Hi all,
I'm getting ready to build a small deck and after looking over some of the threads here, I figured I'd ask for help before I'm in over my head. The deck will be bordered on 3 sides by concrete (house, wall and steps). The steps are 4' wide, so there is an 8' wide section for 8' and then it becomes 12' wide, after it clears the steps, for another 8'. It's all on one level. We plan on using Trex, although after seeing some of the threads I'm a little leary. I live on the dry side of Wash. state so hopefully mold isn't an issue. My wife wants a hot tub on the 8 ft. wide section. I figured I'd center the joists in that part at 12" and the other half at 16". My biggest problem is ground clearance. The steps were formed in such a way that I'm limited to 2x4 joists. The caliche (sp) makes digging down for footings almost impossible. Using a roto-hammer I think I can make enough of a hole to concrete in some of the brackets that are on top of pier blocks (not sure of their name). I was thinking of attaching ledger boards on all the concrete surfaces and running a 4x4 beam across the front of the stairs over to the house and using a joist hanger to attach it to the ledger board on the house. Because of the height limitations I was wondering if I could either use 4x4's for joists or double up 2x4's.
I just read back over this and it seems clear as mud, so if you can make heads or tails from the description I would appreciate any help you care to give. This group seems to have a lot of good info in the threads I read.
Thanks in advance,
John
I'm getting ready to build a small deck and after looking over some of the threads here, I figured I'd ask for help before I'm in over my head. The deck will be bordered on 3 sides by concrete (house, wall and steps). The steps are 4' wide, so there is an 8' wide section for 8' and then it becomes 12' wide, after it clears the steps, for another 8'. It's all on one level. We plan on using Trex, although after seeing some of the threads I'm a little leary. I live on the dry side of Wash. state so hopefully mold isn't an issue. My wife wants a hot tub on the 8 ft. wide section. I figured I'd center the joists in that part at 12" and the other half at 16". My biggest problem is ground clearance. The steps were formed in such a way that I'm limited to 2x4 joists. The caliche (sp) makes digging down for footings almost impossible. Using a roto-hammer I think I can make enough of a hole to concrete in some of the brackets that are on top of pier blocks (not sure of their name). I was thinking of attaching ledger boards on all the concrete surfaces and running a 4x4 beam across the front of the stairs over to the house and using a joist hanger to attach it to the ledger board on the house. Because of the height limitations I was wondering if I could either use 4x4's for joists or double up 2x4's.
I just read back over this and it seems clear as mud, so if you can make heads or tails from the description I would appreciate any help you care to give. This group seems to have a lot of good info in the threads I read.
Thanks in advance,
John