Deck building and design details with 30 Step-by-Step photos My usual tack when I write an article like this is to take you through the how-to in as deep a dive as I can While I still get in there on this one the scope of this project is a little much for Step 1 Step 2 etc At the same time I think a tour a diary of the job of sorts will be a helpful look at the problem solving and tools required all of them needed for successful code compliant comfortable for the homeowner deck build Dear Diary A Tree So when this deck which was at the end of its service life anyway was built the tree wasnt that big And I guess it didnt occur to anybody that itd grow Well it grew Problem Tree grew Even though it was made of wood too the deck stayed the same Nature pretty much always wins and it rendered this deck about as near to collapse as any I have ever seen Deck stayed the same So with a new code compliant design in hand we set off to rebuild the old deck The good news is that the old decks basic design was good The homeowner liked it I liked it So we built our new concept on a 22 x 14-foot upper deck a wide stair then a 22 x 14-foot lower deck slightly offset to make a more generous swoop into the pool area The basic idea paper edition If youre building a deck chances are you need a permit And lately Ive been called in to upgrade or remove some Homeowner Specials that were a mess by the time I got there but had also been a mess their entire existences So if you go the permit route its also kinda the law and stuff one of the drawings youll need is called a Framing Plan Demo The homeowner a hard-working cost-conscious guy and also parent to young kids like me sees value in work in completing tangible tasks with a beginning middle and end refreshing by the way so we made a deal that theyd do the basic demolition and some other heavy lifting And whatever full jank remained like these Egypt-permanent and in-the-way footings Id knock out of there Which points to why I drive a fully-loaded tool truck Because you never know what youll find when you peel back the lid In this case I needed the grinder to cut the hardware to get those footings out of my life for roughly ever Note I never operate a grinder without my 3M face shield Posts Lots of people dont believe my its not mine I didnt invent it but I use it aaaaaalll the time post-in-the-ground system is allowed by building departments Its allowed But wait theres more PostProtector is a 25-dollar or so plastic sleeve of genius which I source from HomeDepotcom It simply isolates the post from the microbes and stuff in the ground that can eventually get to the wood fiber All the concrete and hardware and tubes approximately six bags per hole which is 25-bucks-ish right there is eliminated So is mixing and pouring and definitely moving or screwing up the layout of the tube location 100 nobody hits the center of those I even use the box for other things like guarding an empty hole overnight Or as a giant message board They come with gasketed washers that you screw to the post If you have an inventive child you love willing to help they can help keep track of it for you The hardware makes the post and the Protector a single unit These sleeves require weep holes for drainage in case any water gets inside Theyre so easy to punch with a scratch awl and hammer even a child could do it And those lugs or ribs running perpendicular to the sleeves length those are uplift lugs That means if storm force winds want to pull your deck apart or out of the ground bubkuss Aint happenin Mud We have clay here just outside of Philadelphia PA where I live and build and wish had an ocean or glacial lakes or ponds nearby And we have mud Whats not slippery as can be is so sticky its hard to imagine And when it gets walked on and trampled it sets up like a brick It finally dawned on me to try and keep it dry and to that end I covered the work site in sheet plastic and whaddya know It worked Dad Jokes Required I literally felt bad for Jack then 11 who I made take this picture Poor kid Scarred for life And if I do my job right this is just a picture of him with his lad in 20 or 30-years Upper and Lower Mostly Lower The upper deck I framed using my top-down deck framing approach If you want to see my 3-part video series on that heres Top Down Deck Framing Part 1 for your viewing pleasure The lower deck I framed differently Its a free-stander registered off Deck 1 To locate it I built outriggers see the 2x6s coming off each end of the upper deck to establish the band joist for the lower deck represented by the orange string With that in place I could excavate and set the first row of posts Then with those set I could do the second row I also left them long so I could then set the height wherever it worked best thats the 2 10 top right in the photo With that set I could then mark the posts accurately and then cut them to height in place Post to Beam In the olden days which is current events for a lot of people we had to use carriage bolts then thru bolts to make the post to beam connection I did it for my decks but I didnt like it Drill bits always hit nails and I pathologically got the wrong length bolts and Id drop a washer or nut from time to time Blah Nowadays in Marty McFly Delorean time I can use two 5 16 x 5-inch Spax PowerLags to zing this connection together And as they say at the engineering firm That aint goint nowhere Cultivator Remember Mud above I couldnt bear the thought of hacking away at it with a mattock and shovelCould Not Bear It And then it occurred to me that Ryobi had sent me this little 13-amp doohickey cultivator and I thought Why not give it a try Holy smokes am I glad I did I used it loosen the soil and even drag