How To Build A Deck // DIY Home Improvement

hey everybody my name is Chris and this is my shop partner oats and in this video we're gonna be building a deck I'm going to show you just how easy it is but before we start I want to thank Lowe's for sponsoring this video let's get started my first step is to head to Lowe's deck designer so that I can design exactly the deck that I want it's a free easy-to-use software you don't need to download you simply just use it straight off of their website and you can pick from either pre-designed templates or start from scratch like I will do I'll also leave a link down in the description so you can check it out as well I'm gonna go for a nice simple single level deck with the railing and a single set of stairs but you can make your deck any size shape height and with as many levels and stairs as you want you can also customize the type of the decking material such as wood or any of the man-made materials as well as the color of the deck and the styles of the railing it really lets you do whatever you want it will then give you a real-time estimate of material cost so that you can check to see if you're within budget or not and make any adjustments then you can print the full plans which will include the materials list including all the hardware you will need as well as the layouts the deck parts nomenclature and all sorts of other good information to help you build a deck now before you order your materials go to your building assessor and make sure that the plans will meet all the local codes if they do not you can easily go back and make adjustments and if everything is good to go you can get your building permit and order your materials then you can take the printouts to Lowe's and they will pull all the materials for you and for just a few extra bucks they'll deliver it right to your door all right the most important part of your deck build is laying it out properly if you don't have a good square layout to start you can run into a lot of problems so what I did is I staked a stake near the house down there and then I build these mistakes with battens on them so that I can move my strings around I'll measure out from the house to the outside edge of what my farthest post is gonna be I do that on both sides then I measure the distance between my outside posts this way and then I repeat that measurement out here and then now what I'll have is a parallelogram now in order to get that parallelogram square you measure from corner to corner so if I'm two inches longer on this corner than that corner what I'll do is I'll shift this string one inch this way and that string one inch that way to meet in the middle check it again make sure I'm square and then we can move on to laying out where the posts need to get drilled and dig those out the plans will tell me the spacing of my posts so I'll use a tape measure and some flags to mark out where the post holes need to be the ground here was really nice and soft so we were able to just use post hole diggers rather than a gas engine auger which you can always buy or rent where I live the code requires us to dig holes at least 42 inches down to get past a frost line we're gonna pour our concrete into 12-inch forms and then set our posts on top using post anchors there are several ways of setting posts which include burying the post in the concrete and this is one of those crucial things that you should ask your inspector about the forms are usually 48 inches tall so I will mark and cut a level line across all my forms so that they're sitting just a couple inches above ground which will allow for water runoff then I will backfill dirt in between the whole wall and the forms and then tamp them down tighten next I will begin mixing and pouring all of my concrete I rented a concrete mixer for this step as trying to mix all that concrete by hand in a wheelbarrow is really back-breaking work just follow the directions on the concrete mixer in the concrete and then pour it into the forms tamping it periodically until they are cold you also want to be careful not to breathe in that concrete dust it's best to use a respirator but I just held my breath while um to the bags and made sure I wasn't breathing it in then I'll smooth the top to give it a very slight convex top to help with water runoff then I'll insert my post anchor bolt until it's about one inch above the concrete and in line with my layout lines then I'm gonna lay down some landscape fabric and then put down some rocks this is going to help with the water runoff and also prevent weeds from growing under the back all right so now that my footings are poured and the post anchors are attached I need to figure out the distance of my post to do that I make a mark on the house which will be the heights of the deck and then I subtract the deck board thickness the beam thickness and the joist thickness which for this deck which we're using to buy eight beams and joists is 15 and a half inches make a mark on the house that come down and put a line at 15 and a half inches on a stake then I'll run that line all the way across making sure that it's level so once I know my line is level I'll move the outside down half of an inch to give the deck a slight slope to allow for rain runoff once the line is where I want it I can measure from the post anchor to that line and get the heights of my post I use the miter saw to cut the post and I only have a 10 inch miter saw so I have to rotate that 6x6 post in order to cut it all the way through code in your area might not require you to use a 6x6 but I like to have the extra wide post because it'll give me some wiggle room to make sure that my beans are square when I mount those next these pieces are called beams and I made these by nailing two two by eights together I'll use four Tenpenny galvanized nails and I'll space that every 16 inches to make the beams these brackets hold the beams to the post and once I secure the posts to the post anchors I'll make sure that the beams are square and then secure those to the posts using those brackets and this is where I'm double-checking that the beams are square before I actually secure those to the post it's important to add nails to every hole on all of those brackets next I'll begin laying out my joists every 16 inches I put the first joist next to the house and make sure that it's nice and straight then I measure out from that in increments of 16 inches and they don't make a line and put an X on the side closest to the house then when I put my board next to the line I know that the center of the board needs to be where that X is then I can start putting down my joists I usually toenail them into place with a nail which makes adding the hurricane brackets a lot easier because my deck is 20 foot wide and they don't make boards that are 20 feet long I have to support two separate joists on that Center beam then to give the joists some extra rigidity I add some