Now that I have a level, flat, solid surface upon which the deck boards can be affixed, let's get started. I knew I wanted cedar as the deck material. I love cedar. It's a dream to work with. Straight grained, easy to cut, rot resistant, fragrant, lovely grain patterns... yeah, I'm a fan. There are plenty of dimensions to choose from, we picked 5/4 x 6, mostly 8 footers. Back at the beginning of this process we saw the old deck had 2x4 material as the deck material. Super strong, but needed to not deflect across the very wide spans of the sleepers they laid as a "frame". This frame is a lot more substantial and has much shorter spans so a thinner deck board is sufficient. Now that I've been able to walk on it I can say it's solid--no deflection.
I wanted to have a different design from the standard straight boards, laid out straight--boring. Also, I knew there would be seams since getting boards that were long enough to span the whole deck, even across the short axis would be extra expensive. I have more time than money (boy does that come into play a lot...) so doing something beautiful and interesting with the shorter, less expensive material was the option I chose. There are a lot of stunning deck designs out there. I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of different decks and this basic design caught my eye, basketweave.
There are a number of advantages to this design. Minimal cuts, no miter cuts (though I did have to trim the ends at 45 degrees where the board extended beyond the edge of the deck), unusual, makes efficient use of 8 foot boards, plus I like it. Here we go.
I tested the pattern with a few fence boards and 2x6x12s I had laying around. Gorgeous, as you can see. This is the center of the deck, right in front of the doors. I like the image of having the arrow the boards create draw you out onto the deck and into the yard.
