How about my big deck??

[StreamlineGT]

Well, the deck build is in its preliminary stages, and some temporary work has been done to ensure the piers go in where they are supposed to. My friend Mike came over and we built this framework to simulate the carrying beam location, and marked out the post locations. When it is time to dig for the piers, all we have to do is drop a plumb bob and dig. Sounds easy, right? The deck will be 32' x 16', with a PT frame (obviously), and Pro-Cell decking with vinyl railing system. I'll keep updating as progress is made.

Dug the first two piers just fine......

Digging the third, disaster strikes....

So I am gonna see if a pick-ax and some grunt will chip away at this, but I doubt it..... This thing couldn't break it up past the point that it is now.

Anybody got any explosives??

For those of you who know me, I have worn nothing but John Deere hats for the past 3 years, and I was just reminded as to why. I went in the hole with the pick ax, and found it was somewhat east to break up, so I moved the tractor to the uphill side of the hole, and the first bucket in, it broke the whole ledge mass into 6 large pieces, and picked em out in no time. I love that f-in machine.

Upon talking to the local building official, he said that they have to be pinned with one 1/2" rebar, so what did I do, put 3 in of course....

And I bought a new tool to do it with.

Hilti TE56

Sorry Bryan, the "business" needed one anyway.... and I got the ground rod attachment too!!!

Piers are done!!! WOOHOO!!

 

[StreamlineGT]

Hand raked the entire hill today, put down 6 mil poly sheeting, and started moving crushed stone. The good thing about the poly, it that it is doubling as a cover for the storms we are supposed to get tonight and tomorrow. I called for concrete, and it will be delivered tomorrow at noon......

Also I took the frame down unintentionally with the tractor........ oops ........ the only casualty was the walk out door from the garage has a gouge in the door frame........ Oh well, filling and painting is the wife's job..

Time to rest........

Concrete poured, sonotubes cut down, anchor bolts installed....

Most of the framing and decking material showed up today also..

ProCell decking with a natural wood grain finish. I believe there are 64 of them.

ProCell is mostly PVC I think, which makes it stain resistant.

Small amounts of progress today, in preparation of a hopefully more productive day tomorrow. The tubes cut to grade, 6 mil poly trimmed, stone put down and graded. Framing tomorrow maybe....

Lots of layout and prep today. We got all the columns cut and up, and the main beam ready to put up. We would have put the beam up today, but the ties they sent us were the wrong ones. We hope to have the beam up tomorrow, along with a few joists.

Got a decent amount done today.

 

[StreamlineGT]

Today's progress:

Finished joist hangers, finished installing the last two joists, attached as much of the rim joist as we could before running out of 2x10's..

Started putting decking down. Holy Crap that's a lot of screws!! I did however make through a whole box of 350 screws before changing the battery, thanks to my new DeWalt impact driver. That thing is so sweet.

It has been a long time since I have worked on the deck, judging by the last thread, about 4 months.

Oh Well, these things happen. I think I am allergic to heat. Anyways, here is how the deck has looked for the past 4 minths or so......

I have been working on the stair landing pad for about a month now, very intermittently, but it is finally ready for some concrete. Basically just a big hole with some compacted stone underneath it. The stairs will be 6 feet wide, and a total of four steps high, and landing on an 8" thick pad of concrete, which will be full of rebar. Time to call Ready-mix!

Working on the deck railing system finally after being able to afford the one I wanted. Didn't get much done today, but did get most of the layout work done.

End of Day 1

Even had some company, some youngsters that have taken homage above the main beam.....

I have been working on this, I can prove it...... Got some more railing sections up, but now I am waiting on my contractor buddy to drop off the last 8' section, and to help set more posts.

See, not much left to do at all..

Here is a pic with a stair rail mocked up.

Almost done...

 

[don_w]

Nice!! I'm jealous of all the land around you, too.

 

[Hawgman]

Yea no kidding. I would love to be sitting in the middle of about 5 acres!


Man, you must be a real glutton for punishment. No way in hell I would be doing all this work. Some things are better off paying someone else to do (or at least in my case! )

 

[don_w]

Some things are better off paying someone else to do (or at least in my case! )

LOL... or everything! Like my whole house. hahahah

 

[StreamlineGT]

Nice!! I'm jealous of all the land around you, too.

Yea no kidding. I would love to be sitting in the middle of about 5 acres!

Thanks, I inherited it. There is 61 acres on this lot.

Man, you must be a real glutton for punishment. No way in hell I would be doing all this work. Some things are better off paying someone else to do (or at least in my case! )

Yeah, I don't mind doing it. The wife says she wants to do it, we can't afford to have someone do it, so the only other option is to do it ourselves. The wife is always good about letting me buy the tools to do it, and then I always have them.

