Knowing how to build a deck and having your own personal garden in this overcrowded world nowadays is a real blessing. It's great to have a place where you can drink your morning coffee, throw parties for all your friends and neighbours, prepare grills and barbecues, or just let your kids play outside in a safe environment, where nobody can harm them. Owning a garden as an addition to your house is definitely a good thing.
Finally, you'll have the freedom to arrange it the way you want, and you can even grow your own vegetables and fruits. What many garden owners want to have in their gardens is a deck. It's a great construction, where you can put a table and some benches. You can eat your meals there and spend your time in a more pleasant way. But how to build a deck you can be proud of? After all, not everybody is a professional when it comes to building. Fortunately, there are only a few easy steps you need to follow.
Constructing A Deck Step-by-Step
1. Choose A Position
The position is the most important element when you're trying to build the garden deck of your dreams. Otherwise, you can build the greatest and most perfect deck in the world, but if it's in the wrong place, it can be practically useless. So, just take a walk through your garden and look around. Try to find the best possible place for your new deck. Have in mind, that you need to find a strategically located place.
This means you should consider the sun, the view, the positions of the nearby trees, the most common direction of the wind and many more. Once you've analysed all these important factors, you can decide on a location for your deck. After all, the most important thing is for it to fit the surroundings. After you've found the perfect place, it's time to proceed to the next step.
2. Prepare The Site
The next important step you need to take in order to build a deck you can be proud of is to prepare the site you've chosen for it. This is crucial for your deck's well being. In order to do that, you need to clean all the items, plants, shrubs and weeds from there. Removing the plants is essential because if you build your deck on them, they will eventually die without the sun, they will rot, everything will get wet and horrible. It will get to the wood of your deck, the fungus will eat through it, and your deck will become dangerous and useless.
You should also check if the ground beneath your deck is even because if there's a slope, it can be unstable and even can pose a danger to your life. If you can't get rid of everything by yourself, call expert gardeners to do it for you. It's better to be safe than sorry.
3. The Decking Framework
After you have prepared the space you need, it's time to build the decking framework. First, you need four joists, which you need to install into the ground. You need to form a square with them and attach each joist to the one next to it, by using angle brackets or galvanised joist hangers. After this, you need to fix the supporting slabs at the end to hold them level. Then you need to fit the joist hangers, using nails and screws. The next step is to join another joist in the other end, so you can form a supporting parallel with the ledger. If you want to strengthen the construction, nail noggins between the joists. And make sure the construction is square at all times.
4. Lay The Boards
One of the last things you need to do, in order to build the deck you can be proud of, is to lay the boards. This is easily done by nailing each board to the framework, using galvanised nails. Try to leave equal gaps between the boards. After the boards are ready, you'll need to trim them, so the edges of the deck can be even.
Now the only thing left to do is to paint the deck however you want and decorate it to fit your style!
Conclusion
Just like any DIY task, building your own deck can be quite challenging. However, if you’re up to the task and you have the time, the results can be very satisfying. Don’t forget, though, that if you feel like you can’t handle this project, you can always call for a professional that would handle the harder tasks for you, as well as give useful advice and maintenance tips. Decks are a solid construction that you would want to have for many years to come, so it’s really important to do it properly.
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