Timber Frame Hybrid Home - Owner Builder

[jk96]

Real curious how you are going to finish off your posts. Remember that air flow under a deck is the secret to how long it lasts. Water that gets through the deck boards will not evaporate from the sun because of how shaded it is under a deck, so air flow is the only way to keep the wood dry. Every deck that I have ever seen with walls around the base of it has had massive mold issues!!!!

Hey Eddie. By "finish off your posts" are you talking about the railings? Post are finished as is. I plan to use black iron railings between the posts and stone columns. As far as moisture you are absolutely correct. Mom has a beautiful cedar deck off the back of her house that is enclosed to the ground. It was built about 12 years ago and rot is starting to show up everywhere. In regards to ours, I made sure the grade had a pretty good slope. The right side of the deck when facing the front has about 10" of space from ground to lower fascia board. Front of the deck is about 12" sloping to 18". Left side of deck is 18". Obviously more is better but there should be pretty good airflow. You think more is needed? Frame is CCA, Facia Cedar, decking is composite.

Also anyone have any opinion on my method of attaching stringers to the fascia. See pics below. Could always run and get some metal brackets but had the leftover wood to go this route. Simply cut a a piece of cedar with notches for attaching to. Also provides about 3-1/2" of solid wood underneath the stringers for support. Just wondering if there is something I'm not thinking of going this route. Seems much more solid than angle brackets. Still need to tie stringers together with some blocking.

Jeremy

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Eddie. By "finish off your posts" are you talking about the railings?

I was wondering about the exposed block below where your rock starts.

I've never seen or tried using wood to support joist or stair stringers and don't know for sure how well or not they will work. My concern is with the wood splitting where the load rests on the wood. Joist hangers are cheap and proven to work, which is all I use for something like this. I'm a big fan of using metal brackets wherever I can.

On stairs, I always try to make each step 7 inches in height. But as long as each is the same height, that's what's most important. I also like to pour concrete for my bottom step, or have them resting on a concrete pad with good drainage.

 

[jk96]

I was wondering about the exposed block below where your rock starts.

I've never seen or tried using wood to support joist or stair stringers and don't know for sure how well or not they will work. My concern is with the wood splitting where the load rests on the wood. Joist hangers are cheap and proven to work, which is all I use for something like this. I'm a big fan of using metal brackets wherever I can.

On stairs, I always try to make each step 7 inches in height. But as long as each is the same height, that's what's most important. I also like to pour concrete for my bottom step, or have them resting on a concrete pad with good drainage.

For the exposed block I will run the stone on down to grade. We still have plenty left. I had the masons stop short until I could get the deck finished. The stringers would be anchored from the back of the rim into the joist and also through the side of the stringer into the plate I cut. The wood underneath would just be added security. For stairs I struggled with them a bit. 56" run to patio and only 18-1/2" rise. I wanted to run from the deck to the patio but my rise/run ratio left shallow deep steps. The stringers rest 4" into the concrete patio and will anchor stringers with PT 2x4 into the concrete. I ended up with 4 steps 15" deep by 4-5/8" tall.

Here's a better pic showing stair run to the patio.

 

[farmer2009]

Do you have any support under the second step? I would want something there. A shallower step wouldn't bother me but that's a long lever and not a lot of wood.

As you age you will appreciate the smaller step height. Looks good.

 

[jk96]

Do you have any support under the second step? I would want something there. A shallower step wouldn't bother me but that's a long lever and not a lot of wood.

As you age you will appreciate the smaller step height. Looks good.

Nothing has been anchored yet. Before I do I'll probably dig a couple of holes and support with a couple of treated 4x4 posts. One on the inside of each outer stringer.

