Wood Sun deck manufactured in The Bluff, Dbn, Kwazulu natal Jan 2013

by

Buck Preyor

The next sundeck measured approximately 5.7m broad along the front of the home by 4m deep. It was on the first floor at a height of 3.2m above ground level. Due to size we needed to support it with the use of 4 wood posts each of 90mm x 90mm in size and the other 2 ends of the beams were fit in feet cut and anchored in to the wall. Initially we were going to set the posts in concrete the regular 600mm deep.

Alas the site was in the Bluff that is just about entirely a sand dune. We dug to 1m deep in sand that had a similar consistency to building sand, and could still stick a re-bar yet another metre into the ground. In lieu of the ordinary 600mm deep in concrete technique we needed to throw feet or pads of 1m x 1m x 200mm with re-bar fixed through the center. This created a more substantial footprint and will stop the posts from sinking through time. The re-bar ensures that the entire pad has to sink at the exact same time rather than cracking. The posts were then put on top of those using a re bar hammered in to the bottom of the post and drilled in the concrete.

The posts are set as square to the wall as you possibly can but there is no need to set them exactly square as they will purely support the beams and any variation won t make a material influence structurally.

The deck needed 4 posts as the length was 5.7m and it is mostly relatively tricky to find beams in that sizing that long so they needed to be joined in the middle with a post to support them. We were utilizing 30 x 102 joists which can be spanned a max of 1.8m from beams so 2 beams were involved as a result doubling up the number of posts.

We cut the posts to length on the ground after which we joined our beams making use ofa joiner block to generate one lengthy beam. They were half checked and the wood beams of 30 x 220 were positioned and fixed on the half checks. Galvanised hex bolts were utilized to secure the beams to the posts.

The joists went on next and were left long so that the deckboards could start by the house side and the joists cut off once we reached our preferred depth. When the joists are cut to length before the deck boards go on, then it\’ll result in a half deck board being utilised to finish it on the dwelling side. What also can come about is that the very last deck board is not just a half deck board but furthermore a wedged shaped one. So deck boards are generally started off on the dwelling side and proceed to the preferred depth and the joists are then cut to suit.

On these types of decks I also like installing a fascia beam of the same size as the joists so as to provide support on the front of the deck as well as providing a beam that the balustrade can be attached to. Without this the balustrade would need to be attached to the main beam beneath which would mean the main beam would need to be set near the end of the deck and perfectly square to the deckboards or the balustrade will run out of parallel to the boards. With this method it is not important if the main beam is not perfectly square as it doesn t have to line up with anything on the deck itself. It is merely there for support and the tolerance is therefore much greater.

The balustrade uprights of 60 x 60 were installed prior to the deckboards so that we could deck around them by notching the boards. Once the boards were down, the cross supports on the balustrade were installed 100mm off the deck surface for the bottom one and flush with the top of the posts for the top one. This top cross support can sometimes be set 100 down from the top of the uprights, but setting it directly underneath the capping provides greater support to the capping and will prevent it from bowing over time. Pickets of 25 x 30 were then set equidistant apart between balustrade uprights, cut to length and a capping of 30 x 102 placed on top and secured.

Screw holes were epoxied closed with a saw dust mixture to match the colour, sanded and sealed.

http://blog.thewoodjoint.co.za/2013/02/02/

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