New timber deck

[jaga]

Hi again,

My wife and I recently welcomed a new baby (our second), which highlighted to us that our current front door, wasn't particularly safe.. ie: there is no landing at the top, meaning that you had to step backwards down the stairs to open the screen door..

Also, we have a pretty good view from the front of the house, and therefore the most obvious thing, was to build a deck..!

Hence, here is my second post, in the Workshop group..

BEFORE: (photo is from real estate photos, when we bought the house, hence logo at bottom - also, i'd kill for grass that was actually that green..!! )

I didn't want to make the deck too big, for cost, as well as not appearing too overbearing.. Also, if I kept it less than 1m from ground level, I could do it without council approval... 

As the area was only small, it meant that i could use a nice hardwood decking, posts and handrails (a bit more expensive than pine). I used pine for the structural framing though, which kept costs down.

CURRENTLY:

PS- the "wet look" is rain, not oil/sealer..!!!

As you can see from the second photo, i've left the existing stairs in place, and built over the top.. The new decking will continue down over the face of the deck, and also the stair risers will be enclosed with decking too.. Wire balustrade and continuation of the handrail down the stairs is still outstanding.

I'll probably put a garden bed in to the left of the stairs.. And some kind of path from the driveway to the bottom of the stairs..

A couple of questions for anyone with experience in wire balustrades.. I don't want to buy the kits from Bunnings, because it works at way too expensive, but there are other suppliers (such as http://www.hammersmith.com.au, and http://www.allthingsstainless.com.au), who have multiple different 'systems', where you buy each part separately.. 

Owing to the fact that the deck is pretty small, i'd like to use a system with small fittings (ie: so that the length of wire is not dominated by a large turnbuckle, and large fittings at each end)..

Any suggestions?

Also, interested to know whether its standard practice to sand Spotted Gum (decking and handrails) before oiling.. In particular, some of the timber is a bit rough - even though the handrails are sold as DAR, it still seems "splintery".. Also, the decking has become a bit "splintery" around the screw heads.. Should i just sand around the screw heads only, or sand the whole deck??

Thanks.

Jamie.

[Jason]

Great project! Many thanks for sharing Jamie (@jaga). I hope members of the Workshop community have some great suggestions for you regarding balustrading and sanding. 

Jason

[Jason]

@Darren

Did you need to sand your spotted gum decking boards when you built your deck?

Jason

[Brad]

@jaga in my experience spot sanding shows up in the finished product.
Deburring the screw holes using something like a Stanley knife or paint scrapper, you can do about 1/4 to 1/3 of thee hole before you have to move and it does get old fairly quickly. Dremmel bit would work as well and you may only need to move to change holes.

[jaga]

Thanks @Brad,

If not spot sanding, do you think it could be worthwhile carrying out a light sand of the whole deck area, using say, a pole sander like a painter would use? Or would this also produce a poor result?

If so, would you recommend a fine sand paper, say 120grit?

Also RE: Dremmel bit.. I don't have a Dremmel tool, and not sure if it would necessarily be worth buying one just for this task, but i assume you can get a similar 'sanding' bit for a standard drill..??? Would there be a risk of creating little 'holes' around each screw head?

Jamie

[Brad]

Something like that will fit in your drill and you can run it around the inside of the hole. assuming that the screws arn't flush.

@Wayne would of forgotten more about sanding than I would ever know.

[Wayne]

I wouldn't be overly concerned with the end finish of deck oiling, in 12 months you would question why you bothered. You could sand through the various grits and get a super smooth finish but then that could create slipping when it is wet.
I often get burs after routing some timbers and find a stiff nylon hand brush cleans it up nicely.
As handymen we are often over critical of our work and try to achieve well beyond what a tradesman is satisfied with.

[Wayne]

I sometimes wish I could forget about sanding full stop!

[darylhewston]

@jaga

Looks great.  Good work.  With regard to your balustrades, I would just pick something that you think looks and works.  As stated, there are just too many to choose from.  To save on fasteners, you could drill through the posts and thread the wire from end post to end post.  

*****Just make sure the spacing between wires is to code as I am pretty sure there is a minimum/maximum spacing between wires (you don't want your little ones slipping through the gap).*****

With sanding, I personally wouldn't do the whole deck, but maybe you could get a dremel sanding ball bit that you could put into a cordless drill if your overly concerned with splinters.

Once again, excellent work.  Ohh, and congratulations on the new addition to the family.

Cheers'n'beers

Daryl

[Darren]

@jaga, the deck looks great, nice work! In reply to @Jason's question, no we didn't sand our deck prior to oiling. We were lucky though - the boards were all quite smooth and there was no visible splintering. Good luck, hope it turns out well!