o-n-e

Some bad rot in some of those pics, lucky things didnt start moving on you prior.

-j
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if it aint broke, tweak it!!
currently on FiOS (kick aZZ!)