How to Install Decking | Best Tips

of course I don't have a hammer [Music] this video will be all about laying down deck boards on the framing of my new deck this might seem straightforward and thoughtless but there are tons of tips that will make your job go smoother if you're thinking about it beforehand and all along the way so let's get into it Pivot Point up to the shoulder check you know first let's talk about material the entire framing of this deck is pressure treated wood from Pro wood but now that we're moving on to deck boards I'm switching to Western red cedar and the first task was to move all the needed deck boards from the trailer to the deck itself now these are 20 foot spans and a tip is to be mindful of the common material choices off the shelf to be most efficient with material an example is knowing that board's common 20-foot links I planned out the overall length of my deck to fall a little under 60 feet so that I wouldn't need to cut into a fourth board to complete a row once I had a good amount of boards laid up next was to start laying them down let me show you the model to give you reference on the overall Plan before we execute it since the deck boards are 20 feet long we figured out which joist a full length could fall on while still leaving an overhang on the left now you're gonna have two options you can line up all the seams or you can stagger them I'm choosing to line them up and actually I decided to do something really special where I actually emphasized the seams I'm doing this by turning a 2x6 deck board on edge and then sistering it to the joists to where it pops up and protrudes when we were sistering this on and made sure that it came in flush with one of the deck boards height now you gotta do it on the outside or actually I used to do in the middle too I'll show you the end result so that you can see what it is that I'm doing I personally love the way that this turned out and it was simple to create if you're interested in doing the same with that seam joist in place we could use it to butt up the first section of deck boards on the seam I did not leave a gap but in between boards I left a 3 16 inch of a gap however know that the Gap is totally personal preference I chose 3 16s because it matched my existing porch's spacing for spacers I recommend these four in one spacers from spax and a tip is I wrap a quick Loop of painters tape on the opposite side so Jake and I would have a quick visual reference when working on which side needed to point up oh foreign I got 136 in the quarter about every fourth or fifth board you'll want to measure out to the end on both sides to make sure things are going on Square I measure straight out from my end while Jake measures out from his in this case since Jake is further out by a quarter of an inch he's going to add a little bit more of a gap over the next two or three boards to compensate other tips for keeping things and square is paying attention to what different boards need it's not a one method fits all process for example sometimes you get a board that is pretty straight and can be thrown up against the far left and right spacers at the same time then the two of us can work towards the center at the same time when you get a straight board like this the important thing is that we're both making sure the board is hitting the spacer before placing a screw other times though a board is curved so on this board as I pull mine up against the spacer it pulls his way out so whenever you have a board like this you're gonna have to walk it down from one end to the other instead of what we've been doing to where we both are working in towards the center you'll notice that the heel is the most used tool to pull the board into the spacer before securing it however cat's paw is useful to keep in the toll pouch on the step for the boards that need to be pried away to make up the spacing oh a pro tip is to be mindful of your screw placements it looks Ultra sharp and they're all in a line and about the same distance and on the board I personally use this spacer as a guide on how far to come in to place my screw also be mindful of the type of screws that you're buying most people reach for Galvanize but those will leave black marks and streaks on your boards once they get wet instead I recommend stainless yes it is more expensive but it won't Mar your beautiful surface and they also won't break down over time then of course don't forget to take breaks and celebrate your wins [Music] one thing about measurements of this Tee Box I shrunk down the size so that I could place a full length board from left to right it might seem like a little thing but if you can save yourself from cutting every board individually it will drastically knock time off the overall project so again whenever you're in that design stage be thinking about what standard material is on the Shelf another spacing tip for you is instead of waiting until the very end and maybe ending up with a sliver or a half a board or in our case we just measured out with about four boards five boards left and we're gonna come out dead flush which is not what we want we actually want to have an overhang it's not only uh cover up the skirting that's going to go on later but then overhang that so what Jake just did is he measured back to here and saw what the measurement was of four or five boards to get a sense on what we're going to be looking like at the end and that way we can start compensating it for it now so we've been using 3 16s but we're gonna go ahead and switch to a quarter in order to make sure that we don't have a sliver or dead even at the very end cool real Carpenter hugs awkwardly way to go hey all right beer [Music] yes cheers man good day although we're not done we still have all of that over there I like that don't look over there yeah in fact [Music] uh so for this intersection I'm just going to be cutting each one of these boards down to link because we don't have an N to let the one of the ends run wild like on the other two sections completing that first session section two and three were pretty much the same however since I wanted to do that special seam one thing it did create was every board in the section had to be cut before going in it's not a huge deal though what I would do is use my speed square to mark multiple boards in a pile all at the same time and then rip through them thank you foreign [Music] part about the doing it the way that we did it where we completed one section at a time is making sure that these deck boards line up to where when you look down the line they look straight so just know that if you're gonna do it like we are doing it in sections whoever's on this side needs to really make sure that these boards are lined up so that it has that nice straight look to it [Music] work this Gap is larger than the 3 16s but it's more important that this line be straight so just know that whenever you're putting it down it's not always about the spacing you really want this first board that you're laying down to be as straight as possible so that you have a good reference to keep everything else Square moving forward man do I love the way that Western red cedar looks on top of looking stunning it also has all of those wonderful natural qualities such as it being naturally rot resistant and naturally insect resistant and fungus resistant it truly has become my go-to material choice for outdoor projects [Music] on section three the only special thing of note here is the pull location there is a few different ways you can tackle something like this but what we did was deck right over it again using the seam joist to butt up the deck boards then letting the other side run wild off the edge so all of these boards on the end are just left wild meaning they're overhanging in order to find the end of the joy so I can figure out where I need to cut this I'm going to use my combination Square just to go over and butt it up next to it I'm going to make a mark however I don't want to cut it there because I'm going to have skirting and then over that I'm going to want an overhang so I'm going to come out from there uh you know pick my measurement and then uh pop a chalk line it's amazing how often a combination Square comes in here Beyond construction jobs I actually keep the six inch combo Square in my pouch but I have the 12 inch on site for cases like this foreign [Music] this needs to be done on both wild ends of the deck by the way before starting any construction project like this I put a moon nail slicer blade in all my circular saws in order to get the best cuts for my effort this blade produces very little tear out and lasts about eight times longer than other blades yes it's called the Nail slicer because you can absolutely rip through nail embedded wood while still having it performed flawlessly afterwards however even if you're not ripping through nails like I'm not here it has a premium high impact car by teeth that make it the obvious choice for construction jobs like this yeah nope left okay and the last thing for decking is cutting out the circle for the pool Jake and I walked around the pool to get an average circumference because the empty vessel won't be perfectly round then finding center of the pole framing I used a screw and a board to draw a perfect circle [Music] then I used a jigsaw to cut it out foreign [Music] platform for the pool to rest on but there's so much to cover there that I made it a standalone video in this series so stay tuned [Music] [Music] happy with the way that this has turned out this wasn't red cedar is gorgeous I love the seams I'm excited about the pool I'm excited to hit golf balls I really hope that y'all have enjoyed it so far but stay tuned because I have plenty more to do for now though I am going to hit some golf balls um [Music]

Channel: April Wilkerson

Views: 485,846

Keywords: aprilwilkerson, wilkerdos, diy, diyproject, diyprojects, build, plans, howto, decking, deck boards, wood, wooden, composite, cedar, redwood, 1x6, 5/4x6, deck screws, spacing, fasteners, deck framing, joists, deck tools, spacers, trex, timbertech, transite, new decking, low maintenance, lowes, home depot, deck ideas, deck design, decking tips, decking hacks, treated decking, ipe, cypress

Id: nBbgUbmgMcc

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023