OT Decking page

[The Medway Handyman]

[The Medway Handyman]

Ta muchly!

[Grunff]

your homepage, perhaps with a brief writeup (100 words or less) of a decking project, and a link to the photos page.

[Andy Hall]

[Bob Eager]

ISTR "Eats Shoots and Leaves" recording an exception to that; currently used in the USA but becoming accepted here too. That is the use of an apostrophe between an acronym and a following 's', as in: PC's.

I don't like it myself but it's the one case I will tolerate.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Bob Eager" saying something like:

Never! It is utterly unacceptable and fit only for the followers of swine.

[Owain]

I will only tolerate it if one requires a plural of a lower-case letter and does not have italics, to distinguish between a's and as, or i's and is. However having plural As and multiple Is is not usually confusing.

Owain

[The Medway Handyman]

More pickies!!!

[Mathew Newton]

didn't find them and neither might others if they land straight there from a search result etc.

Mathew

[Peter Ashby]

and Clair's at Swanscombe potentially cause flooding problems for the kitchen door? or did you allow for that in some way?

Peter

[Andrew Mawson]

country

I would want to see far more free air circulation under those decks for them the survive in our climate. The ones I've seen in the states tend to have the surrounding 'elevations' in either mesh or fine trellis for that purpose.

AWEM

[Huge]

Really? Not even with plural possessives?

[The Medway Handyman]

The patio has got three drains, two of which are either side of the kitchen door. The boards slope away from the door slightly. Never flooded in the past as the patio slopes away from the door towards the drains.

Good point though. I did ask the questions, it's something you need to be aware of. The ledger plates bolted to the adjoining walls are spaced out by about 10mm with heavy washers to allow water to drain.

One deck I built in an very unlevel garden (Clive & Paige), it abutted a neighbours garage wall. The garage was on a lower level, so the edge of the deck was about halfway up the wall.

This did cause a minor problem with damp patches after heavy rain. Worked out it was rain splashing off the deck onto the wall given the right (or wrong) wind direction. Couple of coats of Thompsons water seal did the trick.

[Peter Ashby]

Sounds good, looks non obvious from the p.o.v. of the pictures so you must have done a good job ;-)

Peter

[Steve Walker]

bare and scruffy (eg Dave & Claire). You should go back in a month and take follow-ups with plants, patio furniture etc in place, rather than tools & scrap wood. Maybe offer them all a £20 discount if they e-mail you a good photo during summer - dining al fresco with the kids running about, thriving plants growing up the walls, lazing in the sun?

I'd imagine there's a big psychological sell if punters can see the decking being enjoyed - it's what the big corp's do when they're advertising 'lifestyle products'......

[The Medway Handyman]

Oh what a good idea! Consider it done! I've got to go bak to Dave & Claire's soon to fit some balustrades.

[<me9]

They are with a possessive plural, but come /after/ the s.

[Andy Hall]

Yes I know.

I was really focusing on the case of apostrophes used before the 's' or not. That's generally where people get it wrong with plurals.

[Stuart Noble]

Engineers' grammar has never been that good

[<me9]

You know lots of greengrocer's?