 

[BitChin1]

Jeremy the biggest concern I would have with how you are attaching the top of the stringers is possible wood rot if it somehow traps moisture there - what species/treatment are the two boars that are attached together? For what its worth I attached my steps in a similar fashion - in my case the deck support board is 8 x 12 douglas fir (not extremely rot resistant) which was sealed and the ledger board is ground contact treated - we caulked the top where the two meet - also slightly sloped the treated board to assist water draining off. My ledger board spans between the two stringers (they are redwood) and I don't have the 3 stringer notches as you do (so only the top edge to potentially catch/trap water)

 

[jk96]

Jeremy the biggest concern I would have with how you are attaching the top of the stringers is possible wood rot if it somehow traps moisture there - what species/treatment are the two boars that are attached together? For what its worth I attached my steps in a similar fashion - in my case the deck support board is 8 x 12 douglas fir (not extremely rot resistant) which was sealed and the ledger board is ground contact treated - we caulked the top where the two meet - also slightly sloped the treated board to assist water draining off. My ledger board spans between the two stringers (they are redwood) and I don't have the 3 stringer notches as you do (so only the top edge to potentially catch/trap water)

Wood is red cedar so should be naturally rot resistant. I ended up using metal and ran a board underneath the stringers for added support. To be honest, I can't help to think that my original attachment method would support a whole lot more weight and point load than what the metal brackets will support. Plus they can't drop without moving forward. The support post on 1st step and pt board anchored into the patio keep that from happening. Not a big deal either way. We are talking about 20" of drop and not a 2nd story.

Deck is complete minus the railings and finishing the stone. I plan to use iron railings similar to what we used on the inside of the house with the idea to keep everything as simple as possible for future maintenance. I'm using the same guy for the outside as we did on the inside but it may be a few weeks. We were one of his first projects as he was just starting his company and was really slow with jobs. Now he's too busy to even come out and measure for a week or two which is really good to see. We talked a lot at the time about small businesses and running your own. I'm glad things are going well for him.

Here's a couple of finished pics. The cedar fascia will be the only thing that needs stained. To be honest I was questioning my decision going into the build of using vinyl siding and concrete patios. It has been so easy to clean and maintain that it made the decision to use composite decking an easy one.

 

[EddieWalker]

It came out beautiful. Love you attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship!!!! The view isn't bad either

 

[jk96]

Thanks Eddie. Good luck on the basement project. I'm sure it will turn out great regardless of the route you take.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Looking good. An ornamental iron bracket to hang a bird feeder would be great for the kids to enjoy and would look really nice.

If it were me, I would hang one out a few feet away from the porch to not get poop on the porch.

 

[jk96]

Looking good. An ornamental iron bracket to hang a bird feeder would be great for the kids to enjoy and would look really nice.

If it were me, I would hang one out a few feet away from the porch to not get poop on the porch.

Kyle my daughter would love that. She has been on me lately to get chickens. I told her we didn't have a chicken coup and she didn't miss a beat in asking me when we could start building it. She want's it done in time for spring.

 

[jk96]

The railings finally came in. Same company that did the handrails for the inside welded and installed these. It was a little tricky with the uneven stone but they turned out great. I'm happy to say that I'm not sure what the next project will be. This was officially the last thing on my to do list. Now its off to Moms place to wrap up her remodel. I'm just about finished with it as well.

 

[EddieWalker]

This was officially the last thing on my to do list.

Congratulations. Sometimes I think that I would enjoy being in a similar position, but realize that the best part of living out in the country is always having tons of things on my list to do!!!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I'm happy to say that I'm not sure what the next project will be. This was officially the last thing on my to do list. Now its off to Moms place to wrap up her remodel. I'm just about finished with it as well.

It'll be such a relief to be able to look around you home and NOT see anything hanging over your head that needs doing. Other than the day-to-day maintenance and such any rural home has that is. :laughing:

Thanks for sharing your build with us. It's a beauty! :thumbsup:

 

[deezler]

Jeremy. You linked this in the "should I get a contractor thread". Delightful to read through this entire thread again. Amazing job.

So, 6/7 years later, what would you change? Whats the few dumb and simple things that occasionally irk you about the design or features?

