How to Build a Pergola and Floating Hardwood Deck A to Z

in this video we are solving all of the world's problems when it comes to living outdoors that's right we have an A to Z video about installing a Brazilian hardwood deck man I'm telling you right now it takes a little extra work but this stuff is good for 75 years which means it's almost zero maintenance forget your composite Brazilian is the way to go [Music] hey I'm Jeff from home renovation DIY and I'm Sam from Samuel and Audrey and we are gonna work together as a collaboration today to build a floating deck I'm gonna teach him how to use all the tools cuz Sam you've never built the darn thing in your life never nothing no so we're gonna teach him how to do it so you can follow along and learn how to build one too I'm as green as my pants let's get going let's get going okay so step one for building a floating deck is you need to get your foundation blocks in place and that requires removing the organics which is basically Toto then you want to dig down to soil that's compactable okay usually people have clay if you have sand you got to remove the sand though and then once we get that down we're gonna add a little bit of limestone screening pack it in place to level the block off drop the blocks in then we can build on these these are our structure point load so once we have all these blocks in place then we're set to go so step one dig the holes drop in the blocks we're doing two box beams I'm gonna explain that in a minute if you're not familiar with it so what we're gonna do is we're gonna add some lumber and put a beam here that carries load a beam on the other side that carries load so we can place our deck on top of those two beams that's the secret to doing a floating deck once we get these holes dug will bring up the speed with all the tools and materials necessary to build that sucker alright Sam that's a perfect hole buddy that actually worked yep oh my god okay so what we want to do is 12 inches from here so I don't want right there yeah so you put your line there and then you dig the hole for this okay so what we'll do is we'll put this here yep so that you know so we know I can see you right you're gonna be digging to sue yeah okay [Music] then aroma yeah just a rock Wow as it be stuff it's a lot of rocks a lot of rock at least per minute we're getting lower oh yeah that goes under yeah sure they're good deep dig deep yeah step right on the shovel there oh I've hit bottom again are you kidding me it's the Canadian Shield hold on one spot what happens we dig another hole oh you think another hole all right next to it right next to it like maybe maybe here over there ah I know the more the more we kept digging and where it became apparent that that's great two big rock our deck is 12 feet right trying to go from there what's that a 10-footer 11 12 we can we can dig that way we can dig this way yeah okay so basically just like that but over here yeah so just dig that hole into this fill this area okay and then we should be fine so once you've got your hole dug so you have enough depth you have to add a little bit of limestone screenings the reason I love these so much is they pack really nice and tight and so you just level this off and this is just to create a nice level surface for putting your block on and you pick up one of these little 10 by 10 Packers and you just pound the living daylights out of this alright and set this in we have structure yeah just pounded it huh hey give it a shot Oh careful Oh nope just the stuff oh just a soda yeah just the stones just where the blocks gonna go yeah and you'll actually feel it yeah my wrist there yeah oh really pound it there you go yeah you got the feeling okay let's put that block in so grab it by two corners and set it in place well hang on second that's been disturbed now all right just like that no you want to have it from the top oh okay I got like back two corners yeah yeah you said it like that yep oh yeah feels okay it's a beautiful hole like I mean how do you want to do the nut into the next three artistic thank you sir our deck games are almost basically the word this wood is okay the benefits of the way we do this okay so the next step in getting prepared for our box beam is to cut our four by four posts this will act as our structural load post that goes in the concrete blocks and since we have six holes and one of these eight footers we're gonna cut these all at 16 inches for now once we get it measured we can cut it all back later so we'll just keep it nice and simple we'll use our spare to get the saw in the right place now most skill saws or circular saws like this won't cut a 4x4 post in one pass so it's nice to have use the square here is a as a guide we rotate the beam line up the blade in the hole bring the square up against the plate of the saw again you see it okay and then cut again roll it one more time and here we go this will finish it off nice and square [Music] perfect every time [Music] oh yes ago oh that's a good policy Doc's learning how to build the deck over here we doing the next one Togo [Laughter] [Music] [Music] so what we're doing now is I'm just taking a 12 foot piece of lumber lining it up to make sure that all of our posts are in contact with each other that one's a little bit up can I have the Chevron Sam yep I'll show you the secret here so you don't disturb the soil you just push that block now push the board over okay nice and flush there we go done I was looking it now we do the other one the other one that's gonna work not a pair of the load dude we are awesome we're halfway done her neck whew we're turning that lemonade right yeah okay so what do you think Togo this is a project manager by the way Togo this right German Shepherd ah okay so the layout this isn't a next step it's a difficult thing because you've got to wrap your mind around the end from the beginning and so the box beam is going to be what's carrying all of your structure now our layout is gonna be exactly 12 feet long so if our box beam is 12 feet long and it's in the right place to start with it makes our life simple so what we're doing is we're using a board up against the edge of this concrete slab so that our new addition is the same depth I want these tiles to come across and then come across here all in one row so all the joint lines line up it'll be perfect so what we've got to do here is get this board up against the concrete use it as our line and get this established up against this joint now we've got our new deck the same depth as this one you'll see that this has the potential to be in the right place okay as far as the height because we're gonna put a floor joist package on top of this box beam and it's gonna extend two inches over this concrete here it's part of our design because these panels behind us actually finish if we start on that edge they finish right here so we're gonna have our deck extend over top to cover the gap and so what we want to do is establish this height now it's the tricky part right we need we need mercy the slab is all