DIY Deck Building Tips and Trade Secrets | 1880s Farm House EP12

[Music] this time on reality renault vision so remember how i usually preach when you're doing a project uh make a plan and stick to it well we broke our plan this is gonna be a lot sexier this is so exciting this is next to watching paint dry that's really pretty i love it that didn't look like it came out like it's supposed to but this works no no no no safety second production first i feel like the nature boy rick flair oh completing i don't think this house has had a single permit since 1880 wow hey shovel yes sir i'm gonna have to open all this up this is the fun part oh holy crap that seemed dangerous 800 square feet outdoor living space perfect every time [Music] [Music] okay so the patio is coming along we're just waiting for the delivery of our stone of course nowadays supply chain issues everything just takes a couple extra days so while we're waiting our cedar has arrived we're going to peel apart this old deck install some new posts for hand rails and upgrade everything from pressure treated the cedar because we're doing a really nice outdoor patio it's worth the investment to upgrade the cedar and this deck it's in really you know it's in strong condition but it's it's a really basic simple thing we're going to take off these rims because this is decorative this is just like an edging right so this is designed just to to cover all of the exposed boards dress it up a little bit we'll peel it back to the original frame we're gonna finish all the rebuild before we get busy with the three season porch i think it's necessary to just take advantage of the the weight that we have here and get this carpentry project out of the way this board here it's just rotten now it's time for something new and of course i'm renovating my 1880s farmhouse and so what we're going to do here is take all of this apart back to the original frame we're going to install cedar let's get into this resist the temptation to try to look like tv show uninstall your hardware all right this stuff is designed to be structural it'll keep a grown man running full steam into that railing from falling off you're not going to be able to just tear it apart with a sledgehammer if you're planning on reusing anything take the time to remove it carefully we're not so i don't care third tip there's anything recyclable that you can keep or give to somebody else do it be smart the environmental thank you make sure you use the right tool for the job most decks can be removed and reinstalled and built completely with just a few basic tools like a hammer a decent pry bar and a skill saw and listen if you're not used to working with power tools wear some safety glasses use your head but if you're like me and you're used to your power tools you know exactly what they're going to do safety second production first and i don't care what anybody says when it comes time to remove your deck boards bigger is better bad boy like this is about 30 bucks you can get at the seasonal department at the home depot for best results you can get something like this power of a lever nothing like grade 5 science class remember if somebody else installed the deck with screws instead of nails try backing out the screws as much as possible make your life a lot easier make sure that you do it right don't let water get in behind by taking your house wrap after you put on your ledger board okay install it also if you have any tears or rips fix that while you're at it now remember we're talking about a water diversion system here not a waterproofing system okay there are technologies out there that you can waterproof the exterior of your house this is not one of them this technology simply allows and diverts water down the wall surface and overall of your structure so that your structure stays dry that is the number one key component to any house keeping your structure dry until you've satisfied that requirement there's no sense investing money renovating because it's all going to get eaten by the bugs anyway i do not hammer like that all right i feel like my son trying to learn how to use a hammer when i stand there on my butt trying to hammer now i'll take the grinder any day of the week max this is something that you want to maintain with your pressure washer as well give it a quick blow a couple of times a year to keep all the dirt and debris and leaves and that sort of stuff piling up in there oh completing i need some electrical tape there we go good as new [Music] huh see when you trap organics you trap moisture and then in the wintertime that freezes it leaves the wood staying wet [Music] now that is not the picture of confidence and what you're doing [Music] oh god i love the smell of cedar in the morning not as bad as you thought it'd be egg it's all about the tool buddy step on that and then step on that [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] next quick tip is all about the right tool for the job we've got three different hand tools here for pulling nails this one i love for electrical staples can also be used for this scenario now it takes a fair amount of grip here but this is going to protect you from these nails flying as compared to the hammer which the nail is here but the lever is way back here so that reduces your strength by more than half consequently again crescent tools look