Last month, we completed a beautiful new deck for a family in Seattle. Their old deck was too small and very poorly built to the point that it was unsafe. For their new deck they opted for two levels, with the upper level acting as a carport.
The owner happens to be a graphic designer so he was able to draft up a 3D representation showing exactly what he was after making our job that much easier:
3d image created by the homeowner using Google SketchUp
With a deck of this size, we were required to get a building permit, so we had an architect draw up blueprints for the city, and with permit in hand, we were eager to get started.
First step, get rid of the old deck:
out with the old…
To make a little more room for parking, we had some excavating to do:
Now we have a clean slate it’s time to start building, and a good deck needs a solid foundation:
Forms are set and ready for concrete
Altogether we had 19 footings which required 2 yards of concrete. That’s roughly 4 tons! Too much to mix by hand, so we ordered a pump truck:
And now it’s time to start framing. I like this part, because it’s where things start to really take shape.
When it came to choosing a surface material for the deck, we went back and forth. The owners really wanted to use a composite material because of the low maintenance and durability, but they really liked the look of cedar. Ultimately the decision came down to cost. With composite materials costing a minimum of 5x more than cedar, it was just going to be too costly.
The dog is happy to have access to the back yard again!
One of the big concerns going into the project, was that the family was hosting a baby shower at the end of the month. So we had to have the deck ready by then. This really left us plenty of time, but at the end the weather just wasn’t cooperating, and we had to keep postponing the staining of the deck. Finally we just couldn’t put it off anymore, so we covered the whole thing in plastic to let all the wood dry out, and waited for a break in the rain so we could start spraying.
The plastic kept the deck dry until we had a break in the weather to apply the stain
With the deck all wrapped up, all we could do was wait for the reain to stop, and with very little time to spare, it finally it did.
“woo-hoo! It’s Sunny!”
with the staining done, the deck was complete, and just in time for the much anticipated baby shower! The only problem was, the baby was born the day before the party(8 weeks early, but healthy)! Oh well, hopefully the family will host many other parties to take advantage of their beautiful deck in the future!
We used Timbertechs’ Dryspace to provide a dry space to park the cars. It installed easily, and it looks great.
Coming up: We’re installing a new heating system in a ski cabin which will have the ability to be controlled from the owner’s smart phone. I can’t wait to tell you about it in my next blog!
