TO BUILD A DECK ..to Last a Lifetime
	JULY/AUGUST 2004

by Greg Badal
Photos by Brad Shifflett

I've been building decks for a number of years. Big B Lumber and Trex Company, Inc. have always been good and fair businesses. Besides providing great service on one hand and a great product on the other, the two of them made substantial contributions to the deck project shown in the article in providing the required Trex decking and framing materials.

In this article I will show you how to make a small deck. The process of doing this, as I describe it, is one of the great activities of life capable of delivering results that exceed the effort required. In other words, if you follow the steps carefully and learn from the set of tips I give at the end of the article, you can build something that will impress your friends and family members to a greater degree than the actual effort calls for.

...and that's the kind of payoff all of us are looking for, right?

The Deck of a Lifetime
One of the secrets of building a great-looking deck is to use a product called Trex for the decking material. I've been using Trex in my contracting business for six years — almost as long as the product has been on the market.

Trex is an amazing composite material that is made out of recycled wood and grocery bags. The material is treated and encapsulated in plastic. If you use Trex properly, you can create a deck out of this material that can last a lifetime, requiring little or no maintenance.

Decks made out of Trex never require sealing, staining, or painting. Colors are embossed into the very material so it can't wear off. Over years it will lose five percent of its color and then shade will be fixed forever. The color for the deck shown in the pictures is called "saddle."

Trex really is amazing building material! Decks I installed six years ago look just like the ones I am putting in today.

Trex comes in two widths — 1.5 inch or 1.25, called "five quarter" by building professionals.

Trex is easy material to work with. It is very pliable and, when heated, can be bent into curving or arching shapes.

(NOTE: Under most cases, trying to form Trex in these ways is best reserved for professionals. The material can be bent and molded in amazing ways, but unless you have a lot of tools and some experience with this sort of project, "don't try this at home," as they say.)

Step-by-Step to a Beautiful Deck
There are seven general steps in any simple deck-building project

Step 1 Mark locations for piers

1. Find Locations for Piers
Your deck will be built on piers, spaced at intervals of eight feet. You must mark the location of these pier locations from side-to-side and end-to-end.
If you are aligning the deck to the side of a building, here are the appropriate steps:

A. Come out from the building one-foot.
B. Mark the location of the side of the deck with spray paint.
C. Locate the site for each pre-formed pier block. Mark these eight feet to center (center-to-center). Keep them aligned parallel to house.
D. Set back from the house nine more feet and mark next row of piers

Step 2 Prepare the ground for the piers

Step 3 Construct the piers and level them across the tops

Step 4 Install floor joist

Step 5 Install mid-span blocks

2. Prepare the Ground for the Piers
With a flat shovel remove any growth or debris. Put in blocks sufficient to level the deck.

3. Construct the piers and Level Them Across the Tops.

A. Set the beam on the high-test beam block.
B. Set a carpenter's level on the beam and install 4 x 4 post shims to adjust the beam height and maintain level.
C. Continue from beam to beam, each eight feet.
D. Install post unto beam cap. The cap attaches from top of the pier post to the beam.

4. Install Floor Joists
Once piers and beans are installed and everything is level, install 2 X 6 floor joists, 16 inches on-center (center-to-center).

5. Install Mid-span Blocks
Insert 14 and 3/8 inch blocks between joists to maintain 16-inch center.

Mid-span blocks are inserted between each joist on top of each beam, to prevent the joist from rolling and maintain perfect 16-inch centers throughout the structure. (See the tip below.)

6. Install Bitchathane
Install bitchathane (self-sticking rubber under foil) on top each joist to protect against moisture.

If you're confused about this, I talk more about this is the "tips" section. If you don't recognize the name, just ask for it from Big ‘B.'

7. Cover Exposed Framing (optional)
Run a string line across the face of all the 2 x 8 joists to make sure they are perfectly straight and install a 2 x 8 facial board to cover all exposed framing.

NOTE: if the deck is over 18 inches at any point from ground to deck, install a handrail.

