Building a Deck, part 4

With the frame in place it is time to mark for the joists. Start from the inside edge of one of the outside frame supports. You really can go at whatever spacing that you want, but you do not want to go any wider than 16 inches. You can make the spacing smaller than that if you are concerned about the strength of the deck.

When you are picking up the wood for your joists, let the building supply store know that you are looking for joist material. They usually sell joists that have a slight curve along one of the thinner edges. This "crown" gives the joist extra strength for the decking and weight to come. Make sure you are installing the joists with the crown facing up. Install the joist hangers with the same interior edge against the mark you made for your spacing. This way you can make sure that the spacing stays uniform. With your hangers in place, you can install your joists with the crown up and nail it in place.

It may seem that placing the deckboards would be pretty straight-forward, but there are actually a number of different options. You must decide which type of board you are finally going to go with, and if you are going to use a pattern. You can lay the boards directly across the deck in a purely functional way, which is probably what most of use would do. You can also go diagonal. This will take more wood, normally, and a bit more time, but it sure looks nice. There are several different designs that you can come up with. This is going to be your deck, and its your time, this is where you can insert some of your own style.

For writing sake I'll be doing the standard straight-across style of boards. Cut the first board exactly the width of your deck. This is mostly done if the deck is up close to the house since you won't have the space to cut it. Figure out the spacing that you want in between the boards, 1/8 of an inch is normal. You can usually find something to use as a spacer.

The boards other than the first one should actually run a little long. You can usually get a better, cleaner edge if you cut it with a circular saw.You can also often avoid splits in the wood by leaving the boards a bit long. You may want to condsider predrilling if you find that you are running into this problem. You may choose to use wood-deck screws instead of nails.

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