The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

In the Summer and Fall of 2015, my son and I build a large deck at his house in Germantown Hills, IL. This is the largest structure I think I have ever built. A good portion of the deck was 10 feet above ground.  It was roughly 40 feet long, and 16 feet wide.

Old Deck
This house had a small deck on the back. We tore it completely down, and then built the much larger new deck.



New Deck
We put on new 2x12's around the 2 sides of the house first, then we started building from the left hand side in the picture above. Jacob dug the holes for the concrete piers. I mixed the concrete for the holes.



I had to cut out the siding, then put in new flashing for the new 2x12" we bolted to the side of the house.



Starting to Erect the New Deck



Boy, those 16 foot long pressure-treated 2x12's wet were really heavy!!  It took both of us to lift them up in the air and set each one in place.








Railing Posts
Once all the 2x12 floor joist were in place, then we installed the 6x6" railing posts.



We boxed in each 6x6 post to give them more rigidity, as the picture above shows.



We used an 18" long 1/2" bit, powered by my old Sears 3/8" corded drill, to drill the bolt holes to anchor the 6x6" railing posts.

Once the railing posts were installed, we could install the deck boards.



The last step was to install the round aluminum bars, and the rest of the railing assembly........



I made 2 jigs that easily and quickly located the lower 2x4 so it could be screwed into place using 2.5" long deck screws.



This Jig locates where each screw goes, for the plastic male piece that inserts into the round hollow aluminum columns. Made the job go quickly and easily.














Next summer, we will install the smaller deck that will set on top of the existing concrete patio.


May 2016 Update

Weather finally got warm and started the small deck on May 11th, 2016. I bought higher quality 1/2" concrete bolts from McMaster-Carr.......


We bought a new 1/2" hammer drill from Harbor Freight last Fall, so we used it with a Lowes 1/2" carbide bit. They worked fine.



1st Day
I figured it would take about 1 day to get the basic support structure erected, and it did.

I should have ordered the concrete bolts with just a little more thread length. If you drill a little too deep, then you don't have enough thread left to put the washer and bolt on. But, I made them work.



Days #2 and #3







I decided it was never too early to start training Grandson Caleb on being a carpenter........



Railing Posts and Deck Boards

 3-Sided Big Stairs from Deck to Yard

Completed New Deck

Closing Thoughts

The smaller deck project went fine except the design of the 3-sided stairs took some time on Sketchup, and building the steps with 2 different angles for the steps was a challenge. We had to buy special angled plastic brackets at Lowes to use the round black ballisters on both sides of the big stairs.

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