Laying a deck

Since I was doing this Kwila deck last week, I thought I'd take some step by step photos that might help someone with the process.
Photo 1 - The old pine decking starts to come up. I use a wrecking bar or a couple of the smaller Stanley bars. Some old shadecloth used to drag a pile of boards away makes for fewer trips.

Photo 2 - It's almost all up. Just a pile of old t-nails to remove. I use Crescent brand end cutters for this.

Photo 3 - The exposed joists have been covered with rubber covers made for the job. This prolongs the life of the joists. I use a couple of 15mm structural ply sheets ripped in half as walking boards and a full sheet to keep tools I need near. So far a couple of spaced deck boards have been nailed down to register the other boards. In this case I left the 2 old edge boards temporarily in place because they were perfectly straight and set up a gap of 4280mm which was nearly perfectly 46 of 90mm boards with a 3mm gap. Every 6th board was nailed along a chalkline at a spacing of 558mm.

Photo 4 - Now it's just a matter of jamming the intervening 5 boards in between the ones nailed down and spacing them with an appropriate sized spacer, In this case I had a heap of old venetian blind slats that were 3mm thick that I could just break off. You'll need a blnt chisel to pry the gaps open sometimes.
to be continued...

Photo 5 - A note on organising the timber. When the timber arrives the first thing to do is dock one end square of all boards and mark it. Then stack it in piles of similar lengths. Picking from different piles as you go will generally keep 2 joints from appearing side by side on the deck. Pack in the 5 boards between the nailed down boards then with a piece of chalk or pencil, mark the deck board over the joist where it will be cut off and also mark board at the joist before where it will be cut too. Then start nailing the boards down from the edge of the deck towards the centre, stopping when you get to the first chalk mark. Lift up the excess end of the deck board and jam a short piece of decking under it on the keeper side (that's why you mark the second-to-last joist - if you nail it you can't flex the board up enough). With the saw set to just over the depth of the board and using a speed square (yellow stanley roofing square in photo 4) to guide the saw, cut the excess off leaving a square end half over the last joist. Cut all the remaining boards the same way making sure no joints will be side by side. Take another 5 boards and place them marked-end against the nailed boards - you should have a nice tight butt joint. Then repeat the process again.
Tip - hand nail with 50 x 2.8mm gal or stainless dome head timberlock nails (spiral shank) and use a #30 sheet metal drill with 19mm showing - you won't break many drill predrilling it this way.

Photo 6 Getting there
Photo 7,8,9. The excess over the edge is cut off. Ahh finished. Have a beer.

Hope this helps someone!

CHeers
Michael

Excellent Michael.
What was the reasoning on using Kwila ?
Do you think the rubber performs better than painting or malthoid or plastic or was it a case of just having it ?


As an aside for the many that aren't interested & seeing as it's probably topical at the moment with the number of fires around -

decks built in bushfire designated areas are required to -
in catagory 1 have a clearance of not less than 5mm between boards.
in cat. 2 the same plus fire retardant treated timber must be used
in cat. 3 the same as 2 plus all timber including balustrades must be fire retardant treated timber.
[ some species are naturally fire retardant & allowed without treating ]

Some great detail and heaps of tips there Michael - I wish you posted it a month or so ago:rolleyes: .

No guessing you've laid a few decks in your time.

Hello Peter
Kwila was specified by the client and it's an economical hardwearing timber although it does tend to be a bit brittle. What's your experience with decking types? I've had terrible experience with native hardwoods (underdimensioned etc) unless you get first quality stuff, which costs a bomb.
The rubber was a product I wanted to trial. It's easy to install and should last longer than paint (the paint on the exposed joists had deteriorated completely). It was $20 for 25m and there is also a wider one for bearers too.

Cheers
Michael

I used Merbau (which I believe is also known as Kwila) because it is on the list of timbers approved for use in category 1 building. It was also nearly half the price of local hardwoods.

I have a bucket full of wedges from hardwood decking offcuts. I put down every 5th or 6th board to a string line, cut all the intermediate boards to length and lay them out. Then I get the bucket of wedges and go along and gap them by eye, tapping in the wedges and jiggling them until the gaps are even. I keep going until the bucket is empty, then nail all the wedged boards down. Repeat until deck is done.

