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Building a deck is an excellent
way to extend the living space of your home, albeit on the outside of the
home. Building a wood deck starts with planning and evaluating some
important considerations, regardless if your hiring a professional
contractor or building it yourself. Start your deck planning well in advance
of actually pulling out the hammer and buying lumber. A deck should be both
aesthetically attractive and functional. It should also complement the home
and not dwarf it. In this article I review 5 considerations for building a
wood deck that you should evaluate carefully.
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First, choose the location and size of your wood deck carefully. It’s
important that the deck be located near an ingress/egress of the home,
preferably a back or side door where family and friends can easily access
it. It should also be of a proportion that is adequate for its expected
needs but not so large that it appears to consume the home.
Second, consider how you plan to use your deck and its expected frequency of
use. If you plan to host outdoor parties on a regular basis you may want to
make it larger and use more durable decking material. You’ll also want to do
the same if you plan to include a hot tub in the deck design. In addition,
consider where you’ll locate the grill and barbeque cooking area and make
sure gas and/or electric hookups are nearby. If you plan to use it at night,
consider incorporating into the wood deck design lighting and heating. Also,
consider incorporating privacy features such as lattice work into the deck
design, or shrubs located near it to block out the views of and from the
neighbors.
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Third, based upon your planned use of the deck, again carefully consider
the size of the deck. Building a wood deck costs a small fortune so you
may want to limit its size simply from a budget perspective. Also, again
you don’t want to build a deck that is out of proportion with the rest
of the home. All this said, how you expect to use the deck should
dominate your thought process on determining the necessary size of it.
If you do have to make a large deck based upon its expected use,
consider a couple of tiers. That’s one of the nice advantages of
building a wood deck. For example have the barbeque and dining area on
one tier and then the lounging area on another. |
The forth area to consider when building a wood deck is the types of
construction materials. The structural members should consist of concrete
pillars and water resistant framing members. The concrete pillar footings should
be located below the frost line for your climate area to ensure the deck does
not heave or sink. The size of the footing pads may need to be larger if the
deck will be sitting on sandy soil. Also, if building a wood deck with pressure
treated or Mahogany decking make sure to use pressure treated lumber for the
structural framing.
| For deck posts you’ll have to use 4x4 or 6x6 posts
depending upon the size of the deck and how high it sits above the
ground. Check with your local building inspector to see what is
necessary for the size of deck you’re building. The deck floor joists
should be spaced on either 16 or 12 inch centers. Though 24 inches may
be “legal” I highly recommend not spacing the deck joists that far
apart. Spacings this wide inevitably leads to sagging of deck boards
between the joists spans unless you’re using 2 inch thick decking
lumber. |
Photo by Mark Donovan |
The fifth and final consideration when building a wood deck is to determine
if you should hire a professional deck builder or do it yourself. Building a
wood deck takes some carpentry skills to do it right and requires some brawn,
particularly if the deck is to be elevated significantly off of the ground.
Also, tying it into the home requires some house siding skills. In addition,
you’ll require a building permit. Whether you decided to build the deck yourself
or hire a contractor one of you will have to pull the permit. Figure out who
will do this before starting the wood deck construction. As part of pulling the
construction permit you’ll need to provide a complete set of construction plans.
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For more help on Building a Deck, see HomeAdditionPlus.com's
Deck Installation Bid Sheet.
The
Deck Installation Bid Sheet
will teach your how to hire the right deck contractor, and help to ensure that your
deck project is completed on time and budget.
How to Finance your Deck Project -
can help provide funds for your new home improvement project if financing is
required.
Related Information
Deck Installation Tools from Amazon.com
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