Back Deck

[DennisFolsom]

Do you get water in your basement? Is that the problem?

I had a shrinkage crack in my 60 ft long basement wall. (I should have known better and provided a waterproof joint. I am a civil engineer. I designed the house and I was my own prime contractor.) I have chisled out a groove on both the inside and the outside. I filled the grooves with hydraulic cement, then coated with DryLock on the inside and on the outside above the ground line. Below the ground line, I covered the repaired crack generously with the sticky asphalt and a layer of heavy felt paper. Since doing the repair work, I have had no more trouble with water coming in the basement, even in the heaviest downpours. Also, my foundation drain is working well. I keep the outlet clear. It runs a bit, even in dry weather.

The lawn area adjoining the deck is relatively flat, but does have a slight slope away. I may do some fine-tuning on that, too, before I'm done.

I'm working on sloping the gravel now. I'm giving it about 3 inches of slope in 8 ft. You may well be right that the slope and a gravel or stone layer is all I need. My wife is convinced that we need the plastic to keep weeds and grass from growing into it.

In this situation, the 6 mil plastic will be covered with 2 inches of gravel and will be under the deck. There shouldn't be enough sun baking to bother it.

Thanks, again for your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[jomar215]

Meh, plastic would be cheap assurance, at that point. Good work on the foundation crack repair. You're doing a good job .... I'm looking forward to more pictures of your progress.

 

[DennisFolsom]

Here is an update on my progress:
I finished installing backers between the joists in the basement. it was great to be able to work in the cool basement during this hot weather, even though I did have to unload my lumber rack to gain access.

I laid the plastic sheeting (see 1st photo). My wife and I spread and graded approximately 2" of gravel over the sheeting (see 2nd photo). The tractor was very handy for distributing the gravel so that raking and shoveling was reduced.

I finalized the order for framing lumber and had it delivered near the work area (see 3rd photo). I met with the Hammond Lumber sales rep about 10 AM, and it was delivered about 2 PM the same day!

I assembled and installed the longer beam (28 ft). I staggered the joints and put 32 screws into each joint. I also put sets of screws about every 18" along the beam. I have the leveled the beam with shims, adjusted the brackets, and tightened everything down. I have installed the ledger/1st joist at the garage end. I have also made and installed the spacers over the copper flashing. (See 4th photo)

I had to get a bit creative where my beam attaches to the garage (See 5th photo). I have a propane gas line running through there and a satellite TV cable. I cut a 45 degree piece off the top of the beam end. I also had to shorten the double joist hanger to stay under the gas line. I drilled an extra pair of screw holes in the hanger to make up for the two that I cut off. Previously, I had installed a backer in the garage wall to provide more for the screws to bite into. I used 2.5" screws here. The TV cable wasn't much of an issue, it slipped below the sheathing, around the end of the beam.

For various reasons, I'm not quite so far along as I had hoped I would be at this time. However, I'm stll making progress. I'll be installing the second ledger along the house next.

 

[jomar215]

Hammond Lumber?? Where are you Dennis?

 

[DennisFolsom]

I'm in the southeast corner of Readfield. I'm less than 10 miles from Hammond's Belgrade store.

 

[jomar215]

Ha, I'm 1 mile from their Brunswick store. Good folks over there. Well, it sure is a nice day to be in Maine, eh! Enjoy.

 

[DennisFolsom]

With work and various other interruptions, progress is still kinda slow on my deck project. However, I did get the ledgers finished and have started installing joists. The first photo shows where I left off today.

The second photo shows the jig I made for installing joist hangers. I screw the jig to the ledger at the point I have marked. I then wrap the hanger around the jig and screw it into place. Next, I drop the joist in. The jig makes it easier to mount the hangers consistently. So far, I've only had one joist that was low enough that I needed to shim it. For whatever reason, that one was about 1/8" narrower than the others.

The third photo shows where I notched the ledgers on the bottom side for the dryer vent. I am planning to frame a hatch in the deck to provide access to clean the vent. I also will have a downspout connected to a 4" pipe that will run to the outside of the deck. The downspout will be right next to the dryer vent. To complicate matters further, one of my double joists (for a joint in the decking) also comes into the same area. I have a scheme in mind for how I will frame all this. Hopefully, I'll have that done tomorrow, and will post a photo then.

I am hoping to get in most of tomorrow on the deck.

 

[DennisFolsom]

Back deck taking shape!

I got in a good day today. I worked until 8 PM. The first photo shows that I now have all the joists in for the 8 ft wide section and have installed the beam for the 12 ft wide section. I need to trim both ends of the 2nd beam.

The second photo shows the framing around my hatch for maintaining the dryer vent.

The third photo shows the section that will get the 12 ft joists.

 

[MarkV]

Dennis I don't know if you are subject to permits and inspections where you are so this may not matter. Where I am after a few decks collapsed with large groups of people on them the inspectors got real picky about using screws on joist hangers. Screws don't have the shear strength that joist hanger nails have so that is their issue. I think there are some screws now that are rated for hangers but I have never used them. Personally I don't think you have a problem but I thought I would mention it in case it applied in your situation.

MarkV

 

[icreate]

If I understand your problem correctly would it not be better to shorten the deck to 40' and patch the 3 inch gap on the house siding than to fix it by extending every piece of decking?