How To Build A Deck // DIY Home Improvement

Hi everyone, my name is Chris and this is my store partner Oats and in this video we're going to

build

a

deck

. I'll show you how easy it is, but before I start I want to thank Lowe's for sponsoring this video. Let's get started, my first step is to head to Lowe's

deck

designer so I can design exactly the deck I want. It is free and easy to use software that you don't need to download, just use it directly from their website. and you can choose from pre-designed templates or start from scratch like I will. I'll also leave a link in the description so you can see it too.

I'm going to go with a nice simple single level deck with railing and a single set of stairs, but you can make your deck any size and height and with as many levels and stairs as you want, you can also customize the type of material of the platform, such as wood or any of the artificial materials you want. In addition to the deck color and railing styles, it really allows you to do whatever you want. It will then give you a real-time estimate of the material cost so you can check if it is within budget or not.

Make any adjustments and then you can print out the complete plans that will include the bill of materials, including all the hardware you'll need, as well as the layouts, deck part nomenclature, and all sorts of other good information to help you

build

a deck. now before ordering your materials go to your construction consultant and make sure the plans comply with all local codes; if not you can easily come back and make adjustments and if everything is good you can get your building permit and order your materials then you can take the prints to Lowe's and they will get all the materials for you and for a few dollars Extras will be delivered directly to your door.

Okay, the most important part of building your deck is to design it correctly if you don't. If you have a nice square layout to start with, you can run into a lot of problems, so what I did was put a stake near the house and then I built these bugs out of slats so I could move my ropes. I measure from the house to the outside edge of what will be my farthest post. I do it on both sides, then I measure the distance between my outside posts like this and then I repeat that measurement here and now what I'll have. is a parallelogram now to get that parallelogram square that you measure from corner to corner, so if I'm two inches longer at this corner than at that corner, what I'm going to do is move this chord one inch here and that chord one inch away. that way to meet in the middle, check it again, make sure it's square and then we can move on to where the posts need to be drilled and pulled out.

The plans will tell me the spacing of my posts, so I'll use a tape measure and some flags to mark where the holes for the posts should be. The ground here was really nice and soft so we were able to use post hole diggers instead of a gas powered auger that you can always buy or rent. Where I live, the code requires that we dig holes at least 42 inches down to clear a frost line, pour our concrete into 12 inch forms, and then attach our posts on top using post anchors. There are several ways to place posts. which include burying the post in the concrete and this is one of those crucial things you should ask your inspector about.

The forms are usually 48 inches tall, so I will mark and cut a level line across all of my forms so they fit just right. a couple of inches above the ground, which will allow water to run off, then I will fill in the dirt between the entire wall and the forms and then tamp and tighten them. Then I will start mixing and pouring all the concrete. I rented a concrete mixer for this step. Trying to mix all that concrete by hand in a wheelbarrow is really backbreaking work, just follow the concrete mixer's instructions on the concrete and then pour it into the molds, tamping it periodically until they are cold, you also have to be careful not to do this. to breathe that concrete dust it's best to use a respirator, but I just held my breath as I went to the bags and made sure not to breathe it in, then I smoothed out the top to give it a slightly convex top to help. water runoff, then I will insert my post anchor bolt until it is about an inch above the concrete and in line with my design lines, then I will lay down some landscape fabric and then lay down some rocks, this will help with Water. runoff and also prevent weeds from growing under the back, so now that my foundation is poured and the post anchors are attached, I need to calculate the distance of my post to do this, I make a mark on the house that will be the heights. of the deck and then I subtract the thickness of the deck board, the thickness of the joist and the thickness of the joist, which for this deck we are using to buy eight joists and joists is 15 and a half inches, I make a mark on the house that goes down and places a line at 15 and a half inches on a stake, then I'll run that line all the way through making sure it's level, so once I know my line is level, I'll move the outside down a half inch to give it slope the platform slightly to allow for rain runoff once the line is where I want it.

I can measure from the post anchor to that line and get the heights of my post. I use the miter saw to cut the post and I only have a 10 inch miter. Vi, so I have to rotate that 6x6 post so I can cut it completely. The code in your area may not require you to use a 6x6 post, but I like to have the extra wide post because it will give me some wiggle room. I make sure my beans are square when I assemble the next ones. These pieces are called beams and I made them by nailing two two-by-eights together.

I will use four galvanized Tenpenny nails and space them every 16 inches to make the beams with these brackets. Attach the beams to the post and once I secure the posts to the post anchors I will make sure the beams are square and then I will secure them to the posts using those brackets and this is where I am double checking that the beams are square before Before securing them to the post, it is important to add nails to each hole in all of those brackets. Next, I'll start placing my beams every 16 inches. I place the first beam next to the house and make sure it's nice and straight, then I measure from that in 16 inch increments and they don't make a line and put an X on the side closest to the house, then, when I place my board next to the line, I know the center of the board needs to be where that X is, then I can start placing my beams.