If you have to do railing, the posts must go in before continuing. (The railing system is complex, requires many tools. Call contractor.)
The trim board put around the perimeter to cover all the framing is called facia and must be applied on three exposed sides. I usually make this out of spruce, to give me the best paintable surface.

Step 6 Install Bitchathane

Step 7 Cover exposed framing (optional)

Step 8 Install the Trex decking

You can skip the facia step, but adding it serves to strengthen the structure by keeping the ends of the joists from twisting.

8. Install Trex Decking
Before laying the Trex, square cut (square up with your saw) one edge of each deck board.

Install the first row of boards, but don't trim the ends yet. Permit any excess to overhang the edge of the deck.

NOTE: Be sure to use proper screws with your Trex decking. (See the tip about this below.)

Trex is a wonderful building material, but the material expands with heat and water. So while installing your deck boards, maintain 1/4 inch spacing between boards for draining, expansion, and contraction.

Once all the deck boards are installed, trim off the excess by snapping a chalk line across the ends.

NOTE: Make sure to set the clearance of your saw for no more than the depth of your deck board.

Tips from a Master Builder
The following tips will help you to avoid problems that would result in a poorly constructed deck. Some of these would not be used by a low-quality contractor. These are ‘master' tips. Follow these tips on your way to excellence.

1. Prepare location for the piers and deck.
Clear all debris and landscaping. The growth of vegetation will prematurely deteriorate the deck.

2. Use standard measurements.
For example, using 2 X 6 floor joists, 16 inches on-center permits you to optimize standard lumber sizes and greatly reduces the need for cutting and fitting pieces together.

3. Provide additional strengthening.
Many laypeople and even some shoddy contractors fail to insert mid-span blocks between each joist on top of each beam. However, having these things in place serves to increase the structural integrity of a deck in a sometimes-dramatic fashion. The blocks give the deck a solid feel — and especially reduces future expensive repairs since the deck resists becoming mal-formed by unusual strains or weights that it might be called upon to bear.

4. Use Bitchathane on top of all joists
Bitchathane is the slang term for Grace Ice & Water Shield®. The actual product is a foil-covered rubber membrane with a sticky back, slightly soft, a bit stretchy, sticky enough on the front and very sticky on the back. The proper name of this material is Bituthene®, but it seems to be universally known to the trade as "bitchathane." (I didn't know until I researched this article what the real name was!)

This is a good tip. Many buildings omit this because some of the don't know about it and others aren't interested in protecting their client's investment. But this stuff greatly prolongs the life of any deck.

5. Use galvanized nails for all framing.
Don't cut corners a this point. Your wonderful last-a-lifetime deck will fall right apart in a few years if your cheap metal screws rust away.

6. Use appropriate screws to fasten the Trex decking.
There's only one choice here — counter-sunk screws, sold under the name "Composite Deck Screw."

Accept no substitute. And remember, nobody ever nailed deck boards into place without regretting it later.

7. Keep seams straight.
Insert a 16-penny galvanized nail in between deck boards for every joist.
This is a simple and effective tip for providing the 1/4 inch spacing between the boards in the deck and forcing them into a perfectly straight line.

Don't pound these into anything, just set them in place and remove them when the decking is in place.

8. Re-check alignment of deck boards.
When the decking reaches mid-point, re-check the over-all width from side to side. Many home-improvement amateurs have skipped this step only to reach the other side and discover that the deck boards strayed as much as two inches off plumb.

9. Don't put the deck too close to ground.
Building a dick without a minimum three inches clearance from the ground prevents the ventilation required to keep wood dry and inevitably leads to wood rot.

10. Use pressure treated wood for all under-structures.
This is another point where saving dollars now will lead to hundreds of dollars worth of repair in the future.

11. Avoid attaching a deck to a building.
You might avoid a lot of code problems when you observe this because the deck is then a detached structure and, for example, may be excluded from any termite report when you sell your house.

Leave at least 3/4 inch between building and deck.

12. Use flashing.
If you do attach the deck to a building you must use flashing, aluminum or galvanized, seal it with bitchathane, and install trim with a 10-degree water bevel on top. Maintain caulking on top of the trim to maintain watertight.

NOTE: Be aware that in many cases you must get a building permit for an attached deck.