at this all the levers in one little point this is six inches longer than a hammer piece of cake yeah anyway try that one buddy it's a long day pulling nails but that'll make it a lot easier right that's ridiculous then you don't have to squeeze the whole the tool the whole time you ride in a knock wow give her help you'll win [Music] that's awesome if you put your power cord over your neck and then you cut you can shorten up the length so that the cord isn't dangling in front of the blade i feel like the nature boy rick flair [Music] when you're doing off when you're doing off cuts on your deck always cut from the top down that'll help keep your blade from binding if you cut from the bottom up you're running the risk of everything getting caught up on each other all right now remember one of my other tips for you is all about the storing and maintenance of your wood when you get it delivered have it stacked neat and tidy on cross bracing underneath so that everything stays nice and flat and don't just put it to here put it all the way to the base all right now and that gives me a lot more strength because now i have framing underneath and in the middle and at the top where the rail goes so i've got three locations where this is all attached together and that gives it no ability to move around in any direction okay it's the strongest it's the cleanest it's the sexiest and yeah you're going to spend a little bit more money on wood but at the end of the day this is a 50-year situation this is only 20 because it traps moisture introducing the new camo drive system okay now the secret of course is in the screw all right there's no screw tip it's been cut off and so the tip of that actually bores into the wood and so what that does is that pre-drills the hole basically as it's screwing in and so it doesn't split the wood you can use this right up to the end of the board [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's the spot [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right so in previous live videos we've showed you how to take a two by four screw it on an angle the pressure board shut and that works but it's time consuming this tool is actually designed to do the same thing it's a compression tool and you just use this wheel to manipulate the board shut so matt you can set the set the foot on there okay and then i'll just close the board up can you drive all right piece of cake and that'll work for you all day long for the rest of your life unlike a two by four you're constantly adjusting new screws and they're breaking and twisting and causing you issues this is a great tool to have in your arsenal so if you're in the decking business go pick one up all right um let's just go over this real quick because we've got a lot of traffic today i live in the country did they close the highway i don't know what's going on we're gonna finish putting all these deck boards in so i'm laying out these boards and i'm throwing on a little bit of spacing i'll let you finish all that off [Music] straight through the face into that okay just two is good that was lousy there you go it's when until it stops tightening you've got a screw because there's a density in the wood and until the head creates enough compression that it actually closes that gap you're not done [Music] [Music] that's actually not too bad that's how you make it perfect every time now if you want to try to compare this to any kind of surface mounted rail system and then make them there's tons of them aluminum railing systems little caps that screw into the wood those screws are this long right and it's just a little bit of thread that's in the actual wood and if any water sits on that wood at all it's going to soften up and you're going to lean on one day and it's just going to rip right out of the surface of your deck it's unsafe i don't know why they ever even approve them now real quick we're going to take some time and put these deck boards down we did run into an issue yesterday i thought i'd talk you through over here we have 16s and we have 10 foot and our deck is about 25 so we have cutoffs we have to land on a joist and what we decided is if we started running 10 foot from the end coming this way we'd have to hit this joint here and i'm gonna have one two three boards that'll have a joint right in the walkway at the door that's stupid hey it looks ugly but the higher the traffic area the less you want to have a joint so what we did instead is we offset this we put the joint here then we'll put the 16 and then the off cut can be put on the other end i'm going to show you my trick because i know how to put a joint together that won't rot prematurely and it's going to make you look like a superstar no cedar deck job would be complete without some pl premium watch this it's almost the same color as the cedar so we put in a healthy bead and then we're just going to compress the joint by pushing it together all right there we go now we're ready to screw it in there you [Music] go so first rule sit working with cedar every time you make a cut you have to sand don't save all this work till later or you won't have access to it this will be our next post all right yeah yeah [Music] all right so now we're going to deal with the railing now i'm going to show you a little tool that i haven't used on the channel wow five years max we've been filming