Deck building. Laying in the ledger and joists

Now that the main bearers are down it's time to turn attentions to the ledger board.

As previously posted a fair amount of preparation had to be done for the ledger board for structural reasons. The ledger is required because I couldn't get in close enough to the house to dig post holes due to all the concrete over-pour in the ground from the house slab foundations. The additional engineering complication was due to the window. The local building regulations don't allow the ledger to be put into the bricks under a window, so the ledger had to be bolted into the slab, hence all the prep work.

The floor joists will connect into the ledger using Pryda joist hangers, and to enable this, the bottom of the ledger board needs to line up with the top of the bearers. 

The big question is, what do you use to hold up the piece of timber for the ledger, and keep it level against a flat concrete surface, while you are trying to drill and bolt it down, when there is only a few centimetres clearance? The answer? Whatever you can find laying around!

I used a couple of methods to help. First I marked up and drilled the holes in the ledger timber where the bolts would go. I then clamped a couple of joists to the bearers so they can "push" the ledger against the wall. Next up I grabbed whatever bits of flotsam and jetsam I could find to prop up the ledger timber, all the while keeping it level. Finally I used the product with a million and one uses, which according to Myth Busters is mankind's greatest invention, duct tape, which I use to hold it all in place. Is there nothing duct tape can't do!?

Below you can see the final assembled rig propped up and ready to be drilled.

Is there nothing duct tape can't do?

Once everything was held stable I drilled through the two end holes far enough to mark the slab, and then removed everything. Next I drilled the full holes into the slab using a hammer-drive drill and tungsten carbide bit, down to the appropriate depth, then cleaned them out and fitted in M12 Loxsin's.

Here's a tip for cleaning out the dust from drilled holes in concrete. There's no need for canned air or specialist tools, just grab a decent length of 6 mm poly garden drip hose, put one end in the hole, and the other end in your mouth, then blow! It works like a charm, just watch out you don't get it in your eyes if you're looking down the hole!

With the loxin's fitted in place I bolted on the ledger using the two end bolts, drilled the rest of the holes, removed the board, cleaned the holes, and fitted the rest of the loxin's. 

Before doing the final fit of the board I covered the inside with 110 mm malthoid flashing (per council requirements) then bolted it into the slab with M12 bolts and washers. Lastly I ran a strip of 45 mm Protectadeck stripping along the top and the job was done.

Ledger board loaded

On the "right" side of the deck the ledger board needs to be a little wider owing to the slab section of the landing being slightly lower so I used 110 x 45 MGP 10 treated pine for this section. Using the same methodology as the previous ledger section, I bolted it in as shown below.

A wider ledger was required for the landing

Now that the bearers and ledger are in place I can start laying in the floor joists. Below shows the plan for the joists.

Joist layout

The joists are 90 x 45 MGP 10 treated pine, and there's a lot of them! 33 to be exact. I'm using Pryda joist straps to hold them down, alternating left and right down the joists, and fixing with galvanised clouts. Below I am starting to lay them out.

So excited by joists!

I was so excited to see the joists go down! What can I say, I'm easily excited. The deck is now really starting to look like something. Slowly but surely the joists are creeping along the length of the deck.

Slowly the deck grows

The problem is however, I got so carried away with laying joists that I forgot a very important part. Laying the Protectadeck bearer protection strip along the top of the bearer! It had completely slipped my mind! What to do? Well....I could rip up all the joists I had laid and then put the strip down.....or not? I chose not. 

So I started laying the strip down from the point where I remembered! I'll fix it later somehow.

The joists continue ... with the strip installed

Eventually I hit the halfway point! You can see in the photo below one of the 300 mm noggins I made out of scrap up to help space the joists. I'd lay the next joist down, place the noggin in between it and the previous one, clamp across the noggin, and then fit the joist strap. Some of the joists were a little warped, so fitting the noggin and then clamping at either on the top or bottom (depending on the direction of the twist) of the joist would help straighten it out.

Inch by inch, row by row, one half to go

Using this space, clamp, fit and nail manufacturing like process, I quickly progressed to beyond half way and started moving towards the end.

