Saturday, April 29, 2017
Building the deck for Ben's tool shed
Made good progress today .
First task of the day was to shift the load of lumber that had been dumped at the end of the driveway . Ben's little trailer came in handy .
OK we have a problem here , seems that middle post on the near side , the one we had to pour ourselves wound up too high . Can't quite figure out how I messed that one up . Only explanation is that when I marked and cut the Sonotube to the tight string between the two end posts I used the remnant of the tube instead of the one I measured .
So a bit of fussing was needed to make it all work , getting the bolt holes in the timber all in the right place also took a bit of fiddly work .
We wound up taking a big notch out of the timber to accommodate the higher middle post
It's OK , it all worked out fine in the end and our carrying timbers are all level and even .
Trimmed the joists to eleven foot nine inches .
And started nailing them onto the rim joist .
Far side is done .
Slid the whole mess over to center it on our carrying timbers , and attached the other rim joist .
Done
A bit of jiggling and a couple thumps with the blunt end of the axe gets us an even twenty feet when measured corner to corner both ways , so we have a square deck .
After toe-nailing the joists to the carrying timbers , we start laying out the OSB decking .
Mark the boards sixteen inches on center and start to nail the deck sheathing down .
After a late lunch brought to us by Ben's wife Jodie , we carry on with the decking .
Nail gun does a quick job of buttoning it all down .
Job done for the day . In next week's episode we build the walls .
Finished up the day making some noise .
Love looking at projects like that. These days the first thing I think of is how much all the lumber costs. I was supposed to replace my deck last summer, but time and money were in short supply. This year I might do the deck on the north side of the house and save the deck on the east side for next year. Need a new boat dock and that's gone up in priority. After all, I can fish off the boat dock.
ReplyDeleteAny idea if the timber trade war with Canada will affect your raw materials cost much?
I have not seen any change in materials prices so far. Not sure it will change at all. Word is that Maine lumber mills are spooling up and hiring people as a result of the new rules. Canadians have had an unfair advantage in that the Gvt subsidizes them and then they can undercut American producers.
Deletehttp://bangordailynews.com/2017/04/25/business/citing-new-tariff-jackman-lumber-mill-to-add-jobs-second-shift/
That's one reason I'm no good at carpentry. When something like that happens to me, I get so mad I come close to stroking out.
ReplyDeleteEnding the day with some shooting is a good idea. Works out the frustrations.
No need to get flustered about his one. It was more of a puzzler how it happened as we had a tight string between the two end posts and marked the tube to the height of the string. Must have used the remnant of the four foot length and tossed the good one. Go figure, that's what happens when you have Muck and Mire for Hire ;-) the solution was easy enough.
DeleteThe end of the day reward was just keeping up with the neighbors. Just about everyone there has a range in their back yard and you hear them going at it most of the day. There is also the Richmond Sportsman's Club with their range just down the road a bout a quarter mile.
Muy bueno, congrats! Que lindo es ver como se va concretando un proyecto!
ReplyDeleteAyer hicimos buen progreso en poco tiempo. Y el clima cooperó. A pesar del tropiezo quedamos con un buen sentido de satisfacción al final del dia.
Delete