Well this is the big one, the back deck. When we built the house I had always envisaged a deck hanging off the back in the grand plan, and it's going to be probably the biggest construction I have ever undertaken on my own. So let's build a deck!
As you can see from the plan below it's going to be quite substantial at 14 metres long by 5 metres wide. The deck also has two sets of steps, one large one to take the level down to the lawn area, and another smaller set of 3 steps to come up from the deck level to the rear entrance of the house.
Below shows the pegged outline of the deck to be built. Towards the far end the deck will run around the edge of the house to meet up with the existing side gate, and the stair will run down to the right to the lawn area. I'll run a ledger board along the edge of the house and run the joists 90 degrees out from there.
The first issue I have to deal with is the the over-pour from when the house slab was laid. Slab construction (as opposed to foundation and stumps) is extremely popular in Melbourne, and where we live was no exception, however it's not an exact science. If they've ordered more concrete than fits in the forms for the slab, they tend to just let it slop over the edge, leaving an over-pour, which becomes a nightmare for us deck builders.
As you can see from the photo below I have at least 50 cm of concrete hell to get through (that's 20 inches in the old scale) and I have no idea how deep it goes.
The whole over-pour has to go, as the council regulations won't let me lay a ledger board into the brickwork if there is a window present, and as can be seen in the top picture, I have a window present! Because of this I am regulated to attach the ledger board to the concrete slab. To achieve this I need to have a clean edge on the slab that I can bolt into, and the only way I can think to achieve that is with a concrete saw.
Once the edge was cut it was up to yours truly with the trusty electric jack-hammer to remove the actual concrete.
Marvellous (and heavy) though the jack-hammer is, I still had cause to get the mallet and cold-chisel out on occasion to help break the concrete away. The end result though was a lovely smooth surface across the entire back of the house.
Next up I need to dig some holes. In fact I need to dig 45 of them, not a job for the feint hearted.
As you can see from the plan below it's going to be quite substantial at 14 metres long by 5 metres wide. The deck also has two sets of steps, one large one to take the level down to the lawn area, and another smaller set of 3 steps to come up from the deck level to the rear entrance of the house.
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| The biggest thing I ever built was... |
Below shows the pegged outline of the deck to be built. Towards the far end the deck will run around the edge of the house to meet up with the existing side gate, and the stair will run down to the right to the lawn area. I'll run a ledger board along the edge of the house and run the joists 90 degrees out from there.
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| Adding some string lines makes it real |
The first issue I have to deal with is the the over-pour from when the house slab was laid. Slab construction (as opposed to foundation and stumps) is extremely popular in Melbourne, and where we live was no exception, however it's not an exact science. If they've ordered more concrete than fits in the forms for the slab, they tend to just let it slop over the edge, leaving an over-pour, which becomes a nightmare for us deck builders.
As you can see from the photo below I have at least 50 cm of concrete hell to get through (that's 20 inches in the old scale) and I have no idea how deep it goes.
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| 20 inches of concrete over-pour with an unknown depth |
The whole over-pour has to go, as the council regulations won't let me lay a ledger board into the brickwork if there is a window present, and as can be seen in the top picture, I have a window present! Because of this I am regulated to attach the ledger board to the concrete slab. To achieve this I need to have a clean edge on the slab that I can bolt into, and the only way I can think to achieve that is with a concrete saw.
The engineer who did the engineering assessment of the design for me luckily had some contacts in the cutting industry and I arranged to have the edge of the slab cut with a diamond wet saw. When the guy came he had a number of tools to choose from, but owing to the overhang of the window sill (see the right picture below) he opted for the hand-held, petrol powered one. Damn noisy it was too!
It did make quick work of the edge though, and he took the cut down as deep as the blade would allow. The closest he could get to the wall without damaging the render left about 100 mm of concrete edge sticking out from the wall with a hopefully clean cut down. From memory it cost around $300 to get complete.
Once the edge was cut it was up to yours truly with the trusty electric jack-hammer to remove the actual concrete.
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| I love heavy machinery |
After it was all cleaned up, I had an edge wide enough to take the ledger board (90 x 45 MGP 10 treated pine) and have it bolted straight into the concrete slab
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| The jack-hammer makes light work of a hard job |
Marvellous (and heavy) though the jack-hammer is, I still had cause to get the mallet and cold-chisel out on occasion to help break the concrete away. The end result though was a lovely smooth surface across the entire back of the house.
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| Conquered Concrete |
Next up I need to dig some holes. In fact I need to dig 45 of them, not a job for the feint hearted.
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