Panorama. The progress so far.

Joist by joist, strap by strap, nail by nail. Looking ahead, below is where the stairs from the deck will lead down to the lawn area.

Getting closer

Eventually it was all done! There ended up being 35 joists in all, not 33, as I hadn't allowed for fitting around the down pipe near the door, and also I hadn't allowed for attaching a joist to the end of the ledger board which wasn't going to work, so I did have to juggle those around a bit.

Finished!

Next up I have to build the landing and steps for the back door. I've never done steps before, so this will be a new adventure!

The Pain of Dealing with Local Government Bureaucracy!

So let me tell you about this tree we had, and how it relates to the decking to be built.

As I said in an earlier post, all of the "trees of significance" in the housing estate are under a "heritage protection layer" which is managed by the local council. What this means is that if you do anything to any of those trees the council will come down on you like a ton-of-bricks and fine you using a formula based on the thickness of the branches you have cut on any of these trees. There is also an inspection regime, where the council can come onto your property every couple of years and check the trees to make sure you are looking after them. It's a pretty tight (and in my opinion draconian) regime that is meant to stop speculators buying up blocks of land that have trees, cutting them down, and then selling them again for more than they brought them. The fine system makes it prohibitive (and strangled in council red tape) to do so.

Now we had an issue that one of the trees on the property was dead. 

One Dead Tree

It wasn't just pinin'! Its passed on! This tree was no more! The tree has ceased to be! It had expired and gone to meet 'is maker! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! Its kicked the bucket and shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-TREE!! 

Not so according to the council. To them it's a "protected" dead tree.

Now in order to get a "protected" dead tree "unprotected" you have to go through a number of hoops. First up you have to get an arborist report to confirm that the tree is in fact "dead". We used an arborist recommended by the council as I thought it would smooth the waters if it came from someone they were used to dealing with. While the arborist was at it, I got him to check the large Cypress, as in order to build the back deck I was going to need to trim the lower branches of the tree, so I may as well put both trees on the request. One inspection to remove the dead tree, one to trim the other. $300 per tree.

Cha-ching! Arborist report = $600. 
Then lodge a planning permit with the council. 
Cha-ching! Planning permit = $500. 
Attached to the planning permit needs to be the tree removal permit. 
Cha-ching! Tree removal permit = $150. 

So I am going to be out $1,250 without even putting a saw to the tree yet! This is just for permission to put the saw to a dead tree.

After all the permits were lodged the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months. Checking with the council at least on a weekly basis, I was given the standard line "the application is being assessed". 

Finally after six months the council came back to me:

Council Officer - "What's this about a deck?"
Me - "What deck?"
Council Officer - "Your arborists report refers to building a deck"
Me - "It does?"
Council Officer - "Yes, your request to prune the large cypress tree states that you want to trim the lower branches to enable to construction of said deck"
Me - "So it does! What does that mean for getting rid of the dead tree?"
Council Officer - "Well you'll need to amend the planning permit and include details on the construction of the deck"
Me - "What kind of details?"
Council Officer - "It will require all the planning and construction details, what it's going to be made of, where it's going to sit, where the post holes are, how it's attached to the dwelling etc. all in triplicate with the amended permit fee" (Cha-ching!) 
Me - "$&@K!" (after I got off the phone of course)

You see I wasn't actually there when the arborist came around to inspect the tree, my wife was. When the arborist asked why we wanted to remove the lower branches of the cypress tree she unknowingly responded "so we can build a deck", which the arborist duly noted and included on the report, which I didn't read in any great detail. Silly me.

To cut a very tortuous story shorter, four more months went by after creating plans and lodging more requests, and over $2,000 spent, I finally got the planning permit from the council to:

1. Remove the dead tree (yay! "but must be replaced with a similar cypress species" boo!)
2. Prune the lower branches of the large cypress ("but only by a qualified arborist")
3. Permission from the planning department to build the back deck within the protected tree zone ("but a building permit would be required from the building department" and a whole bunch of other conditions about protecting the tree roots etc.) 

HALELUYA!

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