The Deck Handbook Part 1: Introduction to Decks
The Deck Handbook - Contents Click to select another page
Part 1: Introduction to Decks
Part 2: Domestic Wood for Decks
Part 3: Exotic and Imported Wood Decks
Part 4: Composite and Plastic Decks
Part 5: Railings, Lighting, Pergolas and Seating
Part 6: Staining, Sealing and Maintaining Your Deck
Part 7: The (Almost) Maintenance Free Deck

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here to download Adobe Reader. Once little more than a homebuilder's afterthought, decks today are the focal point of most backyards. Good for entertaining, curling up with a good book, or just hanging out with a cold one; they serve as the open air family room.

Complex Decking Pattern This complex deck is a combination of straight and diagonal patterns. The carefully aligned deck screws are concealed by caps installed flush with the deck boards. As deck materials and construction methods evolve, designers are pushing the limits of form and function further than ever before.

In the 1970s, you could have any deck material you wanted, as long as it was wood. On the west coast, Redwood and Western Red Cedar dominated. In the rest of the country, pressure-treated pine (that did not have to be painted) was beginning take over from Douglas Fir (that did) as the deck material of choice.

Today the choice of deck materials is, by contrast, seemingly limitless: wood (of course), including the standards — pressure treated pine, cedar, redwood — and now imported exotic hardwoods such as Ipe (which are even more rot and insect resistant than their domestic counterparts); composite materials, vinyl, concrete, even aluminum and steel.

Some Deck Terminology
To plan your deck you need to consider all the choices available, filter them through your budget and come up with a number of decisions that will affect how your deck will look and perform.

This little handbook is by no means comprehensive. It merely seeks to introduce you to some of the issues involved in planning and building a deck.

Since we will be talking about decks, we will use standard deck terminology. You can refer back to the diagram at left if you encounter a term in this article that you do not recognize. There are deck components not identified in this diagram including ledgers, beams, rim joists, and stair parts. We did not include them here because they are not referred to in this article.

Designing Your Deck
Deck Design A two-level deck design. Photo-realistic images like this help you visualize the deck before construction begins when it is a lot easier and cheaper to make changes.
If yours is to be a very simple wood deck on fairly flat ground, you might consider designing it yourself. There are even a number of do-it-yourself design sites on the Internet.

If, on the other hand, you envision a more complex structure with multiple levels, composite or vinyl material, a railing that involves something more advanced than 2"x2" wood balusters, or interesting lighting effects, then you need a professional designer. That would be, for example, us.

We use truly sophisticated design software that, among other nice things, allows us to place lighting on the deck then look at it at night to see if the lighting is adequate and properly positioned. We can also look at sunrise, high noon and sunset views to see how the angle of the sun will affect shaded areas on the deck. It even allows us to look at the deck under Winter light and Summer light. The only thing it will not do is provide artificial snow. They may be working on that.

Deck Design A design for a tri-level deck in vinyl. Our experienced design team can design your deck for you. If we then build your deck for you, the design is free. If you elect to have another builder construct your deck, then you pay only for the design and plans. You can’t lose with this proposition. So contact us for a deck that is uniquely your own. Our computerized design process will let your examine your new deck in full-color photo-quality drawings so you can see what it will look like before the first post-hole is dug.

We can make any changes to the deck design needed until the deck is just right for you. We then create a complete set of plans and specifications suitable for permit application from which the actual deck is built by our skilled and experienced craftsmen and –women.

Decking Patterns
Split Diagonal Decking Pattern Split Diagonal: A rib board separates diagonal sections.


Herringbon Decking Pattern Herringbone: Alternating diagonal sections may be butted or separated by rib boards.
  Straight Decking Pattern Straight: The basic straight pattern. Deck boards are laid parallel to the edge of the deck.

Diagonal Decking Pattern Diagonal: An excellent pattern for smaller decks, deck boards are set at an angle to the edge of the deck. Deck floor pattern choices are endless. They can add style and panache and can make a deck look larger or smaller, or accentuate different areas. Deck floor patterns can be achieved using any flooring material. You can stick with a single pattern or combine different patterns for another look entirely.

Different deck frames support different patterns, so it is important to choose a floor pattern before building. The location and spacing of the supporting joists depends on the decking pattern. Decking boards must always be oriented across the joists. Decking board ends must be rest on a foist. They cannot float in mid-air.

By combining these basic patterns, a deck may be made as complex as you may wish. Even very complex patterns, such as the one shown at the top of this page, can be made up of simple combinations of straight and diagonal patterns.

Generally, the more complex the decking pattern, the more complex the framing structure and the more labor and material involved and the more costly the deck.

Cost is also influenced by the method by which deck boards are attached to the deck framework. The most common and least expensive is to nail or screw through the deck boards into the framing structure. This leaves the nail- or screw-heads visible in the deck.

There are also a great variety of hidden fastening systems for use with wood decking, and proprietary attachment mechanisms designed by just about every composite decking manufacturer for use with their own product. All of these involve some sort of hardware device that attaches to the deck board from underneath where it cannot be seen.

As a rule of thumb, hidden decking attachment involves about twice the labor of surface attachment, and about one-third again the material expense for the additional attachment hardware.

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