More Sides to the Deck

Last weekend, Noel finished sawing off the last of the big beam ends. This was the last step before we were ready to put the sides on the two remaining edges of the deck.

It feels like we are so close now, just all these little details to get done. Each of which is small and not too hard, but the sum of them are kind of daunting.

In the interests of getting something done and making progress on the deck before we have to move on to the bathroom plumbing, we decided to take some weekday evenings and finish up some things.

We had two long pieces of ipe that have been waiting for just this. We measured, predrilled. The same thing we've been doing for what feels like all year.

We're bringing the two sides together in a miter at the corner. But how far out should the first piece go? Because you have to install one piece first, and then it's not easy to move it around to install the second. Noel built this little jig that is just a mitered piece of wood held in place. We fitted the wood to that and there you have it.

The assembly under the side boards includes a little shim. This holds the board out from the side of the raft enough to let water that gets under there drain out rather than rotting the wood, and it also made it so we didn't have to fully recess the screw heads on the raft.

We put the first board in yesterday evening. It went in fast, we just didn't have much time between being done with work and a friend coming over.

We got to the second board tonight, trimming it to size and mitering the end. Noel predrilled all the holes, but we didn't install it because he put end sealer on it and we wanted to wait for that to dry before handling it. It'll go in quickly tomorrow.

While Noel prepped the second board, I plugged the holes on the other sides and on the stair risers.

This weekend we want to trim the sides of the deck to their finished size and run the router along the edges to round them over. When that is done I can seal the main surface of the deck, even if the rest is not quite ready (though I think it could be; the rest of the work is mostly trimming edges on the stairs). Then we have to put sides on the staircases so it looks more finished and small pets don't hurl themselves under the deck (I am looking at you, George), and some more sanding and sealing, and then OMG we need to get those railings.

Piece of cake, right?

posted by ayse on 06/29/12