dirt back to the hole A little shield keeps the tines away from the deck framing Ive used it on every deck since Works like a charm Easy to store and transport Awesomeness in green Posts and Decking Shims The guard posts usually need to be shimmed a little to get them dead plumb Rather than buy some thatll then roll around in my truck forever I just make them with the miter saw Its a six-degree angle I think Double Post Corner PowerLags are legit for use in guard post assemblies Ive even used them in deck-integrated pergolas However this inspector super nice guy by the way extremely responsive and helpful all the way through the process another reason a permit is your friend wanted thru bolts You know what he got Thru bolts I drilled the pilot holes for with an impressively powerful Craftsman cordless drill Jigsaw I hate jigsaws The cuts are never as clean as I want them to be Alas a lot of my ire was my fault While notching the decking around the posts on this job I noticed that if I paused for a few seconds before entering exiting the curve to start the straight part of my cut if I just let the blade clear out a tiny amount of wood fiber it cut as straight as can be Hallelujah Not Shown The little Milwaukee M12 hydraulic impact driver has astonishing power for such a small tool With a ratchet in my left hand which you cant see backing the nut and the M12 in my right crushing the cut-washers of the thru bolts into the wood fiber was a snap Decking I like to pre-set my screws with my cordless impact for three or four boards Im using Spax 10 x 2 HCRx coated screws then grab the corded impact and fly through setting them The cordless is plenty powerful but the corded Metabo HPT Multi-Volt is super smooth It goes a little faster is easier on my body and theres no battery to charge Routing A cordless router is a thing of beauty for adding a bullnose to that last deck board which must usually be ripped to fit I always install the ripper inboard of the last full piece Here it worked out that I could run a 3 -inch piece between the posts Awesome And in tool dweeb news this Milwaukee Tool router unlike any other trim router Ive ever had comes with a wide base about 6-inches I think Anyway it is sublime It stabilizes the router which is great because the top-mount battery does make it a bit top heavy and makes it extremely nicer than it already was to work with Rail and Pickets I had seen this railing system pop up online a few times and I liked the look but then never did anything about it because well Im a creature of habit This deck however with all this awesome yellow pine was calling out for a little simple affordable contrast Enter Dekorators wood-infill picket system Basically you lay out the top and bottom rails 5-inches on center marking them both at the same time Fasten lugs female on to the top and bottom rail Then insert the balusters male into them Screw the backets to the rails then screw the rails to the posts This system is safe fast and adds a sweet pop of contrast and lightness to the rail assembly Jadore Two-Post Corners Again The reason for the two-post corner is so that I can butt join the guard rail caps I dont care how tight the miter looks when you install it its going to open up as the wood shrinks I shrink at thinking how many decks I left looking great that were full jank in the guard rail area two weeks later The cure is a butt joint and it is worth it It looks great and its going to last Deck Trim Snap and cut all the deck boards at once Its impossible to try and cut them all to length as you install I give myself a 3-inch overhang which is more than enough make the cut add a 2 4 trim piece under the cantilevered deck boards and end up with a 1 -inch total overhang I like the look and its inexpensive to get Tip Try and position your body when making a long cut such that you can keep moving Starting and stopping all the time to reposition makes it harder for me anyway to keep the saw cutting right up to the chalk line And Thats All She Wrote A nice pleasant stair joins Deck 1 to Deck 2 A wrap around box step makes transitioning no matter if its a little kid big kid cross country runner grown adults going mad from Zoom meetings that last 3-days an easy affair The black in the rail off sets the pine and it all works Skirting I love this little detail too The horizontal deck boards on the upper deck hide the ground and drain pipes and roots sticking out of the ground underneath visible from a room just out of frame Note to Future Self install this before the decking next time because it was not a hugely fun day crawling around in the mud doing this after the fact We also added skirting to the lower deck and that made it eave more better-er too Little Things I find myself enjoying weird little projects as part of the overall scope Call it customer service and it is but its also fun The irrigation company that installed the system 5 000-years ago left a spigot stubbed out of the ground Thats it Stubbed Good enough Sitting there with nothing to do It is made of soft copper and I spent 3 or 4 weeks wondering when I was going to trip over it and have to fix it Anyway before I left I made a little housing for it and there it sits better than I found it And the Tree The tree may get taller the existing deck was probably 30-years old but it is likely done much more growth at the base And yes I gave it about a foot just in case I dont know everything about trees However I also have a chainsaw and there is no trespassing on this deck Mark Clement is the author of The Carpenters Notebook the only jobsite love story out there and a member of the JLCLive Demonstration team You can follow him and his wife doing DIY and Life myfixituplife