over the place we've got a three inch variance so we're gonna actually lift this up a few inches and then attach it to the post and then we'll level it so that we can have the ability to level this deck that's not a problem we want to make sure we have mercy if we start too low then we don't have the ability to level off this deck later it'll be a disaster so if you're only building one level you can build it as close to the ground as you can level these boards and if you're not exactly sure lift it up out of the dirt a couple inches then you can attach it and it won't be any problem so let's get some screws and a drill we'll get this established look at my level on here get a level line and then we can get all this box beam leveled off ah let's do it and then with them were building joists maybe I bought a book two inches above the deck okay so like the other concrete a little bit further down okay that's probably good throw this in here for now good yeah so what I'm doing is I'm just installing a level beam so we have some reference to work with okay okay remember the goal was to put our two by eights like joists going this way yeah so we want to establish this beam so that our height isn't too crazy yeah we want to have this really perfect so now we got to do a measuring leveling this one leveled off for this yep and we might have to unscrew and lift them all up and move them around there really is no way to make a perfect plan because we have to make it perfect for this scenario right so it's trial and error the reason we're using all of these other boards is because home depot didn't have the right lengths in stock today yeah loving it all right now this will be the going across this beam after we remove this beam so we just set it down right here's good yeah the fun begins well you know it's just because the home depot didn't have any wood yeah it was say with slim pickins air bones oh like it said it like that okay and then so that's what that looks like right yep if you set it on top like this when that ball is right in between both lines there should be just a hair space on each side of the bubble to vary those what I'll do is I'll do all the moving and you just scream at me when you got it so we have our blocks we have our posts on our blocks the carrying load and now we have beginning of our box beam what we're going to do is we're using the level on a piece of wood and trying to level all four corners of this box beam and so what I'll do is I'll lift this up until Sam here tells me my bubbles right in the middle bit more bit more perfect I look yeah right there okay now I'll give us something to start with so this is just temporary because we're not just building a deck we're actually trying to build a deck that is level and then the right height to overlap the slab next to us so it's a little more intricate once we get everything where we like it then we can finish building the box beam just like as if it's a normal deck what we're using here in this deck because it's all above ground is just a simple pressure-treated lumber we got this at the home depot if your wood is gonna be coming in contact with soil conditions check the tag at the end of the board it'll actually say if it's above ground rated or above ground use only or contact ground it'll tell you on the label if this can be in contact with earth organics grass gardening or not this is the not kind okay so this is very important that all of this board is free from touching the ground it will rot if you have it in the dirt so there's two kinds of pressure treated out there it's not all considered equal it's usually the same price if your stuff is going to be touching and gardening or going down by the water make sure you have the right rated material all right huh now it doesn't matter what your finishing your deck with pressure treated is always the most economical way to go when you're building your frame that just flew in my eye all the places around here ah okay so reality is we have a great little frame system set up here it's all nice and level this is the highest point of our concrete slab and we're adding spacers to raise up our finished hard wood decking a minimum of two and a half inches clearance that I need so I actually have to raise my foundation on this deck two and a half inches just to meet my minimum clearance and that seems a little bit too crazy so I'm gonna go actually three so we have to do is raise all of these both these beams up three inches all four corners and level it off all over again let's do it all right probably the easiest way to do that will just be to market okay we'll measure up three inches and then was the set of beams all over again also and then we should be okay it's got to be flat Oh flat yeah there you go do that to the other two corners and then we can lift it all effect beautiful the beautiful thing is if your math is a little off here we're giving ourselves a little extra room because we can lift this as high as we want to to make sure that the finish is perfect is actually really simple now right because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put this screw yep this part of the board is contacting this line ignore that okay right okay yeah squeeze that brings it out and so I'm gonna help you keep it flush like that you see see how the line opens up yeah that's because it doesn't screw to the other end either lift it up try to the square so a lot of times when you're making adjustments with lumber the screw head which is wider than the shaft gets in behind the fibers of the board and when you're backing it out it'll actually take the board off instead of the screw it'll start opening this huge gap here well that's not any good to you so way to fix that throw another screw next to it and leave the head of that screw exposed and that'll hold it in place while you pull this grip okay you just save that one for later then because we are short on lumber yeah we have to use two pieces we have to meet up at the middle of that post right in the middle there so we're gonna do is will you use this board here okay create an end yep now you have an end stop so now we can slide this board to this point right and then I just come over here and I mark the middle that's right and that's where I'm cutting that's the bullseye done done that's simple Wow and you can do this for all four pieces on this end yep then we'll install them with all them and then we'll move the board over there and do all four pieces on that it okay so when you're building your box beam the idea is to have a four by four post and then two by eight lumber or two by ten lumber depending on your span sandwich like this okay and then we drill and we put in a galvanized bolt that carries thousands of pounds of weight and the concept here is where I have just a load transfer so now all the joists sit on top of this transfers over like this like a carrying beam on the post into the ground and that takes care of all of our structural load and if you're really really long beam and you got to meet in the middle