i've never pulled this out chalk line crazy this is just sitting in my toolbox and it's been a long time since i've used this ever since i pulled out the laser we're going to uh just use this to establish a line that i'm going to cut so we're just going to pull its bait boom there's my line i'm at the home depot and i'm looking for neat ideas something different because i don't want to build every deck to look the same as the last deck i just picked this because it's horizontal and it's kind of simple and i'm like wow if i picture frame this and then just stick it on i can just put one panel here one panel here one panel there done 12 feet and of course everyone's gonna want a miter joint right max so now i'm gonna cut miter joint picture frame for all of this and see if i this would be a shame to go through all that work and then i go oh yeah that makes sense i should have done it this way what do you think alex got any faith in this buddy [Music] [Applause] it's important when working with a table saw to not be stupid this will hurt [Applause] all righty nice we'll try that and we'll go from there [Music] okay [Music] all right so we're just going to take a minute and we're going to show you a few of the options you have for hardware when you're doing your decking and the differences in it here's a traditional three inch decking screw all right it's got thread on the bottom and then smooth shaft on top and here's the new camo surface screw all right now it's threaded in one direction for pulling down and then the top of the screw is actually threaded in the opposite direction and it pulls the board down all right so it gets an even a tighter grip into the deck surface underneath so if you have a little variation in your in your joist this screw will pull everything nice and tight watch this and that doesn't split right near the edge okay no there's nothing to grab onto so it doesn't pull all the way tight so here we go we got something that can do all kinds of building material clips edge surface deck traditional camo i'm loving it and this thing is durable this is like i don't know steel carbon fiber i don't know what it is and this is amazing loving this tool thanks campbell for sending this over for us to demonstrate appreciate it guys and listen if you're going to be doing a lot of decking in your world or you can probably go to home depot nowadays and rent something like this i would suggest it this is a great product and it gives you a lot of versatility now the secret to keeping everything level and square is when you cut your top and bottom rail for your handrail section measure from the bottom the actual gap and there's two ways that you can bend the tape in and use your experience or you can measure this actual distance 43 and a quarter in a hair oh 43 and 5 16 and then my tape is a quarter inches long i'm going to add that together to get your dimension nice to have a scrap piece of lumber around you can write everything down this is the veranda rail kit it has these clips okay now in the picture on the box they're not using the clips oddly enough but for homeowners especially these clips are going to make your life a lot easier now this is pressure treated and honestly i'm not putting pressure treated on my cedar deck there we go now we got a template i'm just going to mark where my spindles will be what i'm going to do is take my drill and a forstner bit now a forstner bit is a flat bottom bit okay yes it leaves a little bit of a dimple but other than that it bores a flat hole all right so we'll save the template for the next piece now we gotta stick these bad boys together gotta get rid of all these caps perfect three quarter drill bit three quarter hole awesome max it's a miracle these are robertson screws not phillips oh god bless you [Music] if you're putting up a rail it's to keep um just keep guys like me who've had one or two too many got a little bit of weight on the front falling off the deck you can't just throw a couple of cheap deck screws in there in that situation right you got to use the right hardware like in that now it's time to throw the level on here okay [Music] and they are strong enough to do all of the work to keep this railing in place for whoever ends up trying to run through it so when you're putting the rest of your capping on you can worry about aesthetics and not about structure you don't have to drive screws on the angle and try to tie it all together the other pieces of weather go on top you screw down the top into this and we'll screw from the underside to pull the cap together and that's it so the top of this has got no screws in it and that'll help to promote a long life just like the same concept of when we're putting in the camo in the floor we don't want screws on the surface up here either talk to me about that patio project it's been half finished for a while [Laughter] it kind of makes me feel like like it's on the honey-do list yeah god but you know there's a certain amount of um foundational work that we had to do yeah so we incorporated all that work with the rental of the skid steer equipment right yeah so we did a lot of earth moving and a lot of work like that and we just said fine bring in the dump trucks let's well while the machine's here right yep so it's been half finished for a while which is fine i don't need the machine again right yeah