Many thanks to the two who offered to design my deck for me, after I asked my first question. I appreciate it, but I'm really just after help with the finer details, so in the end I just bashed on.
I'm at the stage of putting the decking on and have some questions about joins.
1. Some people have recommended mitreing the joins instead of just butting them. Is this "realistic"?
2. If I do mitre them, where should I position the join over the joists? (That is, what would "x" and "y" be in the attached picture?)
3. Either way, what's the best way to position the nails on these ends of deck? (I will pre-drill any ends that I need to nail.)
I've read the leaflets from all of the building shops, and have checked out a book on deck building; but these are the kind of details they all seem to skip.
Butt join the decking, but champher both edges on the top of the decking to avoid any burring or splinters, mitreing a deck join imo wouldn't be a good idea as there is a lot of movement in decking and with an angled cut a high risk of splinters, don't forget to skew the nails on the join.
Personally, I'd spend a few extra $ and screw the decking down, but either way drill pilot holes first.
It's also well worth getting a cheap laser line-projector, having nice straight rows of nails or screws will look much more professional.
Also, cut your boards long to overhang any edge to the deck, then put a chalk line on and cut with a hand saw - harder work but a more even result and less munched than a skil saw will do.
Originally Posted by Dave Lobster
Only a homo puts an engine back together WITHOUT making it go faster.
As said clean butt joints will do the job. Skew the nails. Screws are better though and don't cost that much extra. Less hassle in the long term with possible warping of the decking. You may want to screw a side board along the edge to tidy things up a bit - one bit of decking butted up to the end/side.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the evening,
we will remember them
Consensus seems to be forget about mitreing. Sounded like a lot of work, so happy to go with that.
Normally I do prefer screws over nails, but there's alot to do and I already got a blister on the palm of my hand over the Christmas "holiday" - from too much screwing.
So I'm using 75mm annular grooved nails. Will pre-drill (deck ends), and do it basically like in the bottom right corner of the picture in the first post of this thread. i.e. skewed.
The picture here is what it looked like before I put all the weed mat under it, and backfilled the drainage with coarse chip.
Very good job by the looks. Just watch boozing on the deck til it's covered...
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the evening,
we will remember them
One of the main things is to check with a string line after every 5 or so lengths you nail down - dont just rely on a spacer and dont just whack the lengths down: You will have to pull bows and bends out of them as you nail them. They may not seem bend much individually, but its really easy to end up with big curves by the end if you dont keep checking.
You are on to it P. Galv AG nails will be fine. If you are able to, leave the boards down for 3-4 weeks before trimming. This is because [I'll assume you are using new griptread] the timber has a varying shrinkrate and you could easily get a 6-10mm discrepancy between boards [One may shrink 10mm in length, another may not shrink] and if they are adjacent it will look like crap. Good luck!
You're onto it!!!
One other thing. Spread the joins all over the deck. Don't have them lining up or all in one area.
So when is the keg being opened then???
TOP QUOTE: “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
What sort of timber are you using? if it's wet radiata don't pre drill anywhere except the joins (if the timber is very dry otherwise don't even drill there) as this weakens the bite the annular grooved nails have on the timber, if it's a hardwood (Kwila/Belian,Carre/Vitex etc.) then predrill everything. The deck looks good by the way.
(P.S. that's a low-res photo for a reason; but one of my "oh f**k" moments is sill visible in it. My neighbour popped his head over the fence for a chat. Threw me off and the next joist I laid I measured off the previous one and nailed it down - then saw I'd not even thought about it's distance from the house. You can see it stick out in the top right of that photo. Worked out OK as I had to do boxing for the down-pipe anyway and it's close to the next joist at the edge of the deck....)
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Dave Lobster
Bookmarks