you can just attach a board at the end so once it's squared off and use it as a measuring stick and then just mark where the middle of the post is and then cut it there piece of cake so the only reason we're doing this is because we're doing this as a solution to a problem to build this floating deck and we went to the Home Depot today it's a little early in the season and their inventory was lousy so they don't have enough long lumber to solve our problem so I've got to cut all this into pieces Oh it'll get the job honey yeah hey sambal be all right we'll be all right [Music] [Music] [Music] all right just say it and leave that down like that yep so now that we have our box beams basically put in place temporarily we can make adjustments and you'll see what I'm looking for here is I put this beam across I'm looking for level because these things are in the concrete poured cast they've tend to roll around and so your level is somewhat temporary so now that it's built we have an end cap on here holding it still now we can really establish whether it's level we thought we were leveled before now we're gonna double check so right now this is low okay so I'm going to mark this with an L for low I'm gonna move up to the middle double check here this is still low as well that's good that makes it easy to fix yeah they're all consistent consistently low so the easy thing for us to do is just make small adjustments to fix this thing up okay so Sam will do this like we did before so I can be here yeah here you got it all right so we're looking to keep it level we're looking for perfect so when I lift my end up okay all you got to do just let me know if it's perfect okay or when it's perfect a little bit there we go we can also do the same thing with the inside beam so I deployed this back to scruff yep lift up till I make contact okay done done now we go to the middle it goes right there all right now we adjust this one here we go there we go so nobody ever box beams both in place and everything's leveled off it's time to add our carriage bolts now these are not the half inch that we've used in times past this is just a 3/8 bolt it's ready for about a thousand pounds not necessary for the half inch here because we're so close to the ground even worst case scenario here if it collapses you're going down two inches right so we're gonna do a top and bottom diagonal and that's going to help increase our stability and keep this deck from sliding around and we'll put two in every post that's 12 bolts 12,000 pounds yeah that's that's a thousand pounds so every 10 square feet I think that's enough I'll let you decide put it in the comments below if you think I'm crazy all right how does it feel all that sharp we'll see how it works right in the middle very important that you take it in and out clean let see how this is all kicked up put it in reverse and it'll clean out relevant pull it out clean the bit okay when you hear the drill working too hard this is really really wet wood and your bits gonna get hot in wet wood and it'll shatter because water and heat don't work well together there we go now we're [Applause] all right now the cool thing about these bits is they are exactly the same size as the threaded rod all right these are exactly the same size of the hole so they take a little bit of love cannon bangin I Drive it right deep into the wood you can see that that has a bit of a square head on it so if you drive it straight into the wood that'll help embed it so it won't come loose and then we take nuts and washers the whole assembly is galvanized stick them on the other side now it's best to clean the wood around it the whole get rid of that that's in the way okay put the washer assembly on and then the nuts and here we go so look at this Oh huh nice tool a quick shout out to Crystal tools they were at the house the other day of filming a little interview for Father's Day video yeah they brought a few tools along so I figured what do use them this is awesome now you can see the washer is embedded right in that wood right you don't need to go crazy on this but if you can embed the washer in the wood then you know you've got good compression there we go the only thing to remember is when you're doing this I always have the extra rod inside the body of the the deck not sticking out on the other side because then you'll have to come back with a grinder to clean them all off so nobody breaks rip leg open when they're walking by all right so here we are at the center post the front we have the beam it's completely all the way through on the back it's two pieces so what we want to do is take our two bolts and we want to install them on a crisscross pattern so we're picking up each of the beams on the back and the beam on the front so what we do is we're just gonna line up about a 10 degree angle we'll set our hole here and then we'll just change the angle the idea here is to line up your angle so you can see that the the rod will come through and have enough room for threading on the other side right on the money and then we'll change the angle for this one and we're gonna go a little lower here so we're using two different points on the post to help keep everything from shifting now if you're at home doing this for the first time don't be concerned everything is gonna feel really sloppy and loose until you get this post done and you get your joist package attached so don't let it bother you there we go loving the crescent wrench here I'm gonna put a link in the description so you can get this tool this is awesome it's a ratchet wrench that's clear through you just pop them out you can change your sizes you can go over bolts that are extended you know three or four inches won't matter makes tightening these on it just a breeze and you can just bury those washers right in the wood that's amazing whoo all right so the next step after we have our box beams in place and they're all bolted in this is a little different we're not framing it entirely and then putting on our panels we're going to assemble the joist as we assemble the panel's just to make sure that we get it really in line you can see when I take this hard wood panel and I set it on top of the joist package I'm starting off flush on the outside and the idea is to line up right in the middle of the joist on the inside so that every one of these panels can transfer load at every intersection point now we all know what is not straight so what we want to have is flexibility the idea here is we're gonna cut and install the ridge beam here and then we're going to install the panels all the way across we're gonna then have the ability to manipulate the joists left and right to keep everything in line as we go row by row across the deck I think that's going to give us our best result an alternate method would be to double up your joist package so that you have a three inch piece of lumber here to work with I hate blue you know using extra lumber when I don't need to and this sounds like a lot more fun and since we have bodies around to help out might as