there's just one less thing to think about but we're excited i mean i'm going to be working on that in another week i'll be working on the patio right and you're going to join me yes i am oh michelle the tile setter that'll be fun i'm excited for that using the ceramic tile that we got oh it's not ceramic it is it is rectified porcelain it is one inch thick porcelain stone right and i always call it stone because when it's that heavy it's stone this is the kind of tile that if you put it on pedestals i don't know if anybody if you've seen this but there's little plastic pedestals you can get like rooftops right and then they'll just put these stones on the pedestals and that transfers all the load um it's the same stuff so we're actually going to be installing it with a cement base and it'll be permanent awesome yeah i know this is going to be amazing okay so remember how i usually preach when you're doing a project uh make a plan and stick to it well we broke our plan now this is the stone we're installing today yes that's really pretty i love it i want you to uh carry that yeah oh right it's a little heavy yeah it's all good you're gonna be able to make it yep okay now so that's how we're gonna install them okay our house is relatively square which is nice yeah these huge stones are different than what we originally were talking about doing this project right right yeah remember originally we're going to use like a concrete pavers yes we're going to lay them all in and then vibrate them in and fill it in with sand dust this is gonna be a lot sexier porcelain right so it's gonna be like miami very miami yeah in a northern climate the trick here is that the cement is almost as expensive as the tile yeah um we picked it up yesterday the cement for this little patio here was almost 2000 bucks wow yeah but okay for resale yeah are you kidding me it's worth it all right so this is why we made went to one level so we're gonna just square off our line yeah we're gonna install with a bit of a room to the outside edge because i want to install electrical conduit and put in outdoor boxes yes so people can add lights and whatever features and fans and misting and yeah you can have all kinds of fun yeah and it also is going to bridge the gap up onto this crazy foundation and we'll cover it all in big riverstone it's gonna look gorgeous yeah so that gives us all of our flexibility we're gonna end up just starting in the middle because i did this little string line thing here just to check how good our slope is and it's actually really quite perfect excellent the middle is just a little bit lower i see that so we're going to we're going to do the cement we'll start from the middle and then we'll use our great big six foot level to keep our plane flat we don't want it level we want it flat ah this is the goal we've already got it graded so we're looking for flat okay all right now these things are really thick so there is no leveling clip for it we're going to go with cement and a rubber mallet even though i brought the leveling clips yeah that was cute that's for the wall tile in the bathroom so i'm sitting by the front door so i thought i'd bring them oh you forgot them i set it up and i was thinking oh i took a second look yeah we know they're way too small so whatever that's fine we're gonna just go with the regular spacers okay all right so what we need to do is just get started in the middle we gotta just double check our square here once i get my layout good we're gonna start from there going towards our fire pit and we're gonna leave room for the hot tub leave room for the fire pit we're gonna go for square footage today okay and then once we get all these other items built then we'll go with the details including the step so yeah because we're working with 800 square yeah so you know if we can get if the next two days we can get 600 square feet down i'm happy guys oh yeah for sure right let's sweat and tears baby all right all right um oh i got a present for you oh i like presents i grabbed some scrap schluter board oh you're wonderful here going neal on that awesome yeah tell me what you think ah wonderful that'll keep you out of the rocks yeah and you don't get the pinchy knee pads i don't like knee pads yeah i know either do you well i won't wear them anyway so all right cool okay so that's your knee pad all right all right okay do you want to lay the tile or do you want to mix the cement i'll do it okay that's all right let's let's go make something smarter we'll get started let's do it now the tile itself is a rectified porcelain so it doesn't have a huge expansion contraction rate so we're going to go with a 1 8 inch grout line using this because it's going to stay wet using this because it's going to freeze and thaw so it'll avoid having cracks and issues and then we're also using a superior group for the outside trust me when i say this you don't want to cut these corners feelings here [Music] here we go let's put in the milk [Music] okay guys here [Music] here we go [Music] um michelle what we're going to do is we're going to do a basic squaring off of the room concept yep and we're using the three four five technique which means i'm gonna measure instead of three i'm gonna go nine twelve and fifteen so you wanna pinch these two together right there for me sure okay on the nine foot mark yep actually that works