 

[jk96]

Jeremy. You linked this in the "should I get a contractor thread". Delightful to read through this entire thread again. Amazing job.

So, 6/7 years later, what would you change? Whats the few dumb and simple things that occasionally irk you about the design or features?

Man time flies doesn't it? Honestly not much if anything. I would still like to add my garage on the main level. My plans are designed for it but with kids hitting college now that will still have to wait. That was one thing we had to ax and move to the walkout basement to cut costs. At some point when the roof needs replaced I will go with metal. Again that was an option that budget didn't allow. For the fireplace if I had the chance at a do over I would have had them design it to tie the heat vents directly into my hvac return duct for better distribution. That's really about it. We love everything about the house and layout and would build the exact same house given the chance for a do-over. There isn't anything we have found yet that we wish we could change.

Edit: There is one thing. Under tile heat in the master bath floor.

 

[jk96]

Oh and no removable decorative window grids. The grids don't stay on well or gets bumped out of place easily from blinds on the Anderson 400 series windows we have. For our windows at our wedding venue we went with grids between the window panes for this reason.

 

[Pixguy]

Man time flies doesn't it? Honestly not much if anything. I would still like to add my garage on the main level. My plans are designed for it but with kids hitting college now that will still have to wait. That was one thing we had to ax and move to the walkout basement to cut costs. At some point when the roof needs replaced I will go with metal. Again that was an option that budget didn't allow. For the fireplace if I had the chance at a do over I would have had them design it to tie the heat vents directly into my hvac return duct for better distribution. That's really about it. We love everything about the house and layout and would build the exact same house given the chance for a do-over. There isn't anything we have found yet that we wish we could change.

Edit: There is one thing. Under tile heat in the master bath floor.

Yes! that tile is darn cold barefoot at 3am. We didn't make that mistake twice.

Oh and no removable decorative window grids. The grids don't stay on well or gets bumped out of place easily from blinds on the Anderson 400 series windows we have. For our windows at our wedding venue we went with grids between the window panes for this reason.

Hmm, didn't know we still had the choice. We have six over one with them sandwiched. A 400's are nice.

 

[deezler]

Man time flies doesn't it? Honestly not much if anything. I would still like to add my garage on the main level. My plans are designed for it but with kids hitting college now that will still have to wait. That was one thing we had to ax and move to the walkout basement to cut costs. At some point when the roof needs replaced I will go with metal. Again that was an option that budget didn't allow. For the fireplace if I had the chance at a do over I would have had them design it to tie the heat vents directly into my hvac return duct for better distribution. That's really about it. We love everything about the house and layout and would build the exact same house given the chance for a do-over. There isn't anything we have found yet that we wish we could change.

Edit: There is one thing. Under tile heat in the master bath floor.

Well that’s pretty phenomenal.

I built my house at the same time as you did, glad to say I also don't have many complaints. Our biggest one is probably lack of storage (no basement and small closets).

I always planned to go electric grid heat under tile in our master bath, but anti-stress mats in front of the sinks and rugs in front of toilets has proven cozy enough atop our exposed concrete slab. Our slab also has 4" of insulation under it, doesn't get too cold.

Hows your pond?

 

[jk96]

Well that’s pretty phenomenal.

I built my house at the same time as you did, glad to say I also don't have many complaints. Our biggest one is probably lack of storage (no basement and small closets).

I always planned to go electric grid heat under tile in our master bath, but anti-stress mats in front of the sinks and rugs in front of toilets has proven cozy enough atop our exposed concrete slab. Our slab also has 4" of insulation under it, doesn't get too cold.

Hows your pond?

A few things I learned a long time ago from a family friend who was in construction is that you can't have too much storage, too many outlets, and 3 ft doors everywhere you have room for them.

Pond is half full. Will know this spring if my work to increase runoff will keep it full or if I need to do some work on one of the two ravines to bring in some clay for sealing.