Deck Building, How To Plan your Deck
It’s spring and time to start building the deck you have always wanted but didn’t quite know where to start.
Here is a plan to to get you started on building your new back yard deck. This quick guide will give you some ideas and helpful tips on some of the options to consider before you start building your new deck.
Deck Building Steps
The first item of business is to envision what you are going to use your deck for then move on to where you will place it, how big do you make it, how much is it going to cost, what type of material will you build your deck with.
Once you’ve decided how your going to use your deck an easy way to come up with the size is to make some card board cut outs of the furniture and other accessories you will have on the deck, also estimate how many people will be using the deck at the same time.
Next decide where to place the deck. Will the deck be attached to the house or do you envision a free standing deck somewhere in the backyard?
Now it’s time to pick the material you will use to build your deck. There are many different types of wood and composite deck building material to choose from and your budget will determine what materials or combination of materials you will use.
Deck Building Material
These are some of the most common deck building material being used today:
Treated lumber, red wood, cedar, and the various composite decking material.
Here are some ways to use the different materials to build your deck.
The least expensive would be to build your deck entirely of treated lumber.
The next would be to use treated lumber for your post and deck framing, and use cedar, redwood or your choice composite for the deck boards, stairs and railings.
The deck plan that would cost the most would be to build entirely of red wood or cedar.
Another way to plan and build your deck is to use treated wood for your deck framing and use composite material for your deck boards, stairs and railings.
You can enhance the appearance of your deck if you use treated lumber for the framing and a composite for your decking, you can then cover the treated framing members with 5/4 composite material. In this way your deck will have a cleaner more professional look.
This option will likely be the most costly but you will have less maintenance in the long run.
At this time you should decide if you will want to add deck lighting, if you do then this is the time to do it.
If you add the deck lighting when you are building your deck it is easier to install and hide the wiring for the deck lights under the deck flooring and bring it up into the railing post and stair risers if you want to add step lights.
Hope this info was helpful,
Admin
In: Deck Building Systems · Tagged with: Deck Building, Deck Building Systems, How to Build a Deck Deck Plans