Well, almost. Started this a few weeks ago. My Dad and I are building it. He's 70 years old and he can still keep up with the best of them.

12'x28'
Azek decking (5/4" pvc decking)

Kids even got involved. My oldest was more interested in digging up bugs than helping with the footings


Time for some concrete - A little over 4-80lb bags per hole
No way I was mixing that by hand in a wheelbarrow. This was overkill but it was all they had at the rental place.


Footings are poured


Ledger board up


Floor joists every 12" inches...I think the house will fall down before the deck does


Joists and blocking in


She’s getting there


Here is the decking we're using. Don’t mind the tarp over the shed in the background. The shed is coming down once we finish the deck.


This weekend we'll put up the posts for the railing and hopefully have all the decking down. Also have to build a landing off the right side for the stairs

Need to finish some siding work. When we took the old porch down there were pieces of siding missing.

Plan to enclose the underside with white fascia and lattice so you won't see any of the pressure-treated framing.

 

Nice!!

 

Nice. I just built a deck and pergola earlier this summer. Pretty fun project.

 

Composite is nice. I had issues with Trex and mildew. Mostly because the deck we had sat on the north side of the house, didn't get enough sun exposure. So other than an annual scrub with a brush and a wee bit of bleach, that stuff was great.

 

I remember someone on the board mentioning it and after reading up we went with Azek. It's 100% PVC and the pros claim it won't stain, mold, mildew...

It's freakin expensive, ran me about $4/foot for 5/4" x 5 1/2" wide boards.

 

Yea, the stuff ain't cheap. But it'll outlast you and IMHO adds resale value to a house.

I contemplated doing one on our current home, but after I priced it out vs. a unilock patio, went with the unilock.

 

!

How did you secure the ledger board?

 

Very nice!

 

Nice, props for doing all the work yourself

 

Nice d*ck!

 

Good work.

I have a wooden deck now but when I redo it I will probably opt for composite. I agree with Scrib. I think it adds resale value.

 

Lag bolts approximately every 3' and 4" Timberlok screws every 32". You can see the silver lag bolts and the black screws in the picture above.

 

If you zoom in and look closely you will see his tattoo on his right arm that says mom.

 

Coming along nicely. Now hurry up and finish and come help me get 5 more yards of gravel into the back yard with the wheel barrow

 

I think the TSA will flag it in my checked luggage.

 

It says "TAKEN"

 

No, i have the gravel and wheel barrow. Just need someone to push the wheel barrow full of gravel to the back yard for me.

 

 

Decking is down. Railings have started. Stair landing started. Hopefully finish the stairs and railing this weekend. Then on to the fascia and lattice along the bottom.

 

Looks great! Good job!

 

That is going to be nice when you are finished.

 

Nice work

 

Looks great!

 

top notch sir.

 

nice job! any more updates?

 

Very nice work

 

Couple of updates. Railings are all done. Stairs are almost done. Fascia has started.

 

I like progress.

 

I spent a good deal of time getting the stair treads perfect (see pic above). I had seen that triangle design on the web somewhere and really liked the idea. Especially when the stringers run under the stairs and you end up with cut ends on the treads.

 

Looks great! I really like the steps; very unique .

 

Looks fantastic!! Great work...

 

Thanks JB. At updates to yours? Interested in the "filling" for those garage bays

 

Nice work!

 

looking great

 

^Said it first.

 

I'm curious. Was it a money issue that you decided to do a railing instead of a deckwide set of stairs that goes down into the grass?

Looks great! I wish I had the cajones to do something like that. The only manly thing I've done is to drink beer and tile my lanai!

 

Not at all. My main goals were to maximize seating area while minimizing the loss of yard. My kids are still young and they like to play out back. I needed a 4 step stringer on my deck which would have jutted out approx 3 1/2' into the yard. I would have either had to shorten the deck that much or had it jut out that additional amount which would have not been aesthetically pleasing.

I also wanted a good location to build a built in BBQ grill island. It will be in the front corner by the steps. Drawing plans to make it L-shaped.

 

So it's been just about 5 years since we built the deck and sadly Azek quality is not so great.
We get some pretty nasty sun in the afternoon that faded the decking.
If you look you'll see that only the 10' boards faded. My guess is a bad batch of pigment.
The stairs got severely scuffed up from the kid's soccer cleats.

The first two pics (with the cover on the table) show the fading. It's pretty bad.

So long story short, we found a product called DeckMax Revitalizer. It's a PVC deck restorer. It's not cheap but it claims to works.
I started by powerwashing the deck. I used one of those rotary scrubber attachments to really deep clean the boards. They have a wood-grain to them so it holds dirt.
After that I let it dry overnight.
Next morning I followed the instructions and applied a fairly wet coat of Deckmax with a microfiber pad.
I'll let the after pics prove it.
Like night and day.
Very happy with the results.
There is definitely a color variance between the 10' and 12' boards but at least Deckmax blended it in much better.

Click the pictures twice to zoom in.

 

Nice work. Though, if consistent, the alternating color pattern didn't look too bad either.

 

Nice! Is the Azek stuff the porous material or does it have a solid jacket around the top?