DIY Deck

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Eventually I got something I could tip up and would stand on its own. Here you can see all the members that comprise the truss.

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Once I knew how it would come together, I got the idea that a saw guide could be screwed to the workpiece to help me make a straight(er) cut.

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Now I had a repeatable process, I worked past sundown to finish enough components for all five trusses





On the next set of cuts I tried a different strategy. I put two boards on top of each other and set my cut depth to the thickness of the board plus a small amount. This left a "line" to cut along for the next pair of boards. This particular cut wasn't as easy to use a saw guide and was much shorter to let me more easily made freehand.

There were ten trusses, I worked on the last four as a group, some boards had two cuts, so this cut had to be repeated sixteen times. Having a repeatable process helped me be more consistent.

[BigV]

More posts, more blocks, more wedges, more trusses.

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Measure, measure, measure, cut--gussets.

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Five gussets on each side of each truss, glued and nailed in place. That's over a gallon of glue and over twenty-five pounds of nails.







This is a gusset at the end, but it shows the nails prominently.

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Hammered in but not hammered down.



I need to flip them over to get to the other side, here it is mid flip.



I made five of these, they took up a lot of space, heavy and awkward to deal with.

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The trusses rested on beams that extended perpendicularly from the house to the end of the roof. And by beam I mean one 2x4, twelve feet long. I decided to sister a 2x6, twelve feet long, to the original beam. I had to reconfigure a joist hangar to attach one end to the ledger board on the house (after and before)



This is where I attached it.



Then then I slotted in one end of the sister-beam.



And I was halfway there. Well, a quarter of the way, since I had to do the same on the other side.

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I got it connected on both ends, nailed it to the original along the length, liberally. You can see that they're not level with each other where I'll need to put a top plate for the trusses to rest on.





I decided to thin down the original (higher) board. I made a number of relief cuts and then knocked out the chunks.

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I applied this technique all along the beam where ever it was higher.





The board on top perpendicular to the beam will become the top plate for this beam.

[Clodfobble]

Your doggo is so skinny. Give that girl some treats!

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Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Your doggo is so skinny. Give that girl some treats!

Awww, thanks Clodfobble. You're right, Jack is super, super skinny. Was skinny, he died a few months ago, these are some of the last pictures we have of him trotting around doing dog work.

We loved him very much, I absolutely promise you he was not deprived in any way of any food or love or attention.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Did you have to Were you supposed to get a permit for this job?

Chisel off the mismatches in the concrete, fill the cracks, and astroturf. Walking, it would undulate like a real lawn.

This change in roof design will dump water off both sides instead of the back, isn't that where the foot traffic is?
Lots of stone to avoid pinning the blocks.
Man, that's a lot of work and expense... and you haven't even got the wind chimes up yet.
You Sir, are a glutton for punishment.

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Then topped it with the top plate, and nailed that one down too.



The other side wasn't nearly as misaligned.




Top plate (number two) installed.



Surprise, more nails. Nails through the top plate into both the original beam and the sister-beam.

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Here you can see how the old beam and the new beam were halfway supported by the original post. I replaced this post and all the other two original posts and added two new posts.



I attached a giant bracket to the top of the new 4x4 pressure treated post.



I jacked up the adjoining beam



This relieved the weight enough for me to pry the post from the beam.