Raised Path - decking and steps - Project Continues - Day 3

End of Day 3 of the decking project. (That's a little porky actually, as I didn't have time to take pictures - so busy - so they are the start of day 4 - same thing really!)

The raised decking path is on the way to having the decking boards laid - as is the main balcony deck.

All balustrade newels have been fixed to the outside of the deck frame for added structural strength. The spindles will fix to the deck fascia, not to a bottom balustrade rail.

The deck boards are starting to go on now. The pathway which started off at ground level from front of house, and then raised to meet up with the main raised balcony deck at the rear. The garden slopes steeply from the front of the house through to the rear and beyond down into the woodland.

The raised decking pathway makes for ease of access from the front of the house. A better option than a staircase. The other access to the main balcony is from inside the house - via the split level conservatory.

This view down to the bottom garden patio deck - from the main raised balcony deck. Angles have been cut from the corners of the decking sub frame, to give a slightly less formal shape in these rural surroundings. Note the central supports on for the joists. These were concreted in after the deck joists were full aligned and levelled. A decking true straight joist had been laid across the deck frame to ensure that there are no hollows or bumps in the finished frame.

General view of the raised balcony decking unit and lower patio deck.

The raised balcony deck is finished at same level as the upper floor of the two floor conservatory. Deck boards have been laid - it is just a matter of building and fixing the balustrades for this area.

Looking up at the raised balcony deck. Most of the construction details can be seen from this view of the underside works on the raised deck frame. There is just one central post to fix under a pair of central bearers which will ensure that there is no sagging. Joist spans in this instance were kept to under 1.8m. The joist dimensions are 6x2in - 150x50mm C21 grade joists. All support posts were 100x100 (4x4in) with deck bearers being 225x50mm in pairs.

Another view of the construction under the deck.

We cannot stress enough that the construction details to a raised deck frame have to be strictly thought out, and then adhered to throughout the whole project. On other pages within this site, you will see decking that has been constructed wrongly by either inexperienced deckers, cowboys or just incompetent DIY 'experts'. This type of deck is not for the amateur. Don't risk the safety of yourself in the construction nor the safety of your family and friends ion a poorly constructed deck.

Day 4 sees the majority of the decking finished (Little bit more to do) and a bit of a clear-up for the weekend.

Jerry sports the latest line in outdoor fashion! In spite of the sunshine, this was a very cold day in March.

In the background, you will see the frame for a slightly raised deck which will house the bicycle shed. This has been raised up to allow ease of access from the garage basement door. As we said earlier, the garden slopes severely, and there are several levels inside the house for what would normally be the 'ground floor'.

A further small deck has been taking shape at the top of the garden at the front of the house. This will actually give views over the top of the house to the surrounding Kent countryside. Well worth the extra bit of work.

The has been a small staircase built to this deck to facilitate access on this steep slope. The staircase has been constructed from ready formed decking stair stringers. They conveniently take two standard deckboards for the tread with a single deck board facing for the riser. The stringer allows for the normal 'nosing' distances to be included in the tread construction.

Whilst down on the Bottom deck, the laying of the deck board has been completed - after the newels were fixed. If decking had taken place before the newels had been fixed, then it would have been impossible to access the nut end of the coach bolts. An easy mistake if you are inexperienced.

Just the balustrades to finish....

Then this view from the conservatory will be complete!

Day 5 and all the balustrades are starting to take shape on the Verandah Deck. (It is still very cold in spite of the welcome sunshine!) Now you can see the balustrade decking spindles have been allowed to follow down onto the decking fascia boards covering the deck frame. This really does give added strength to the balustrade top rail - especially when pre-formed top rails are used.

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