pretty good so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna start in the middle of the room roughly two four six eight ten twelve fourteen feet out okay and i'm gonna go side by side tiles and go all the way across the patio to where the fire pit is you're going to need spacers for your grout line a margin trowel we're going to want to use these as well i'll demonstrate that in a second and then a half by half inch travel that's four by ten inches large [Music] this stuff really stinks like latex that's awesome put on my suction cups and then i'll lift and set i go boys whenever you're dealing with a stone this size got to have a rubber mount [Music] [Music] crazy suction went as wet okay okay so the first thing we're looking at is our ground is a little disturbed from my knees take the top top edge up that's no from all of that the high side to the low side sorry okay start there yeah drag it across and leave it here yeah all that comes over here [Music] yeah now you're getting aggressive i love it learning from the master now is that what you want not bad eh yep okay all right now i don't want you getting crazy dirty because i know you had a note to go see get in your hair appointment or something you can stick one of those on there you go and then just squeeze it together yep pretty solid okay well okay just lift it up and set it on the orange mat in front of me and i'll put the cement on for you now just another note i'm noticing with this cement it's getting thicker with this additive in here yeah it has an attitude i'm just gonna shimmy it nice and gentle lay it down in position yes okay all right i need a little leverage there you go how's that you're a good spot so what we're gonna do is i'm gonna get you to use this suction cup to lift the corner yeah all right and lift it up lift it up lift it up oh no not yet honey please lift it up stay lifted yeah [Music] now put that back down and you'll see what happens uh general general general in in position we don't want to slide it around the strength oh come on you're a lot stronger than you think hold on all right good job okay yeah i'll have to get your hair done [Music] so it's seating day we're so excited we got the hedges in and we got our drip line and so alex is going to go around with our grass now he's got a commercial blend here so it's three different kinds of grass the idea is we have a mix of sun and shade here in the lawn so whatever particular variety of grass proliferates in each area at least we're gonna get consistent coverage which is cool here he goes this is so exciting this is next to watching paint dry [Music] there's not a whole lot to say he's also got fertilizer this is a perfect for fall and new start you know good for us okay so the next step for us is to wait we actually intentionally waited um we had their lawn prepped quite a few weeks ago and then alex had to drive around he pulled out all of the weeds because we're waiting until the right time of year to put the seed down and so the weeds grew a little bit because we are not going to be pulling out 150 feet of hose and moving a sprinkler around running off my pump off the well to try to water over half an acre so we're just going to let nature do its thing everybody's got to have a neighbor like this guy wow that's a great tool now if you don't have something like this you're doing a smaller space you can actually rent a little one-man pull-along or push-along unit just fill it up with halfway with water and you're good to go [Music] if you wanna go outside [Music] do [Music] do you do you if you wanna go outstay [Music] i'll stay away [Music] stay away [Music] well here we are we're halfway done our patio now we've got a couple other design elements we're taking care of one of them is our fence now we're doing about a five foot fence here well looks like closer to six but the idea here is we're turning it into a design element but it's actually a functional element it's supposed to keep the wind out at this corner the other side of our road here we've got massive fields the wind comes blowing through in the fall and in the spring and we can't really enjoy a sitting area if we're getting ourselves blown away so we're putting up this retaining wall for the wind we're going to do it with the cedar horizontal decorative cedar boards as well and this should solve our problem and we're experimenting some new technology today too see how this works out it says uh one of these bags should set one or two of these posts in our condition and it sets up in like three minutes let's get this done all right let's see what we got all right and here's another use for electrical tape if i just strap it to the post then as you're holding onto the levels you can manipulate the pull real easy okay all right okay so i read the instructions i'm pretty confident what i'm doing and i'm not using the safety gear it's a two-part mix and after you break the seal in the middle you got 20 seconds to mix it up cut a corner pour it in and then stand back so here we go oh yeah see that that's actually doesn't take a lot of pressure anybody could do this okay so we're going to give it a mix and that should be holding it level at this point right yes sure all right let's see if that works that didn't look like it came out like it's supposed to maybe you should have read the instructions it said