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I have an alfresco area which I'd like to deck. The joists (Green lines) will most probably fix straight into the concrete and ideally, I'd like to go 1500mm beyond the concrete (Red line). I have a storm water pipe (White line) about 800mm out from the concrete. 800mm out from the concrete, the ground is at its lowest point, which is about 200mm lower than the alfresco. With regards to the footings and bearers, what are my options?
Community manager's note: Check out How to build a low-level deck for expert advice.
Hi @IronStan001
That sounds like a good plan. But I suggest building the frame first and then coming back to this query you've posted. Once you have a chance to physically layout the decking boards, you'll have a much better idea of the layout at the end. But as you said there is always the option of trimming the joist to the last full board.
If you need further assistance, please let us know.
Eric
2 joists down to start with and so far, it's perfect to the mm and matches the same measurements as my design.
I'll put down a couple of joists in the middle and end, so I can hang the bearer and get the footings sorted. I have about 200mm of lawn under the end of the deck. Should I cut that out, or just leave it?
Hello @IronStan001
I don't think it will be necessary as the the grass will eventually expire once its covered by the deck.
Eric
What's the best way to level the joists?
The first 2 joists (green lines) are what I started with. I've been working off the GREY line as my initial height, then making the joist level by fixing it at the appropriate height on the last bracket (YELLOW line). Along the lengths of the joists, they're level and at worst, maybe 1 or 2mm off. However, I'm finding some joists are not level with their neighbor and might be up to 5mm low in some spots.
Generally, most of the joists and their neighbour are pretty even and I figure a variation of 1 or 2mm won't be noticeable. I'm less concerned about the level along the lengths of the joists (as long as all the joists are the same), and interested to know how best to handle levelling the joists with their neighbor since that's the one that'll give me wonky results when the boards go down.
The first 2 joists (GREEN line) some how have managed to be 10mm higher, so I'm going to undo bolts 2, 3 and 4, drop it down, check the levels and redrill/elongate the holes which should sort that one out.
Hmmm, that's a bit of a pickle @IronStan001. In hindsight, it might have been best to fix the joists at the end closest to the wall and then, after levelling them, fix them at the furthest point away from the wall. Now that you've fixed them along the length, levelling them with their neighbour would be hard. However, now that I'm re-reading your post, that kind of sounds like what you did. Any idea where, if the grey and yellow lines are level, this un-levelness appeared from? Was it from warps in the timber?
If, by chance, the low spots are between your joist brackets, perhaps you could lever up the joists and tap packing shims under them.
Mitchell
For the first 2 joists, it looks like only joist 2 was a little higher, so I've undone the bolts on joist 2, pushed it down until it was level. You can see the difference in the hole:
With the bolt removed, the joist wants to drop rather than flex up (assuming there is warping), redrilling the hole won't introduce any loss of strength to hold the joist at the right level. Now, I can run my level across joists 1,2,3,4 and 5 and we're level again. Only joist 3 so far it's still a few mm lower, but I'll just remove it, flip it around so I have fresh timber to drill holes into and re-fix it at the correct level. If I can eliminate those big 5mm variations (which there are only 1 or 2), the rest I can use a plane to shave a mm here or there. I don't think 1 or 2mm across the deck would be noticeable anyway.
