New pool with deck work in progress

[Etek14]

Thought I'd share some after work and weekend fun, decided to tackle the deck myself and has really been a job finding the time between work and weekend household duties. Had the pool installed by the pool company but wanted to do some of the other details. This turned out to be a job indeed between deck block piers, summer humidity and heat in NC and mosquitos in the evenings before dark.

 

[DaveNJ]

Nice work, time consuming isn't it. Is that pressure treated wood.

 

[TizMe]

Nice work so far !! Im curious as to why you chose to build the deck over the filter? Can you still access it for service? I would have been inclined to double up on the 2x8 floor joist for stability and to stagger the joints which would distribute the weight. Are you screwing the decking down or nailing it?

 

[Etek14]

That is pressure treated wood from home depot, I had the same thought because lowes carries a pressure treated wood of a different kind and the color is different. I think depot's wood is suppose to be more environment freindly. The company that makes those deckblock piers has a site deckplans.com with plans although thay didn't match what I wanted. I would rather do 16" on center but the amount of deckblocks would be crazy and extra wood, trying to keep the cost down. The 24" on center with 2x6 wood along with the diagonal bracing made for a very sturdy deck especially now that I have the top boards on. I made a trap door in the deck for filter & pump access. I am starting work on the steps and railing this weekend with about a 12ft bench across the backside. I used 3" deckmate screws to attach the top boards, I like to make sure those stay down and don't try to raise up on me. Also did the bark side up to try to prevent cupping. I only had to stagger the top boards on the longest sides of the deck but 10 footers covered all the way in the middle area. I am a novice at wood but like to learn, got to figure how to make stair stringers, dont think the store bought will give me the right rise and run. I did find a stringer calculator on the net.

 

[Soda_fountain]

Nice job on the deck

Just a thought on the stringers. I too have a dimension that does not allow for 'standard' riser height and tread depth. I was dreading cutting the 14 steps in 3 stringers that I was going to need, so on a whim, I called around to lumber yards in my area and asked if any body had the size I wanted. No one did, but 2 places said they would custom cut them. They both quoted me a price that was the same as Menards sells their precuts. I had them cut for me to the dimesions I needed in 2 days and it cost me besides the board about $1 a cut per step per stringer. In the end I think my total bill for the custom cut stringers, deck boards the the treads, risers and braces was under $170

 

[Etek14]

Thanks for the tip, I have a pretty short run so might give it a try myself, hopefully I'll arrive at a set of steps.

 

[ronniem]

Looking good, thanks for the pictures. Make sure you post some pictures when you get it done. I am looking at building a deck around my AB pool and because of my lack of wood working skills was going to use the plans from that same site. I am just wondering how do you anchor the whole thing down to the ground? Living in South LA I would feel better to have it anchored some sort of way.

 

[Etek14]

Fortunately here in NC if my deck leaves its foundation I've got bigger problems :lol:

I understand the problem out in LA, I suppose you could use those screw in ground anchors..

I'll update the pics when I get the steps and railing done. Thanks for the nice words.......

 

[Beanie]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing them! We are in NC as well and we just finished our pool deck last month! You can check out mine from the link in my signature!

Great work! I can't wait to see the finished project!

 

[Etek14]

Ok, little further along. Still need to put the rock thats been sitting in a big pile around the rest of the pool but finally got alot of the deck details complete. Its amazing how simple something can be for someone who does things for a living like build these decks but although I enjoy doing new things there were times in this project where I caught myself making simple mistakes and trying to figure out angles and such for the stairs. Anyway here is the deck in its almost complete phase.

 

[Etek14]

few more...........

 

[Etek14]

I built this trap door for filter access.........

 

[Poolidiot]

Man!!!!!!!!!! Clean up that work site, that is a safety hazard!!! All kidding aside, you have done a great job on the deck, looks great.

 

[Etek14]

Yeah, could have picked up a bit before getting snap happy on the camera. Thanks for the support..............

 

[Mr. Baggins]

That looks awesome Bro. You kill me with the home improvement stuff man. Do you ever quit working on and around the house?