Low profile deck with screening and steps

[MGusto]

Hi all, I thought I would share my latest project - a deck ay my daughter's unit. I gained some inspiration reading other people's ideas on how to build a low profile deck and it helped me greatly. My take on this was a little different  from other posts because I decided to use a screw pedestal system as the "bearers" for the joists. There were a number of reasons, the main being that the concrete paths and brick paving had moved over time and there was a lot of variation in the base height. It would have been a real pain using brackets bolted in the concrete path and achieving a constant level for the joists. Another is that the pedestal system is very easy to work with and can be screwed up or down to achieve the desired height. I ended up using a Buzon DPH-2 from Pascoe Constructions along with with a DPH-KIT5 joist holder. The cost was very reasonable at $5.18 +gst  for the pedestal and $1.65 + gst for the joist holder. This pedestal has a height range of 35 - 53 mm. There are other sizes to choose from. They are incredibly strong  each having a breaking load of 1460kg. The difficulty I had was finding an answer to was how many per joist would I need. The most acceptable answer was that based on a 90 x 45 H3 MGP10 joist the maximum spacing for a bearer would be 1.2m . My deck is 2.1m wide and 2.7m wide so there are 3 pedestals on the 2.1 joists and 4 pedestals on the 2.7 joists. Joists are 450mm apart and the decking is Merbau 90 x 19.

I miscalculated the actual variations in the path level and in some cases I needed to raise the pedestals by using a brick paver underneath or some villaboard sandwiched between two layers or damp course. 

I intend to seal the deck with Intergrain Ultra Deck Natural.

One thing to note is that you can see the pedestals poking out at each end. I will build a step to cover these. The other way is to have a double joist at each end about 8cm apart and use the innermost joist for the pedestal supports so the endmost joist hides the pedestal - like a small overhang.

Some photos....

[EricL]

Hello @batranikhil

Looking forward to the start of your project. I just wanted to make sure that you saw @MGusto's last recommendation about using the shims. Would it be possible for you to post a review of the Buzon pedestals while installing them? I'm sure our members would appreciate any details you can provide about its use. Please make sure to follow the recommended use of the shims as specified by the manufacturer. If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric