How to build an unusual shaped deck?

[Katie3]

Hi everyone

We are looking to build a small triangle low level deck to bridge a gap between two sliding doors (max height 220mm). It would be a right angle triangle (two sides 1500mm and the hypotenuse 2121mm). We want to hang the joists off the bearers to allow some ventilation space underneath. However, one side of each joist will be on a 45% angle. 

We can't seem to locate skewed joist hangers on the Bunnings website. Does anyone know of an alternative - would ledger strips be ok given the size and height of the deck. Any other feedback welcome. I should add, we don't want to do a square deck as it will eat up too much play space in our small yard. 

thanks, Katie

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Katie3. It's fabulous to have you join us, and many thanks for your question.

You don't actually need to use hangers, and you can just screw the joists into the frame. I'm not aware of any hangers that are skewed. If you pre-drill and countersink the screws, you'll be able to achieve the angle you need. I'm not entirely sure where the 45 degrees would be on one end of each joist. If it were a 1500 x 1500mm deck, there would be a 45-degree join, but as you have one long side, that affects the connection angle. You might be thinking of a different method of constructing the deck to me, though.

I've created a series of renderings below to illustrate how I would construct the deck. You can use pedestal feet to elevate the frame to your desired height.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[sethwan]

This looks easy but because the frame is all in one plane (not joists on top of bearers) the strength relies on the fixings. Do you think this is okay? I thought that screws aren’t strong in shear and could break in this design

[JacobZ]

Hi @sethwan,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community.

You're correct that in this layout, where a joist hanger is not used, the weight applied to the deck would be transferred into the screws This is not ideal, but you'll notice that @MitchellMc has placed a pedestal under each of these angled connections, which will be doing most of the weight bearing in this situation.

If you were building a larger deck, I would advise against it, but at this size, it should be ok.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob