Decking advice please?

[mike hibbert]

Morning all,

This weekend is officially "decking weekend", at least it is in SWMBO's eyes.

The area that we are decking is almost square, and is bounded on two sides by walls, one being the house and one being a 2' high wall that is the side of the patio (the levels in the house are all a bit odd).

I have built the frame and was going to mount it on concrete blocks, bedded into a cement base. However, it dawned on me this morning that it may be better to attach a batton to the back of the house and to the side wall of the patio, and to secure the deck onto this. then the other end could be supported with blocks.

Does this seem like a sensible thing to do? Would it be more secure this way (my head says yes to this)? If so, presumably a piece of 4'x2' sound be fine with a number of 4" screws into the brick would be sufficient?

any thoughts?

cheers mike

[David Lang]

Hi Mike

I have done exactly this on an 18' x 6' deck. Much better idea. No possible movement.

I used some fixings I got from Wickes that are designed to fix timber to walls. IIRC you drilled an 8mm hole in the timber and a 10mm hole in the wall. They proved to be incredibly strong, and it's quicker & easier to do than concreting.

[Big Al]

Hi Mike

That's what I did last year and it's still standing! I created my frame and fixed a 4x2 batten to the house wall using the `bang-in` hammer fixings rather than 4" screws. Not sure if there is much difference here apart from I used 6" ones. I then fixed the frame to the wall once in place.

Regards

Alun

[Mike Hibbert]

Thanks for this chaps, I called in a the local harwware store and picked up some of these at a whopping 40p each ;o)

I'm still going to have to buid some cemented supports at the other end, but I guess they will be taking less weight now.

Am I right in thinking cement onto the compacted soil will be ok?

Mike

[Big Al]

Hi Mike

If it helps, at the opposite end to my house wall I needed to raise the decking about 2 feet. For this I compacted the earth where the piers were to be placed (just with my feet) then put down a 6 - 8 inch layer of concrete ( 1 part cement, 2 parts sand and 4 parts aggregate). On this I made raised piers using normal concrete building block, layed on its side and mortared ( 1 part cement, 4 parts sand).

Alun

[bigcat]

IMM

NT

[Andy Hall]

ROTFL

[Mike Hibbert]

ummmm, you are gonna have to explain this one....

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 13 May 2005, Mike Hibbert wrote

I don't think he likes the poster who signs himself "IMM", and figures you should deck him.

[Mike Hibbert]

Doh - of course!

Happy to put him underneath it if anyone can bring him round.....

[bigcat]

:)