well put them to work our Ridge is 12 feet and 3/8 it's a little long from the factory and we are gonna have exactly 12 feet of finished decking so I'm going to just trim this down and I'm going to install it on this edge to get started we'll put every one of these joists attached at 24 inch on center from the outside and then let's put the deck together we're gonna get you to help hold that up flush with the top of that board over there okay okay so when I'm screwing this together I get a good good result [Music] so here we are time to square off the deck now we're gonna do a really simple system here we're gonna actually use the clips that are designed to go with the hard wood panels that come preassembled okay two by two-foot square and the way this works is upside down right but it Clips basically right into the corner all right now the really cool thing about this is it's designed with weak spots built into the backside so you can actually cut it into outside corners or the joints along the front edge and you just take these pieces install them screw them in place if you need to once you get started you can actually move the carriage of this deck to line up with these panels and keep everything perfectly square throw in a few screws into the box beam as you go presto change-o we're gonna have a deck in about an hour let's get Gyan so I've screwed down this corner and it's somewhat adjustable we're gonna snap that one in and snap that piece in just gotta find the hole okay so I mean I have a crazy amount of flexibility here with my installation I'm just going to be lining that up on the front of that board adding a screw locking this in place adding an edge bracket to the outside Wow that is ridiculously easy this is the most crucial part of the whole project this first piece I'm using my rafter square just to make sure that this deck is perfectly square here at the outside corner and now I'm gonna attach my inside plate here so you can see our assembling system is really easy we get all of these started on these brackets now because my choice is not connected at the back I have the ability to move this around the goal is to have this Ridge right in the middle line okay and because everything that's made of wood will move over time having it this is a disengaged at the other end give this all the flexibility of the world that we need alright just make sure whatever I'll tell you in our pattern stop in the moment place it assemble so easy it's kind of ridiculous I love how these pallets are so strong they transfer all the load so it's not difficult to work with and although all the edges may not be perfect I think over time you'll find that as everything settles and the crown works out of the wood this is gonna sit absolutely gorgeous so what I'm doing here so I'm just gonna mark where my tile finishes that's the edge of my deck remember if that's my finished deck I want to take off an inch and a half from my Ridge all right now I want to take my square work my line bring my saw over and I'll cut this in advance that is awesome now I can take my finished edge from this plastic I'm gonna be cutting it 22 and a quarter for the whole way [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh all right so basically we were finished the ground level deck installation not so much ground level as floating it's less than 24 inches in an hour area that doesn't require any building code or railings so it's a really simple installation it might be different in your area so check with your local Building Code before you go and make a huge investment like this you might just be surprised you might not even be able to use box beam you might have to put your major beam on top of your posts that are in the ground it might have to be in concrete there's a lot of different options out there depending where you live so be sure to check this is our trim board this is the Brazilian hardwood and we're just going to cut it with our square in our saw here let's see how this works all right so that is a basic diabolo blade it's a 62 not an 80 carbide tip and I've been using it for weeks perfect warning resist the temptation to continue installing the wood until you've done the end seal now I know a lot of guys will cheat when they're doing pressure-treated lumber this is not pressure treated lumber you cannot cheat if you don't seal this product on the ends it will split and crack and then you will be left with an amazing mess and if you have any left over on their surface that's why God invented genes here we go tada now for finishing off your skirt board remember it's a hardwood surface we have to pre-drill all our holes and I'm gonna suggest you go just one hair above the 1/8 9/64 bit is good for me that'll help make sure that we're not going to split the end okay we're just gonna get this nice and flush create a bit of a picture frame trim on it that is sexy [Music] yeah up another hair there if you could Wilson beautiful sweet nothing like grade five math okay usually on our channel we try to do things with pretty basic tools yeah today we are upping it just a bit we've got a hammer drill which is not a big investment and if you don't have one you can rent it for four hours to do this project and we have our simple grinder it's not plugged in yet good for the cut-off disc and what we're using is powder coated in metal brackets now this is really important because the folks at advantage lumber have advised us that when you're working with this hard wood you've got to use you know stainless steel or this powder coated metal if you use galvanized after a few years it's going to get this hole I'm so sad I'm crying look right just black lines everywhere so to avoid that use the right materials so we're gonna just drill some holes we're gonna fill up a hydraulic cement okay and then we're gonna cut this down a little bit so we don't have to drill 9 inches deep because this is not new concrete right and then we'll set them in place and we'll tap consum screws into them get these posts installed you know and then we're halfway about pergola it's been a busy day but good all right so I'm gonna let you drill that hole you see this groove here if you put your hand in it like that yeah then you'll you'll have to be a nice control there yeah disk everybody I'm liking that I'm liking that that's good yeah I'll show you how is these done okay there we go [Applause] okay so there are a lot of ways to install a pergola post some of these systems are out there they're just you attach the bottom of the post so you screw it into the ground I'm not a big fan of that I like to have a the bolt anchored in there this is a really long hole to drill and usually we use these when were using new concrete so we're just going to cut these down as we go around get these nice and flush tapped con them through the surface as well that'll give us lots of protection with the hydraulic cement from lift because we're gonna be putting in some sails and we are gonna have lips so we better have this secured glasses when you're doing this to set