Building deck-? under the rail/flush with gap/over rail

[Michele]

We are building a deck for 27' round abg.
My concerns are if we go under the rail, how will we place winter cover and how will it be to remove endcaps/rail if we need to change liner?
If we go flush with a gap, the gap will be pretty large because endcap stick 1" from rail.
Over the rail, how will I put on winter cover or remove caps/rails??

Help, we need suggestions!!

Thank you,
Michele

 

[cramar]

Personally I like under the rail, but my concern was people tripping over the rail, so I opted for "flush" with the rail, our gap approaches 1" in a couple spots and hasn't been a problem for our 6 year old daughter.

As for maintenance, it matters which way your boards go. On our pool the rails pivot, so I will have to remove a few boards to get them off - no big deal. If I had gone the other way (perpendicular to the pool) I'd have a lot of boards to remove, if you go parallel to the pool then removing a few boards shouldn't be that bad.

One thing to consider whichever method you go, don't trim the boards too close to the pool if you get hard winter. I confirmed that our pool and/or deck did heave a little bit, nothing major but if you cut them very close then any freezing/thawing action could rub deck against rail.

 

[repsolal]

I would guess that leaving a 3/4 - 1" gap will still leave enough space to pull a winter cover over and attach down below ?
What about people jumping in and putting their weight on the top rail ? is this a problem ? they dont seem strong enough to take much weight
Going over the rail would solve this, and like you say, removing a few boards for liner replacement is not a big deal as its not an annual chore.

 

[flyweed]

I built ours "under the rail" left just enough of a gap, that we could slip the cable, and cover under it. Has worked great for the last few years now.

 

[gqjeff]

I built ours "under the rail" left just enough of a gap, that we could slip the cable, and cover under it. Has worked great for the last few years now.

Same as ours. Looks tight but I can let it up enough to put the cover and cable under it.

 

[britinusa]

Mine is under the top rail, there is just enough space to get the cable under it.
We have not had any issues with tripping over the top rails.

 

[Durf]

Here is a video on how we did ours. We ran the deck over the pool and went with a unibead liner. Also we wanted a in ground pool but we were on a major slope. So we dug out 5 foot and built a retaining wall out of railroad ties. Then we still needed 20 full loads of dirt to get the 18x33 pool to sit on. You can still see the slope and drop off even after all that dirt. Excuse the mess and dirty pool, we just had a rain storm come through last night.



[youtube:r7j9423q]y05nPjhKLhg[/youtube:r7j9423q]

 

[hayabusa3]

Just watched this video with a brilliant deck - even a walk off area (just like the video above). Decking looks about an inch above the top of the pool and the walk off area goes over the edge. Nice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... MA1sET7pIs

 

[cramar]

Standing on rails is to be avoided, they aren't meant to take that kind of weight.

 

[Michele]

I am going to try and link photo. Hope this works

Here is our solution to being able to remove rails for future liner replacement.

 

[Michele]

I can't believe it, it worked.

We still have to do some sanding to soften the cuts. Now just have to get the deck boards layed.

 

[phonedave]

Here is a video on how we did ours. We ran the deck over the pool and went with a unibead liner. Also we wanted a in ground pool but we were on a major slope. So we dug out 5 foot and built a retaining wall out of railroad ties. Then we still needed 20 full loads of dirt to get the 18x33 pool to sit on. You can still see the slope and drop off even after all that dirt. Excuse the mess and dirty pool, we just had a rain storm come through last night.

Very nice. Whenever I see a double deck that close, I have visions of some idiot jumping off the top deck into the pool.

And for the record, my pool deck is like that too - under the rail, with about a 1" gap to get the cover on. Nobody has tripped over it yet.



-dave

 

[hayabusa3]

Would you mind putting up a few more pictures? Could you take some showing how you attached the boards to the 4x4's and also how the long running joyces were attached to those boards please? Thanks - looking forward to seeing the finished result.

 

[Durf]

Here is a video on how we did ours. We ran the deck over the pool and went with a unibead liner. Also we wanted a in ground pool but we were on a major slope. So we dug out 5 foot and built a retaining wall out of railroad ties. Then we still needed 20 full loads of dirt to get the 18x33 pool to sit on. You can still see the slope and drop off even after all that dirt. Excuse the mess and dirty pool, we just had a rain storm come through last night.

Very nice. Whenever I see a double deck that close, I have visions of some idiot jumping off the top deck into the pool.

And for the record, my pool deck is like that too - under the rail, with about a 1" gap to get the cover on. Nobody has tripped over it yet.



-dave

Yup, my pool guy swears it is too high and the pool too shallow to do it safely. He says your tailbone would hit the bottom. He was very adamant so i have not tried it yet, yet is the operative word. I think it could be done, but i put an extra $1 million
umbrella insurance policy on the house just in case some idiot not named me tries it.

 

[phonedave]

Here is a video on how we did ours. We ran the deck over the pool and went with a unibead liner. Also we wanted a in ground pool but we were on a major slope. So we dug out 5 foot and built a retaining wall out of railroad ties. Then we still needed 20 full loads of dirt to get the 18x33 pool to sit on. You can still see the slope and drop off even after all that dirt. Excuse the mess and dirty pool, we just had a rain storm come through last night.

Very nice. Whenever I see a double deck that close, I have visions of some idiot jumping off the top deck into the pool.

And for the record, my pool deck is like that too - under the rail, with about a 1" gap to get the cover on. Nobody has tripped over it yet.



-dave

Yup, my pool guy swears it is too high and the pool too shallow to do it safely. He says your tailbone would hit the bottom. He was very adamant so i have not tried it yet, yet is the operative word. I think it could be done, but i put an extra $1 million
umbrella insurance policy on the house just in case some idiot not named me tries it.

Potential for injury not withstanding. Way back in the day (maybe 50 years ago) my grandparents had a ABG. They came home one day to find the driveway freshly washed. Seemed my aunt had a party, and people thought it would be a good idea to jump from the garage roof into the pool. They blew the side right out of that sucker.

-dave

 

[danpik]

This was my solution.

I went with over the top of the rail. I did not like the "imposing" look of a deck that sat way over the top of the deck. I also saw the damage to the top rails of my buddy's deck which was built flush. I have about 3/4" gap under the framing over the rail to get the winter cover on and works fine.

 

[Michele]

Would you mind putting up a few more pictures? Could you take some showing how you attached the boards to the 4x4's and also how the long running joyces were attached to those boards please? Thanks - looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Here are more pics.
I don't know if these answer your questions.
When my hubby gets home I see if I took the right pics to answer questions.
All I know is lag bolts were used to connect boards to 4x4s.

 

[gqjeff]

Looking good. You should make sure your sealing the ends of the boards and also the fresh cut ends. It will help them from splitting and twisting in a short time.

 

[hayabusa3]

Image deleted?

 

[Michele]

Image deleted?

I don't know why they are gone?