roll in that direction yeah break it mix it for 20 seconds pour it out the foam didn't expand [Music] oh yeah that's my bed we'll try that again so you gotta shake it back and forth in the bag because stone is not comfortable um there's more material here than here this is like the arrows tell you which way to roll and i did that properly what i didn't do right matt is i never forced all this material to come in here and mix so there wasn't enough of the mixing agent and it's foaming now you see it growing yeah shut up look at that maybe i won't do this i think it just took longer for the reaction to happen it's still growing too so it is growing so it is finally reacting i just okay so how long would i have to stand here keeping it three minutes now the only question is did i need a whole bag or is this just going to be like one of these volcano science experiments from grade 8. it's expansion foam so it's growing pretty good now i think we struck a pepsi reserve pocket yeah it's odd i feel like we're in a bit of trouble here has it got any ability to stand on its own power yet or is that foam not solid no i wouldn't even try if it if it looks like foam on the top of a pepsi well this is a real time challenger i mean yeah you just keep it level and we'll see what happens and when it's all done we'll just cut away the extra foam that we don't need but so it's really growing [Music] so i drilled a three foot hole with a six inch auger bit and i'm using a four by four post [Music] okay three minutes apparently it's setting up pretty good if you let go is it going to stay still probably not let's find out that looks pretty good all right let's leave it alone then no no no no don't touch it i'm just poking at it you'll get it you won't be allowed in the house for like a week wow you can really fine tune that eh that's pretty incredible yeah it's still growing yeah like okay well three minutes has gone by post is holding itself up okay it's uh i'm feeling incredibly solid though does it like so i'm curious to know how how much more embedded it feels after a couple of hours we're done with that it's supposed to drop into something like concrete isn't it yeah well should be able to hold the fence up in the wind so yeah we'll have to wait and see this is awesome wow okay so it's been about a half an hour right about 30 minutes now this is really set if it gets any more dense i would be really surprised i think the secret for me now is um probably add some water tomorrow help compact whatever's laying around but that foam should expand and fill up every nook and cranny in the ground hey this works oh you got this cancer stick in your face do you well that's gonna that's gonna hold sweet all right i was a little skeptical to be honest with you the package had uh homes approved on it i'm always hesitant to take the word of a tv star all right well listen there you go now we know that this is gonna work you can try it at home too i'm pretty confident i like that um i don't know i'm here it's not as comfortable it's not as solid as a bed of concrete the next day but like i said it's only been 30 minutes well i'm really happy with the product that's good because this will make it quick and simple for me we still got so many elements that are almost done boy it's just it never ends like a typical homeowner special right well 95 of the way and then like i try to preach you know do one room at a time but when you're doing the inside and the outside and we've got covid and we got supply issues every time we turn around we're waiting for something to be delivered so we have to start another project and not waste time and it's been really hot this summer so we've been exhausted and i'm getting old and i'm still the helper you know and i wish i was like uh what do you call what's the word i'm looking for experience enough and then the general that's kind of this i mean but after something like this you'll have more experience than you even know about yeah well that's true i think it's just been maddening because we can't hire any help we wanted to get some extra bodies in here and uh you know thank god alex was available this summer to work with us we imagine if we had to do the roofing oh we were this close this close not getting roofer but mine was in such bad condition it was considered an emergency so i got one but i tried hiring siding guys and soffit guys forget it nobody's available till next year unreal next time on reality renault vision nailed it that's dramatic so we got some advanced sketchy saw techniques today we'll just take it off the guard ah i am loving this all right so in this episode we're going to be talking about how to take this diy screened in porch turn it into a three season room [Music] you

Channel: REALITY RENOVISION

Views: 51,239

Keywords: jeff thorman, renovation reality show, home remodel, lifestyle blog, home renovation, building a deck, how to fix a deck, diy deck repair, diy deck build, how to build a deck, diy patio, how to build a patio, deck building during covid, deck building secrets, 2021 deck build, deck build trade secrets, cedar deck build, how to build a cedar deck, paver patio build, camo screws, camo, building supplies during covid, covid deck build, covid patio build, covid renovation

Id: A0CLDEbV398

Length: 44min 13sec (2653 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021