The reasoning behind it is that if you are slightly out with your spacing of the first boards you put down, you don't get to the last board in each 'bay' and have a gap that is inconsistent with the rest. They are also great for straightening warped boards as you nail them down. They are easy to pull out with a claw hammer if they get stuck.

Its good to see your not afraid of heights!
Thanks for sharing the tips.
Thats a very interesting deck design is it a private residence or a commercial job?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentC

The reasoning behind it is that if you are slightly out with your spacing of the first boards you put down, you don't get to the last board in each 'bay' and have a gap that is inconsistent with the rest. They are also great for straightening warped boards as you nail them down. They are easy to pull out with a claw hammer if they get stuck.

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wedges would also not drop through which would be an advantage. With this method, you don't get to the last board in the bay and find a bigger gap either. On the odd occasion there is a bit of slack, tapping in a chisel or a wedge at that point evens out the gap. If you measure accurately, the slack is usually only <1mm anyway and even though one or two spacers might be slightly slack, it makes no difference visually I've found.

Rather than measuring and cutting each board to length before installation, you should try this method of laying and cutting in situ - no measuring - much faster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

Its good to see your not afraid of heights!
Thanks for sharing the tips.
Thats a very interesting deck design is it a private residence or a commercial job?

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The walking boards make al the difference. It's a private residence

Cheers
Michael

Michael,

The deck looks great, on top of the joists you placed rubber strips. Does it come it different sizes and where is the best place in brisbane to get it.

I will be building a low lying deck 40m2 shortly with Kwila and some of the decking will be exposed to the weather so i would like to try some thing to protect the joists.

Cheers for the tips.

Quote:

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you should try this method of laying and cutting in situ

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Yeah ok, I'll give it a go. I've got some more to put down next year.

What I was doing was, say I had 5 bays to fill, I'd measure one and cut 5 the same. It's quicker than bay by bay but then you've got the overhead of measuring each one and walking backwards and forwards between the saw and the job (was using my SCMS).

My way is good if you have two people and you're using a coil nailer. I got my BIL to help. I went along and wedged the boards and he followed along with the coil nailer. It took us all day to lay out the bays and cut the boards but we nailed the lot down in about an hour. That was a verandah across the front of the house with two right angle turns. It took me as long to make a couple of front steps recently. Funny how such a small job can end up taking so long.

Thanks for the detail and suggestions plus photos. I am not at the decking stage yet, but will vlaue this even more when I come to that point.
Gratefully,
Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by groovemachine

Michael,

The deck looks great, on top of the joists you placed rubber strips. Does it come it different sizes and where is the best place in brisbane to get it.

I will be building a low lying deck 40m2 shortly with Kwila and some of the decking will be exposed to the weather so i would like to try some thing to protect the joists.

Cheers for the tips.

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Hi, the strips are available from Bunnings and they come in 2 sizes, for timber up to 50mm wide and a larger but I can't remember the size.

Cheers
Michael

Cheers

I'm using 100x50mm F14

The deck looks fantastic and your tips will be useful. I'd like to use the stainless steel dome head timberlock nails but bunnings only had galv timberlock. Any tips on where to pick some up?

I'm a bit confused about what you mean by cutting in situ. My intention was to set up the dropsaw next to the deck so i can lay out the planks, mark any cuts and hand them to my mate to make the cut. Is this what you mean, or am i missing something?

Thanks,
Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BustedThumbs

The deck looks fantastic and your tips will be useful. I'd like to use the stainless steel dome head timberlock nails but bunnings only had galv timberlock. Any tips on where to pick some up?

I'm a bit confused about what you mean by cutting in situ. My intention was to set up the dropsaw next to the deck so i can lay out the planks, mark any cuts and hand them to my mate to make the cut. Is this what you mean, or am i missing something?

Thanks,
Mike

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I get my nails from AAA Timber and Hardware at Sumner Pk, but it's not very convenient to Tamborine!

About cutting in situ. I mean the boards are layed out in the bay without any premeasuring or cutting. You will then mark the boards where they are to be cut off over the joist and also marked the boards at the joist before that, so you know not to nail that joist yet. Then you nail them down up to the first mark. Then you pack up the excess end of the board clear of the others and cut it off square with a circular saw. There is no overhead for placing boards, measuring, passing them to offsider, cutting them, relocating them in the correct position etc. The pre-docked end of the next board will be butted up against that one to give a nice tight joint and you repeat the process again.

Cheers
Michael