Newfy:

DA Guys I am from Newfoundland Canada where we gets loads and loads of snow in
DA the winter. My door step is about 2' high from ground.
DA I am considering building it separate from the house and perhaps a few
DA inches below the door step. I am just unsure how to go if I attached to the
DA house, in terms of perventing damage to the house/door step/sill/ etc.
DA
DA All your suggestions has been taken and thanks much.
DA If any other suggestions, I'd consider for sure.

First check with local codes. Here we have one set of requirements
for an attached deck and another for a free-standing one.

As for separating your deck by a few inches from the house would seem
attaching to the house would be more stable. Sure it's only two feet
but.... When the construction crew built the decks here they were
anchored directly to the frame, not through siding. One is about
three feet off the ground, the upper about 15. (Heights to match
doorways -- and about 1«" below the tread, so that proposed
measurement is correct.)

BTW, to space the boards evenly use nails -- double-headed may be
easier. They also used snap-string to lay down a line for the screws.
The screws are all in straight rows. Looks better.

-
¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

* Did you hear about the tennis ball manufacturer who ended up in court?
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DA Oh another thing......there is now grass in the location where I will be
DA building the deck. Should I take up sod? Place plastic over it?stone?
DA Suggestions?

Here we used lattice along the sides. The grass died off. There are
a couple of weeds along the perimeter which are easily pulled. I
would think stones would show too much (especially white or light-
coloured ones); maybe a dark lava rock if you so desire.

Have a couple of rabbits which hide under the deck but don't live
under AFAICT. Chipmunks use it as a short-cut. Even on very hot days
it's cool under the deck and I can feel a breeze.

-
¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

* He is not quiet; he is a Conversational Minimalist.
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þ RoseReader 2.52á P003186
þ The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA 563-359-1971
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXMod V1.13 at BBSWORLD *

"barry martin" wrote in message
news:2029028065.944.817.8416563.1315292815.RIMEGat ...
Newfy:

DA Guys I am from Newfoundland Canada where we gets loads and loads of
snow ...... snip ....

Hi Barry; I agree. See the following.

I'm also in Newfoundland; Torbay just north of the capital city of the
Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is St. John's.
St. John's is a great stopping point for northern cruise ships by the way!

The island portion of the province is as far east as one can go in North
America and has therefore figured in many Transatlantic 'firsts'; first
Transatlantic telegraph cable in the 1850s, first Transatlantic wireless
telegraph message received by Marconi in 1901, first Transatlantic air
flight to Ireland in 1919, first Transatlantic telephone cable 1956 etc.!

Yes we do get a considerable amount of snow; some winters. It very much
depends on the type of weather. One winter I lost my gloves in November and
never replaced them, never put snow tyres on the vehicle and we had a
temperature of around 60 degrees Christmas day! Most years we do get some
snow although it often melts away before the next snowfall. When we do get
snow, it does, in our case accumulate on our heavily built approx. twenty by
fourteen foot deck.

Our deck joists are nominally attached to the house at one end but the main
support is some eight sections of old telephone poles set vertically three
foot into the ground. The posts are spaced about four feet apart; the deck
is not rectangular more like a rectangle with one end at a 30 degree angle.
The angled end is against a redwood fence about 7 foot high. the joists rest
on beams across the posts. The beams are a combination of one four inch deep
steel beam and several four inch by four inch telephone crossarms (probably
pitch or western pine?)
The joists across the beams are pressure treated 2 by 8, on approx. but not
exactly, sixteen to twenty inch centres to best utilize the spacing of the
beams. The decking is all pressure treated 2 by 8 (on flat) secured by 3.5
or 4 inch galvanized spikes into the joists. Several boards are secured down
with large SS screws to allow removal for limited access beneath. We did not
use that wimpy four inch wide three quarter inch 'decking'.
The deck surface is no more than 12 to 15 inches above grade so there is
insufficient space for a person to crawl beneath. The deck is accessed by
double sliding glass doors from the house and two low ramps to the garden.
the deck is almost at floor level of house; not lower as recommended we
know, but snow is going to build up anyway. Having the deck at that height
happened to work out very well when a member of the family was in a wheel
chair; no sudden drop immediately outside the door!

Occasionally a large snow drift accumulates on the deck near the doors; it
has twice in 34 years been necessary to shovel some snow off the roof
(mostly it just blows away into the north Atlantic!) and some of that has
added to the same pile. One occasion, years ago when we had a cat, we found
it looking in at us from well above eye level perched on the snowdrift and
one year the drift was high enough to scramble from it onto the roof edge
about 8 feet off the ground. While this weather is exceptional suffice it
that there has been a considerable weight of snow on our deck. Also since
it is so low to the ground it takes some time for it disappear; although one
can drive the snowblower onto the deck using one of the ramps.
Many decks are too lightly built for these conditions but since they are
usually a good distance off the ground they seem to remain clearer of snow
load than ours.

I seem to real that we collected the main underpinnings for the deck over a
period of time; dug the holes and placed the broken telephone pole stubs and
then cut them off level at an appropriate level. We purchased the rest of
the materials, which IIRC, some 20 years ago, cost about $700; we also
however had on hand the galvanized nails/spikes and sufficient material to
make some hand rails which although not needed with such a low deck serve to
define the deck separating it from the treed garden; the top 'rail' also
provides a place to stand plant containers, clothes pin holders and
occasionally to hang over floor mats or anything rather too heavy to hang on
a clothes line.
Permanently on the deck we have one of those heavy wooden 'picnic tables'
common in parks and camp grounds (no we didn't pinch it, we bought!); it's
advantage is that it also makes a fine five to six foot work bench for
various outside activities such as sawing a sheet of plywood and it doesn't
blow away or need to be stored winter time. Our house has two foot eave
overhang without eaves troughs so that drips are well out onto the deck,
also the end of the attached garage is set back another two feet so there is
about a four foot overhang of part of the deck for a distance of about 12
feet which is very useful and sheltered.

Deck maintenance has been minimal; this year I did have to jack up and add
a couple of supports adjacent to the house where two deck joists attached to
the house (and provided with 'flashing' to keep moisture away from where
joist hangers nailed to house), had sagged about three quarter inch. Did
this with a small car jack. The sag was about three feet from the centre of
the large snow drift. The total snow load on the deck, based on an average,
but not worst case, estimate of an average depth of one metre of snow
(weighing one tenth that of water) over the total area of roughly 18 to 20
sq. metres was equivalent of 1 x 20 x 0.1 = 2.0 cubic metres of water.
Since one cubic metre is 1000 litres that is equivalent to weight of 2000
litres of water. each litre weighs one kilogram (roughly 2.2 pounds) so
that's approximately 4400 pounds. However weight might have been more than
that because when I finally cleared the deck the bottom snow layers were
compacted into an ice slab, rather like what happens when glaciers are
formed! A neighbours deck and I have heard, others, did collapse due to
snow since they hadn't been kept clear. Like the roof of that supermarket
eh? Funny how people don't figure the weight of snow!

Sorry for the length of this; we are very satisfied with our deck although
frankly it is often more used as a working area. For example the mast of a
sail boat is stored along eave of house above deck and can be lowered for
moving or to work on it. Couple of 'GFI safety' electrical outlets, equipped
with weatherproof covers allows use of tools to build the deck and for
appliances afterwards. Weather proof lighting can also be provided.

Hope this gives some ideas. Terry.