Monday, March 30, 2015

DECK AND PORCH PROJECTS.






DECK AND PORCH PROJECTS
On This Page: Deck Basics... Building Stairs... Building Handrails... Old House Porch Rebuilding...
Deck Basics:

Building A Simple Deck

When this new house needed a way to reach the front door, the quick-and-cheap solution was to build a small deck with stairs.
Build a simple deck.



Extending A Deck

Extending An Existing Deck

When a new hot tub used up most of the existing deck, this family decided to simply add a 6-foot strip of new deck. Expanding the deck only required 2 rows of posts, a row of deck joists, and some new deck boards.



A Heavy-Duty Concrete Footing For
A Deck Or Porch

It only took a few minutes to build the forms for a 16"x16" poured concrete footing. With an L-shaped anchor bolt and metal post bracket, this footing will resist uplifting forces (from wind) and should never settle.
Concrete footing for deck or porch.



Building Deck Stairs:

How To Lay Out Stair Stringers:

The hardest part of building stairs is figuring out how to cut the notches in the stringers, which are the angled support boards that hold everything together.
Stair Stringer Layout



Building basic stairs.

Building Short Stairs For A Porch Or Deck

This long set of steps was built from 4-step pre-cut stair stringers, which were cut in half. Two posts were set deep in the ground to support the lower end of the stairs. Handrails were added later.



Building Deck Stairs With Composite Treads And Risers

While extending a deck, I built new stairs and used the maintenance-free deck boards for the finished surfaces.
Basic deck stairs.



Tall stairs for a high deck.

Tall Stairs For A Second-Story Deck

Originally, the deck on this house could only be reached by walking through the house.
We removed part of the handrail and built a small extension to the deck, and supported it with long 4x4 posts. Then we cut 4 stair stringers from 16-foot 2x12s and anchored them with 2 pairs of 4x4 posts set deep in the ground.



Building Handrails:

Installing Synthetic Handrails:

While rebuilding the deck we installed handrail posts and a maintenance-free railing system.
Synthetic composite handrails.



Basic 2x4 Handrails

Building Simple 2x4 Handrails

For many years this deck above a walk-out basement had no handrail. How do building inspectors miss that?The new owner just wanted a quick-and-easy handrail, so the solution was this simple painted 2x4 railing.



Building Sections Of Handrail Using
Traditional Turned Spindles

Building your own sections of handrail from scratch can seem daunting, but some common-sense techniques and a little planning remove the frustration.
Traditional handrail with turned spindles.



Jig for building handrails and spacing spindles.

Building Handrails With A Simple Jig
To Speed Assembly

Whenever I need to build something with repeating elements, such as a fence or handrail, the engineer in me wants to create a jig to simplify layout and guarantee accuracy.



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