our posts in the holes which are larger than they need to be we're gonna just use a little bit of fast concrete repair it's basically hydraulic cement once we get it mixed up it'll set up in about 15 or 20 minutes and it'll be good to install post but within a half an hour after that all right Effie let's do this well mix right into the bucket ah they're only six bucks I already got rid of a lot of it all right we're supposed to just mix it to a slurry I read the instructions and it said mix until it's like a slurry I don't know what that means like I don't know how much water it takes to get to that point right that is beautiful yeah now just scrape out all the corners now get all that dry stuff mixed in okay there we go so we're just gonna fill all six holes with this stuff it sets really quick okay yeah really quick okay always ready always sold me the problem all right now good enough done that's not going anywhere so we have our saddles in place we used a quick-set cement it was dry not in want three minutes later but it's the next day now so no worries there we're not going to bother with the tap cons we checked it out this morning and they are not going anywhere unfortunately our slab is an unlevel surface hopefully with your building and peugeot at home you are working with of a level surface and then you won't have to do what I'm doing now but I'm gonna teach you an amazing trick for whenever you need a level that's extremely long what we have is three two by fours here I'm taking two of them and I've just stretched them out the full length that I need which is a hundred and ninety inches and in feet it's just a whole bunch so what we're gonna do is screw this together and create this L shape with the third part and we're going to use this to stretch from saddle to saddle the saddle and get the actual measurement for the height difference on the top of the saddle for each post and then we can translate that information under a post that way we can pre-cut them and get the end sealed and wax because that is so important when you're working with this product I've been warned not to drill all the way through into the deck it's early in the morning and my latte has yet to really kick in [Music] once we have this assembled we can stretch it across the saddles get our measurements because there is just nothing better than having perfectly leveled product to work with so we know from measuring earlier that the highest point on this slab is actually right over here but the saddle on the other side over here is actually the highest saddle on the slab it was installed about a half an inch above the concrete so we're using that as our measuring stick to go for every corner to get all of our heights so we just put our little stick here across added some shims found our level mark that works good so since the level is sitting in the saddle on the other side we're just gonna measure from the bottom the 2x4 down to the concrete we're gonna add that distance to the top of the post on this location and that measurement is three and three-eighths it's careful when you're measuring something like that you've got to get down I level with it you can't guess or you'll get it wrong and we're just gonna write that down right on the concrete we're just gonna do that in every location and then we'll cut our post two-by-four so the right side still higher tell me one one and a half I'll get you to read it and then I'll measure it off okay tune and eight that's about what we figured five inches off hey do you want it no okay so it will level it'll go above it two-and-a-half beautiful you know we go no we're done so the first step in doing your pergola is not to put the posts up the first step is to actually measure off your posts but you want to build your carrying beams and by that I mean the long support that's going to go from corner to corner in this situation we're spanning fifteen feet so we really want to have a laminated beam which is two pieces of the two by material glued and screwed together to create that whole length I want to set that up first give it time to dry then when we can bring it over in place and the way you do that is you measure from the outside of your saddle to the outside of the saddle and as long as all your measurements are consistent with where the saddles are sitting you'll make it perfectly square in level building if you start using a level and then measuring from top to top you're heading for disaster now traditionally a lot of the material that will come from the factory is not cut perfectly square on the ends so you can't really trust it it's always best before you install a major pieces like this to cut it square get a nice edge especially if you're laminating because when you bring those joints together if it's even cut at one degree it's gonna look really ugly and have an open gap so we're gonna just trim back all of our boards before we get started and then when we measure it we're gonna have something that we can work with it's not a little tip when you're cutting something like this make sure the part that you want to keep is on the downside and that'll leave the cleanest cut always going to get a little bit of fraying on the on the top surface on you're using a saw like this all righty mama so now it's time to screw and glue the beam together we are using a PL premium basic construction adhesive they you're gonna make this from a lot of different places all over the world and they do not clean up very well right yeah I just turn this over rest this in place and it is not an instant bond so you have time to line things up we are actually designing this so this is the face of my beam and that'll be the outside corner of my post and so I've created an inside mitre to receive the thickness of the second joint let me slide that over one and a half inches and I am going to glue this whole thing together haul it once yeah all right we will start with the screwing process down at this end making sure we're keeping everything tight flush level as we move our way along the beam good so just make sure that your drill bit when you're pre drilling isn't going to come through the other side of the wood and we're going to just put in a few screws here to tighten this all up [Music] yeah it makes good sense to clean that as you go in look I'm gonna go all silver so I'm gonna completely fill the end of this meat with the glue so I don't have to use the end sealer and then you'll put that piece together got a love wood working without a word shop all right okay now remember if you're using this product you've got to use the sealer this is a wax based sealer it goes on all your end cuts this will keep your product from drying out and splitting on you all right go and just wipe off any extra so okay so we've completed our carrying beams we've pre-drilled and glued and screwed and got them all clamped together and drying over there now so now it's time to put up our posts we've got our measurements so now we're going to translate all that information onto our post our baseline is 102 