blocking along that center beam between the joists this will prevent the joists from wanting to ever roll over then I strike a nice square line with my chalk line and trim the joists so that they are all nice and straight before I add what is called a rim Julie [Applause] I make a little temporary support block that I nailed to the underside of the joist to help support the rim joist while I nail it and level it into place then all the joists are attached to the rim joist using joist hangers once I secure the rim joist I'll knock those support blocks back off now I'm only adding the rim joist to this side right now I have a little trick that I'm going to use later on to make sure my full deck board at the other side of the deck matches up perfectly with the other rim joist and I'll show you that a little bit later on now it's time to add the decking I'll take a drill bit and countersink all the holes near the edges of the bores to prevent splitting then what's out pre drilling I put two screws in every 16 inches into those joists that are underneath as we add the boards we're gonna stop about every fourth board can take a measurement near the house and at the far end of the deck to make sure that our deck boards are remaining nice and square as we go along now these deck boards are super wet still and so we will be pushing them snug against each other then screwing them down as they dry they'll shrink a little bit and gaps will form between the boards that will allow for rain and dirt to escape now if you're working with dry boards you'll probably want to add an eighth of an inch gap between the boards as you go now before I screw down my last four deck boards I'm gonna lay them into place and make a mark along my choice then I'll move my mark one and a half inches which is the width of the rim joist then strike a line with my chalk line and cut the joist there now when I add the rim joist that last deck board is gonna land perfectly flush with that outside rim joist as each deck board is slightly different in width it'd be nearly impossible to measure this out beforehand way back when you add that first rim joist and had that last deck board land perfectly flushed with that outside rim joist most likely you'd have to rip down that last deck board and it just wouldn't look quite as nice as having a full deck board right out to the very end so now I add my outside rim joist and all the brackets for it and then I can finish adding my decking boards all the way out to the end then I'll put a nice two by twelve skirt all the way around the deck now I'm going to start working on the post for the railings railings are another one of those critical areas that you need to make sure that you're up to code on so ask your inspector what the minimums are for railing Heights the way the railings are secured to the deck and the gaps between the balusters I took my circular saw with the blade set to one and a half inches deep and I made several relief cuts that allow me to break out all that waste with the hammer then I'll clean up the notch with a chisel and a block plane now there are other ways to make these notches as well but this is just how I like to do it then I'll add a little 45 degree bevel to the post to make it look nice I lay out the post locations making sure I'm meeting the minimum spacing required by code and make sure they're plumb and square before drilling my first hole for the carriage bolt after adding the carriage bolt I'll recheck that it's plumb and square before drilling my second hole then I'll add the second carriage bolt add the washer and nut and tighten those down with a wrench next I measure between the railings and cut a 2x4 for the top and bottom that will support the balusters we use some cut-offs and our speed squares to space these nice and evenly just like with the posts I wanted to add a nice bevel to all the balusters but instead of doing those a few at a time on the miter saw I decided to just line them all up strike a line and cut the bevel all at once using my circular saw so I want to show real quick how to layout the balusters spacings they have to be a minimum of 4 inches and it's a little bit tricky so what I did is I measure the inside width between the railings which is 60 and 7/8 here and then you add the thickness of one of the balusters that I converted them to decimals down here because the calculator doesn't work in fractions like that so what I do is I divide this the sum of these two numbers the width plus a balusters and then I divided by that four-inch minimum requirement that gives me 15 0.5 then you round up to 16 so that's the number of Bala's I'll end up using divide that original width by 16 and that's going to give me three point eight eight seven inches then I'll take a fraction converter chart and find what fraction is going to be closest and I'm just proud of 7/8 7/8 is 0.875 so I'll essentially make a spacer that is 3 and 7/8 inches wide and that way I can get a perfect width all the way across and I'll cut this just proud of 7/8 and then I'll have my perfect layout you will have to do this for each span between railings as they're all going to be different measurements we just countersink a hole and add a screw to both the top and the bottom of the balusters now we're gonna dig a spot and make a foundation for our stairs we had a few inches of gravel packet make it level and put concrete footers down to support the stair stringers you can also pour a nice concrete landing pad here as well next I cut my stair stringers off-camera those are one of the more tricky parts of the build and require a little more explanation that I have time for in this video so rather than making the video that much longer I decided to just add some links down below to some other good videos that explain how to layout and cut those stair stringers then I add my kicker boards deck boards and railings just like I did on the rest of the deck and I can move on to the last part which is adding the railing cap I use regular deck boards for my railing cap and cut 45 degree miter for the corners we're gonna let the deck dry and season over the winter and into next spring before we put stain on the deck and then we're gonna add some lattice and do some landscaping around it and look really really nice and last for years to come I hope you enjoyed watching this video and learn some things thanks so much for watching we'll see you next time you

Channel: Third Coast Craftsman

Views: 5,127,323

Rating: 4.8799124 out of 5

Keywords: deck, deck build, how to build a deck, deck building, how to deck, building, construction, framing, woodworking, diy, make, making, stair stingers, deck railings, deck boards, decks, diy deck, diy deck build, diy construction, home improvement, lowes, lowes deck, how to build a deck lowes, how to build a deck railing

Id: PkvKO8GchyE

Length: 16min 36sec (996 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 02 2018