I usually nail them into place with a brad nail, which makes adding the hurricane supports much easier because my deck is 20 feet wide and they don't make 20 foot boards. long, I have to support two beams apart on that center beam and then to give them some extra rigidity I add some blocks along that center beam between the beams, this will keep the beams from wanting to tip over and then I draw a nice line square with I draw a chalk line and trim the beams so they are nice and straight before adding what is called a border.

Julie. I make a small temporary support block that I nail to the bottom of the joist to help support the rim joist while I nail it. and level it in place, then all the joists are attached to the rim joist using joist brackets once I secure the rim joist, I will remove those support blocks now. I'm just adding the edge beam to this side right now. I have a little trick that I'm going to use later to make sure that my full deck board on the other side of the deck matches up perfectly with the other edge joist and I'll show you that a little bit later now it's time to add on the deck, I will take a drill bit and countersink all the holes near the edges of the holes to prevent splitting.

Next, what about pre-drilling? I put two screws every 16 inches into the joists underneath as we added the boards we are We will stop about every fourth board, we can take a measurement near the house and at the far end of the deck to make sure the boards of our platform stay nice and square as we move forward. Now these deck boards are still super wet, so we'll be pushing them snuggly against each other and then screwing them together as they dry, they will shrink a bit and form gaps between the boards that will allow rain and dirt to escape.

Now if you are working with dry boards you will probably want to add an eighth of an inch gap between the boards as you go, before I screw on my last four decking boards I will place them in place and make a mark along of my choice, then I will move my mark one and a half times. inches which is the width of the rim joist then draw a line with my chalk line and cut the joist there Now when you add the rim joist the last deck board will be perfectly flush with that rim joist exterior, as each deck board is slightly different. wide, it would be almost impossible to measure this beforehand when you add the first rim joist and the last deck board is perfectly flush with the outside rim joist, you will most likely have to rip out the last deck board and It just wouldn't look as good as having a full deck board all the way, so now I add my outside edge beam and all the supports for it and then I can finish adding my deck boards all the way.

In the end, I'll put a nice two-by-twelve skirt around the deck. Now I'm going to start working on the railing post. Railings are another one of those critical areas that you need to make sure of. up to code, so ask your inspector what the minimums are for railing heights, how railings are secured to the deck, and spacing between balusters. I took my circular saw with the blade set to an inch and a half deep and made several raised cuts allowing me to break up all that debris with the hammer, then I'll clean up the notch with a chisel and plane.

Now there are other ways to make these notches too, but this is how I like to do it. then I'll add a small 45 degree bevel to the post to make it look nice. I lay out the post locations making sure I meet the minimum spacing required by code and that they are plumb and square before drilling my first hole. for the carriage bolt, after adding the carriage bolt, I will double check that it is plumb and square before drilling my second hole, then I will add the second carriage bolt, add the washer and nut and tighten them with a wrench , then I measure between the railings. and we cut a 2x4 for the top and bottom that will support the balusters.

We used some cuts and our speed squares to space them out nice and evenly, like with the posts. I wanted to add a nice bevel to all the balusters, but instead. Those few at a time on the miter saw, I decided to just line them all up, draw a line and cut the bevel all at once using my circular saw, so I want to show you very quickly how to lay out the spaces between the balusters. 4 inches minimum and it's a little complicated, so what I did was measure the inside width between the railings, which is 60 and 7/8 here and then you add the thickness of one of the balusters which I converted to decimals down here.

Because the calculator doesn't work on fractions like that, what I do is I divide this, the sum of these two numbers, the width plus a baluster and then I divide it by that minimum requirement of four inches which gives me 15 0.5 and then you round up upwards. to 16, so that's the Bullet number that I'm going to end up using, I divide that original width by 16 and that's going to give me three point eight eight seven inches, then I'm going to take a fraction conversion table and find which fraction is going to be the closest. and I'm proud of 7/8 7/8 is 0.875 so basically I'm going to make a spacer that's 3 and 7/8 inches wide and that way I can get a perfect width across and I'm going to cut this is a proud 7/8 8 and then I will have my perfect design.

You will have to do this for each section between the railings, as they will all have different measurements. We simply countersink a hole and add a screw on top. and the bottom of the balusters, now we are going to dig a place and make a base for our stairs. We had a few inches of gravel pack to level it and place concrete feet to support the stair stringers. You can also pour a nice concrete landing. pad here too, next I cut the stair stringers off camera, those are one of the trickiest parts of the build and require a bit more explanation which I have time for in this video, so instead of doing the much longer video, I decided to just add some links tofollow up to some other good videos explaining how to design and cut stair stringers, then I add my deck boards and railings like I did on the rest of the deck and I can move on to the last part. which is adding the cap to the railing.

I use regular deck boards for the railing cap and cut a 45 degree miter for the corners. We're going to let the deck dry and season over the winter and next spring before we put stain on the deck and then we're going to add some latticework and do some landscaping around it and it will look really nice and last for many years. I hope you enjoyed watching this video and learned a few things. Thank you very much for watching, see you next time.