inches and that's the high post and now we just add all the dimensions off for a leveling system to that number put it on the tape on the post themselves again because it's hardwood we are going to take the post we're gonna square off the base in case the mill has it on square we'll take it over mark all of the holes take the post to a pre-drill station we're gonna have part of the crew doing all the pre drilling and then we'll bring it all back in place install them in place with our stainless steel hardware and then it'll be lunch time yeah and just a tip when you're working with the crew label not just the measurement but the location so these are alphabetized for our layout so ABCDEF and that makes sure that everybody is going to be in the right place at the right time hopefully six letters the alphabet won't be too confusing and this saw does cut a 4x4 post with a 10-inch blade how about that that just became about $50 more valuable max okay those are only 80 pounds each a holy cow [Music] that actually works that's uh that's not terrible no all right you know since we're dealing with hardwood we're using a sanding block give it a quick scuff get those little little deburring action I guess we'll call it off the wood make sure that we finished making it as nice as possible this only takes a second and it makes the difference between looking at your deck going oh I wish I'd done that versus I'm glad I did that here we go ready to roll now we seal the ends and then we'll mark them all pre drill our holes and off we go two races we just ripped off a piece of cardboard put it up against the saddle made a template for this and drilled it and translated all that information onto these posts so now we're pre drilling all the posts before we put them in place this will be really fast [Music] and then when we're done we'll flip them over and template the other side [Music] ok so now it's time to drop her a hundred pound posts into position dear Lord now we got these pre-drilled so it's just a matter of driving it not as concerned about how level they are at this point all of this is going to have a certain amount of flexibility and we will get it all tied together that's right you go ahead salmon I'll pass it to you when you get up there just climb up yeah so where you want to hold it so in front of the beam yes just there there yep you really went on the wrong side of that poster all right now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna crawl up on that thing okay I got my side let's go okay okay you want to go help him Mike I got this side go ahead yep okay we're on so let's just hold nice and steady here let the post carry all the weight that's temporary and that shall hold all that in place I'm gonna put a second so it can't twist alright here we go that's not going anywhere yay all right so what we're gonna do here is we're just going to cut our support posts to go from the top to the middle and then from here to the other website corner we're gonna do this by measuring down at the saddles because it's the law of angles in math anytime you have something that's square it has exactly the same dimensions top and bottom so as long as I cut my post based on the saddles and put it up top automatically squares a lot on my frame up so my distance here from the outside to the middle of this one is 85 and a half I'm going to take off an inch and a half that represents the thickness of that post here so I need a piece that's 84 inches boom done love it this one will go 87 and 5/8 [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so we're using Simpsons strong tied decorative structural fastener this stuff here will actually hold this pergola together regardless of weather conditions and we just have to be careful because we have to pre-drill everything we can't assemble it as we go so I'm just making sure that when we put our beam in position I'm ready to attach it all all right that's that one okay all right can you come over here and put that level on this beam then please okay so Sam you're leaning that way right and you're leaning towards him what we want is that gap close at the top all right yep we're good since we're not attaching this to the house we're gonna bolt this into the other floating deck just to give it some more stability we're gonna use this as a cross brace second start with a alright good thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] we're gonna put that side up right and then lift this side up there's a inch and a half overhang on the front board but it actually goes all the way in yeah don't try to fight it all the way in and out of the beginning all right just get it up get that inch and a half on then we'll fight over here and then we can set it in place once it's in place everybody has to kind of work together to hold this thing together till I get the screws it good max [Music] now up [Music] [Music] so here we are we're gonna put in our inside corner stabilizers now now of course being hardwood everything has to be pre-drilled so we just want to make sure that our angles are absolutely perfect let's let's just put the bolt in this first before we lift it up can I get a break please ah well you know just a little bit of nice weather and said hey you know like wait I'm on the edge of the earth I don't feel like I'm standing on top of Mount Everest it's cold the winds are 50 kilometres an hour I'm gonna try to install a sail I think I'm crazy we got a stretch to set so another shape again I think what I'm gonna do for now I'm just gonna temporarily hang it like that one of those two-inch steel bolts so shady in here so shady perfect okay so that one does go up there there we go we're all finished our pergola we got her built we got her supported we got our sails up and the big shout out to color tree we found them on Amazon so you can follow our link to see them or put a link to the color tree in the description below if you want to order custom sizes because they will do that for you alright so listen this has been a lot of project it goes great shade if you're looking to do a DIY pergola at home this is something to consider because these sails are actually a lot less expensive than any wood option and they give you a hundred percent Sun coverage hey in this video we are going to be installing a hardwood deck over top of concrete using the advantage lumber system IPE brazilian deck it's gonna be amazing and yes hopefully your deck is not as messed up as this one even if it is we have a solution to this problem we're gonna be installing these awesome adjustable clips that can make this thing perfectly level stick with us I'm gonna blow your mind this video we are on the road again we're in beautiful Bramley Valley Toronto Toronto Fran area and I'm with my friend Samuel and Audrey they have an awesome Travel Channel and we reached out and said hey stop filming at home until we make your beautiful deck so we're here to rescue them we made one behind them it's made of solid wood it's a raised deck if you haven't seen that video there'll be a link