Looking for Decks for dummies

[don &/or Lucille]

Help is there any such thing a book thats assumes a person knows little or nothing about decks? Can give variuos drawings ,plans?

[Jon Danniken]

Try one of the Ortho or Time/Life (or similar) books at your local HIS.

Jon

[Bill]

Also good to learn what can go wrong if these are not properly built.

Search google.com for the words... deck collapse

Also click on Images (at top) of the google.com search and you can see pictures.

[Bill]

P.S. I don't think you are a "dummy", rather a "smarty" because you are asking! (Good!)

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sat 13 Mar 2010 05:04:46a, don &/or Lucille told us...

Actually there is a book entitled Decks and Patios for Dummies...

[The Daring Dufas]

This link might work better many:

TDD

[professorpaul]

Went through this a couple of year ago.

Got a very nice book from Lowes, I believe. Nice diagrams, some information on spans, etc.

Also, I check with the local government on permits, etc. as to what they needed. They were quite helpful.

Also, looked at a couple of decks to get some ideas.

A sharp Skill saw and a good power screwdriver are your friends!

[Joe]

There is a growing sentiment that "Deck Are for Dummies", given that they require so much maintenance and are mostly little used once in place. Consider whether you really need a pricey 'keep up with the Joneses' addition or a more prudent reducing the mortgage by that amount. Times are tough right now, and the recession will be with us for some time. Nothing wrong with reading up on the subject, though, to help decide when the time is right.

Joe

[don &/or Lucille]

There is a growing sentiment that "Deck Are for Dummies", given that they require so much maintenance and are mostly little used once in place. Consider whether you really need a pricey 'keep up with the Joneses' addition or a more prudent reducing the mortgage by that amount. Times are tough right now, and the recession will be with us for some time. Nothing wrong with reading up on the subject, though, to help decide when the time is right.

Joe

[Jack Hammer]

Home Depot used to have software that would help with the design. I am not sure if they still do but I know they will design your deck for free. It is a good idea to get someone experienced to design the deck for you. If it is more the 3' high or attached to the house I would have an inspector look at it during construction. This is not for "dummies". The last thing you want is the deck collapsing -full of guests and a lit BBQ.

[salty]

There is in fact, a book titled "Decks & Patios for Dummies"

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sat 13 Mar 2010 10:58:22a, The Daring Dufas told us...

I used to use "tinyurl" a lot until I learned that a long url enclosed by < > almost always works as easily.

[The Daring Dufas]

"We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site"

Is what most people see with your link. I had to copy/paste the relevant characters to get to the page. Also, I always use a shortened link because even a longer working link will be truncated by follow up posts. As you are well aware, sometimes the original post may not have been propagated across all of the news servers. Disparate news readers may handle the "" link method differently. I use Thunderbird (news reader not wine) and it doesn't see but the first part of your link as such. I might slip over to Google Groups to see how it handles your post.

TDD

[larryr]

Considering the recession and the lack of jobs, NO ONE should be building anything. No one can not afford it, except the ultra wealthy, and those people should be giving their money to the poor who have nothing to eat, (which is half the population in the US). Anyone building these days is either very greedy, or wants to go so far in debt that they lose what they already own.

To the OP, wait till 2020 to build your deck. by that time we "might" be out of the recession. Of course that will only happen if we get rid of both the democrats and republicans, and elect someone who gives a damn about "We the people".

Larry R

[don &/or Lucille]

[Real Pisser]

not when it shows you're in Canada

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: [e-mail] ---

[krw]

What a load of crap. At the very worst, if you have cash to pay for a deck, go for it. Do it yourself, even.

More crap.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sat 13 Mar 2010 10:21:11p, The Daring Dufas told us...

True, using "" is not infallible, although I had no problem opening the link using Xnews. Since many people are skeptical about clicking on an abbreviated link like TinyURL, it might be a good idea to post both.

[DerbyDad03]

re: ' There is a growing sentiment that "Deck Are for Dummies" '

Growing amongst what groups?

re: ' mostly little used once in place '

Can you point me towards some data?

I only ask because I live in Western NY and use mine year round. At a minimum I shovel a path to the grill until I have time to shovel the deck completely clear.

During the warmer months, we use it 4 to 5 times a week and the dogs hang out there every day.

I'm only one data point, so my usage proves nothing. I'd like to see the rest of the data that shows me becoming a minority.

[The Daring Dufas]

That's a good point and tinyurl does have a preview function but if enough people know someone has been around long enough to have a habit of posting joke links and not malicious attack links, there's nothing to fear. There are the classic "Goatse" and "Tubgirl" links but the only thing that may be affected is ones ability to hold down their dinner, not their computer. I have a couple of add-ons installed in Firefox that effectively block most malicious links and those are WOT(Web Of Trust) and NoScript. I would recommend them to anyone. Don't pick on me or I'll start top posting. *snicker*

TDD