Building A Deck Properly
How to over build a deck easily.
Some of you know how much of a stickler I am about building decks. Some of you are going to find out eventually. I pre-drill the majority of the screws on every deck. (my workers tend to dislike this heavily) but I don’t care, I have high standards! That way the wood is less likely to split once everything dries out. Which makes the deck last longer.
I notch the posts so that the deck is sitting on top of the 6x6 post. And then I bolt the band to the post so that the 5,000-15,000 lbs deck is sitting on top of posts that are rated to hold around 30,000 lbs each . This is how you are supposed to build a deck.
In linden TN I see a lot of deck builders attaching to the side of the post and screwing the band to the side of the post… which means these pretty nice sized screws are what is holding up the deck. I’m not going to lie, that will probably last a while. But eventually the deck will rot and begin to slide down the post that was meant to hold it up. If you hire someone that screws the band to the side of the post ask them politely to notch the posts so that the deck sits on the posts as shown in my photos. Ask them before they start building because that will change the square footage if they don’t install the posts in the proper area.
You will also notice in my pictures below that I put joist tape on top of all of the joists. The reason I do this is because every deck that I have ever taken down that didn’t have this tape had rotted joists which caused the home owners to build another deck which is usually expensive. If you have a roof over the deck then it isn’t that bad, but if the deck is out in the rain then joist tape is an absolute must.
If you can afford to cover the deck with a roof then you should absolutely do it.
One last thing, a deck may take 1-4 months to build but in reality it takes about a year. The wood must dry out and once it does I come back and tighten the bolts and the screws down one last time. I always tell my customers that I have to come back and tighten down the bolts in about 6-9 months. (That service is always in the initial pricing.)
That way everything is tight and close together. If you are going to stain your deck then that is completely up to the weather and where it sits on your home. If it’s in the shade then it may take 6-12 months to dry out. If it’s directly in the sun then you can bet it will dry out within 3-9 months. Up north it takes 2 years to dry out typically so a year is a gift in the south.
Any good carpenter can do this, you can hire me to do it or ask your carpenter to do it. It’s a bit more pricy but for the piece of mind it isn’t that bad. You’ll have a deck that lasts 2-3 times as long.
If you ask them to pre drill every hole please feel free to message me and tell me what their face looked like when you said it! I’ve never met another carpenter that does it other than my father. Every “carpenter” that I’ve ever had do it complained the entire time. And that brings me joy!