in the description but don't go there yet watch this one we're gonna build a deck on this concrete on this big sexy summer out yeah it's kind of like four slabs and they've all want and so we have been in touch with advantage lumber yeah they've got some systems we put all the parts together we're gonna raise up a level floor floor and it's gonna be hard wood decking Wow and then we're gonna put a pergola yeah in some Sun Shade no one's gonna miss this and it's still cold and we have yet to see the Sun for more than six hours at a time yeah it does get hot here in the summer we are told so today we are working on a concrete patio project where we're gonna resurface the whole area in a hard wood decking tile these things are amazing they come from advantage lumber you may have seen them advertising on the internet and there's a reason for it they're number one they have the best Brazilian hardwood in the world and they ship everywhere so if you're in the market to get rid of your ugly concrete and get somewhere really nice and warm and comfortable to sit down that's not going to burn your feet in the summertime this is definitely an option you should consider the hardwood tile is a really long lasting product it really is designed to compete with all the composite products out there as far as the ease ability really all you do is you install it and you put an oil based sealer on it maybe every few years and needs a quick twenty minute pages to freshen up but other than that there's no painting and waxing stripping sanding none of that routine you're gonna get with all your soft wood options and it's incredibly durable and so easy to install they come with these awesome little clip systems and all you do is on the ground they're pre-drilled all these holes right here you set them over top of the clips and snap them in place you can install this entire deck on a flat surface in an afternoon and they all go together that easy your options moving forward ah you can continue on with the grain in the same direction or you can alternate your pattern how fun is this oh there you go you have a brand-new hardwood deck in just a matter of minutes huh so listen the material itself yes it's not cheap but it's worth it okay it'll last 50 years without even thinking about it we do expect if you maintain it properly the last 75 so this is something you can install in your house and your children can enjoy for all of their life as well brilliant it only go takes a few minutes to install the only secrets you really need to know about ever when you cut it you need to seal the wood and that comes with the product when you order it and they have a 1-800 number to help you out if you have any questions unfortunately for us we don't have a flat surface so today's video is actually going to get extreme' we have got a deck surface that's been cracked and moving in many different directions and so we are going to use their problem solving solution called the altitude pedestal now this comes with some little core that you can actually buy and install and you can raise these pedestals to any height you need help level off your deck and they have an adjustment on it so that you can change the angle to follow the slope of your structure this is awesome because ours has a five-inch change from the middle to the outside corner we're going to be needing it we're gonna lift up the whole deck to get rid of the need for a step going into the house and it's not gonna go down quite as quick but it will last just as long so without any further ado let's get measuring and using some levels because we got a couple hours of measuring and cutting before we can start installing as you can clearly see our surface is nowhere near level we are actually from this height to the fire corner over here we're down five inches so what we have to use is these little component systems here and we are going to be leveling off and cutting our this is our four inch schedule 40 PVC it's not standard around these parts here in Canada but you can find it if you spend a whole afternoon on the phone I'm just joking the reason they've got something so strong in the respects is because it's part of their structural component system for installing this on roofs and it has to be all screwed together and this will hold screws really well the four inch PVC we have in our country probably will work as a support but do not try to install that on a roof because it will not give you the same kind of quality result anyway we're going to be cutting these down and inserting them in the caps and the bases to create a level platform that we can put all of our decking tiles on so what we're gonna do is we're gonna just use an existing deck over here as our level line and put our level off of that so you can see we've already set this one up here here's the top and bottom plate we've got our gray PVC in here and we're bringing our platform just to the bottom of the free-floating deck and what we'll have is when we put our tile on top of this we'll have a perfect one by six we can use to finish this edge cover the gap it's beautiful it's a natural step so we have this we're gonna use as our level line we're gonna level everything else off the concrete platform based on this deck it'll just give us something to start from and hopefully make this job a little bit easier so the way that we're going to determine the height to cut the PVC is we use the level off the one that's measured for the deck and my assistant is going to tell me when this is level okay three and 3/8 woof plus the PVC gets cut inside and it's a full inch and a half so three and three-eighths inch and a half 508 there we go we'll cut that one 508 and we're just going to measure all the way across the deck get all of these measurements over and over and over again it's going to take a little bit of time but it'll be worth it thanks to the folks over at evolution tools they supplied us this saw they wanted us to try it out it's got a new blade here that cuts metal and wood and so we're gonna see if it works what we're gonna do is we're gonna use it on the hardwood decking material all day long and then when we're done we're gonna see if this blade stands up and can cut metal at the end of the day that'll be the ultimate test here we go yeah we go that's a really nice job very good there's only a 10 inch bleed so what we're gonna do is we're gonna start this off cutting we're gonna roll the blade and roll the debussy into the blade [Music] whoo that wasn't terrible you're serious that's level perfect every time let's go for and seven-eighths this four and seventy three and three quarters order we're gonna be starting this panel at the corner where I post is so lucky for us the bottom side of these are reinforced with hardwood panels kind of like a pallet go in the opposite direction so all we have to do measure this off give it a quick cut with our skill saw make sure using a carbide tip blade or you will not be able to cut hardwood [Applause] really hardwood Leonore men [Music] yeah I'm gonna suggest using a