 

[StreamlineGT]

I am planning on putting low voltage landscape lighting in all the new beds, and on the deck.

I am starting with the deck, because that is done first. I ordered the lights today, Kichler 15065WHT's, 9 of them. They will go halfway up the deck posts facing down, on all the posts with strings in them. They are only 7 watt, so I don't count on much light, but they will offer a good accent. They will be here next week.

Lights....

I recently put one of these at a customers, and I liked it. KIM lighting transformer, with 12-15 volt multi-tap to compensate for voltage drop, timer and photocell options, stainless housing, PIMP! SeaGull makes something similar, and I can get those from my distributor, so those are probably the ones I will end up with.

I plan on mounting these inside, next to the panels in the switchgear room

. The problem is that I have very little real estate left, and it is reserved for a transfer switch in the future. I have some wall left to the right of the panels, but the trough doesn't go that far, nor does the plywood.

I am taking down the sheetrock (like my taping job?), and adding a piece of plywood to match, as well as extending the trough another few feet. I may even finally get some acetone to get the sharpie marker off the cover... (damn supply house). This is all I got done tonight, but plan on getting ply and paint tomorrow.

I cut, mocked up and painted the plywood last night. This afternoon I put it up, along with a new gray switch and plate, to somewhat match rather than the white one. I also got the trough and the trough coupling I needed, so I put that up as well. I have a transformer, but I am going to have to figure out how many lights and how many transformers I am going to need so I can lay it out on the board so I don't waste space.

Bernie came over today and helped me fish the wires for the lights, and we got them all mounted. Brought out the 50mm F/1.8 for some pics.. There are eight total, 6 on the deck, and 2 on the stairs. I'll get better pics when it's light out.

Got the outside wiring done today, and was able to hook them up temporarily to see them. I'll have better pics when it is dark.

Night photos, it was tough trying to get an exposure that would look like it does in person, but I think I got it.

Ok, here's the plan. It's a rough sketch, but you'll get the idea.

I figured if I mounted all this stuff down low, it would hinder my ability to add anything later, so I came up with this. Mount all the transformers and control equipment up high, leaving plenty of real estate down low for more stuff.

Visio is da Bomb!!! I am still learning, I'm sure there was an easier way to do the things I did, but oh well. I moved the contactor and timeclock to a better location, so I can prevent crowding up top.

Working diligently..

All done, for now, until I get my 3 new transformers. The transformer I installed is used, taken off a job and repaired, and will not be the one I will ultimately end up with, but the new one will be identical.

Overview:

All the outdoor lighting will be handled by one contactor. The contactor is controlled by a wall switch (override off only), a time clock, and a photoelectric eye, in series. So all conditions must be met before the lights will turn on.

The wall switch is an override off only. This means I can't turn them on and leave them on, it is only for turning them off when they should normally be on if that makes sense.

The reason for the time clock and the photocell is so no matter when it gets dark, the lights will come on, and then go off at a preset time, the time clock is set for midnight. This is nice so I don't have to keep changing the on and off times when it gets darker increasingly earlier or later.

Contactor and timeclock.

Photoelectric eye. I will not divulge where it is, but it's not where it's supposed to be. It is only there because of asthetics, and it is not a safety issue, just some political crapola.

Finished product. The trough is already knocked out for the new transformers, so they are ready to install once I get them. I even have all the material to install them, so I may as well get them now, huh?

Last but not least, I still need to put that yellow piece of romex in pipe, it really looks out of place now.

 

[Hawgman]

Ya know.. I look at that, then go look at mine, and all I got to say is fuck you...

 

[don_w]

Ya know.. I look at that, then go look at mine, and all I got to say is fuck you...

 

[StreamlineGT]

Ya know.. I look at that, then go look at mine, and all I got to say is fuck you...

What does yours look like?? Pics pleeeez..

 

[StreamlineGT]

How about this one??

Or this one??

 

[WELLS]

All I Have To Say Is Fuck Yo' Deck Nigga!

 

[WELLS]

all I have is a window. but I do have a 16th floor roof top! watched the air show from there this year. me and some buddies drinking on the roof cheerin em on. one fucker flew over my building inverted that shit was awesome.

 

[ZmanM3]

Awesome job on the deck it looks good.

 

[StreamlineGT]

Ok, deck is done, except for a gate at the top of the stairs for when my daughter is old enough to fall down them. That will be engineered over the winter, and have an extra railing section to make it out of already, so in the spring that will be accomplished.