Sunday, May 22, 2011

BUILIDING THE DECK

We did a total remodel of our tiny little house
two years ago.  Gutted the kitchen and bath, 
and put in wood floors though out.
Our last major project left to do was the outside
deck.  It had seen better days and was
ready for a tear down. 

The first step was to tear it down and
see what kind of shape the house
was in behind the deck.  Our little
bungalow was built in the early 40's
and not very well to begin with.


We have used the same contractor
for all of our work and it is nice to
have someone who understands your
likes and dislikes. He can take my ideas 
and fine tune them into something that
makes sense.  After the deck was gone he
discovered that the beam
across the length of the house was
crumbling and needed to be replaced. 
We weren't too surprised and were expecting
the unexpected.  It actually could have been
a lot worse, this was easy to fix.


The lower fence was the first thing 
that had to go up to give us back
a little privacy and to anchor the new deck.
We used redwood for all of our other
wood work.  Fences, garage doors and
car port so that was our natural choice 
for the deck.
There is a lot to be done before the
floor goes down.


The upper fence has been framed and
the floor laid, now it is starting to look
like a deck.
We will keep the redwood unstained so
it will weather naturally and in 6 to 8 
months we will put a sealer on it.
 
We increased the size from the original
a full width of the stairs and a foot longer.
Now it is bigger than our living room.
The railing we used a combination of
redwood and cable to give it a more
open unbusy feel.
A new deck calls for a new grill and I love
this one that has a craftsman look to it 
that goes with the look of the house.
We had shelves built on each side
to give us more working space.  We used
thin aluminum and Brett framed it with
redwood and used scrap redwood 
for the brackets.

 Sometimes it is the little things that
make the biggest difference and one
of those is the new screen door.
I always hated the old white one
and could not wait to get this one installed.
This finished product is better
than our expectations, we could not
be happier.  This is a welcome addition
to our living space and will enjoy
it for years to come. 

Zoe has put her paw of approval on it as well.
Click BRETTS PICTURES and see
the other things he has done.
You can also contact him via email at
brd1217@yahoo.com

 

No comments:

Post a Comment