jigsaw whoo now I gotta go get my chisel okay now the IPE hardwood from Brazil must be sealed on all the ends when you cut it it is this simple it takes a minute it's a wax allure that they supply and if you don't do it all of your wood will start to crack so take this little job seriously this is not a place to cut corners and if you're employing somebody to install this for you keep an eye out make sure they do it right yeah that's the one all right worth four thousand times more okay there's no two measurements that are the same here and that just you know an extent of how awesome the system is cuz you could build the patio on just about anything oh this would be awesome on rooftops where you just don't have any stability everything's moving and coming and going just set these on the gravel and off you go I want to make a rooftop patio now so the pedestal itself it has all of these locations that sets the depth in between the pieces has the little attachments but it also has this locking ring here that you can loosen and then you can swivel you can set your angle on your plate okay so then once you get this in position where you like it you can shift it and move your tiles left and right see that get everything squared off and level the way you like it and when you have where you want it put the allen key on the top and you can tighten up that ring and set that location no it's not moving anymore [Music] [Music] no for whatever reason we are flying through this project this morning here we are we gotta just switch out our grinder for my cup grinder this wheel is diamond tipped it is amazing for cutting stone so we're gonna just take the ridge off the concrete so we have a nice flat surface to put her pedal on and probably clean the edge up a little bit to just that after we're done you know we have something flat that we can attach all of our fascia boards to well it's time to fill in all the outside corners of course nothing here was anywhere close to square so we're gonna be trimming a lot of those ends here which is difficult gotta be careful with this project full of screws okay so you've really got to translate your cut on both sides and then remove screws that are gonna be in the way for this one I'm lucky I don't have any screws and weigh you right at the moment [Music] [Music] oh wow yep that's hardwood all right move yes that's incredible that takes some work even when that beautiful saw so we're gonna need a sealer on every one of these boards they so I'm doing all the cutting over here Danielle is over there at the other bench and he's doing all the ends Ealing then we're gonna just kind of be rotating through trying to get these down as fast as possible [Music] [Music] so we're in a unique situation because these pillars are generally designed for rooftop assembly but because of our patio and their knees to create the level we now have to build a fascia system around this day so in all my years the simplest way to solve a problem is using adhesives and so what we're gonna do is take our scrap wood whew good dollop so the good old glue here we're gonna set it on the concrete relatively flesh here's our little square identify where that is pull it up there we go yeah let that dry overnight now I've got a beautiful surface here for me to cut a skirt board and a nailing surface when I'm all finished so we're gonna do that all the way around and then we'll take the grinder off cut back any extra plastic that we don't need them the area and then we're ready to take care of this first thing come on I'm gonna basically just glue the entire deck here and then I'm gonna come back and set them all in okay well we're almost finished all I have left is put on the skirting dress up the stairs but another hour so and I'm all finished just want to get a little break here I got to catch my breath I've been a long busy day [Music] the screw across the middle here and that works great all the way around because this solid lumber right here [Music] yeah so I just spent the last four days cutting in this Brazilian walnut hardwood deck and that was a lot of cutting so this is the new evolution style with the new blade that's designed to cut everything without changing your blade so we figured let's give it a test after we're done building the hardwood deck and we'll see if this blade can hold up so this is just a simple piece of composite and we're gonna run a five or six different materials here you will just go from you know best to worst and we'll see how it performs [Music] so not just a hot knife through butter but look how sharp that line is all right that's good all right tubing hmm [Applause] yeah it doesn't melt it again it's cutting clean good soft metal copper pipe don't even needed to bear it that's crazy well I get a cramp for my face all right I'll hear something common steel track this is for stud walls in the house let's see how it cuts this mess it's really soft and flimsy yeah I knew it cut that's not bad it didn't want to lift it up and throw it in my face so I appreciate that you know here we go Wow Wow hear that that's piece of steel quarter inch tubing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] like it was made for it not bad eh impressive and there we go quarter-inch steel pipe this is awesome this is square tubing this is the stuff they used to make furniture on the YouTube channels every day Wow that's awesome now the most important test of all can I still do a nice clean cut on hardwood after I just kicked his butt with square steel tubing here we go [Applause] [Music] [Applause] not bad just a little bit of birth but that's pretty sexy so there you have it folks once uh every job never change the blade hey I think I just make it turn on a little faster max just thought you might like a look of the finished product now that we've got all of the tiles in place so remember for going over top of concrete to get a hardwood surface really really simple if it's flat really really really a lot of work if it's not but it's doable and I'll be honest with you I think it's definitely worth the investment of time hey listen we had a lot of fun Samuel and Audrey doing this collaboration with you and your parents we'll see you again next time make sure you check out this link right here because this is going to be the special video where we do our collaboration with that awesome traveling couple Samuel and Audrey don't forget to check them out

Channel: Home RenoVision DIY

Views: 1,356,643

Keywords: homerenovision, diy pergola, diy deck, how to build a pergola step by step, floating deck, diy deck building, diy pergola shade, floating deck with pergola, floating deck build, hardwood deck installation, How to Build a Pergola and Floating Hardwood Deck A to Z, How to Build a Pergola, Pergola and Floating Hardwood, no maintenance, floating deck on concrete slab, brazilian hardwood decking, home renovision deck, how to build a deck for beginners, how to build a deck, diy, jeff

Id: 4WT3Tlle3Us

Length: 78min 1sec (4681 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019