Major Project #3 - Deck Construction

After building the fence to keep the pooches safely contained in the backyard, it was time to tackle the next project, building a deck. Why fence in your yard if you can't get out and enjoy it?

As things stood, the yard was little more than a muddy patch of grass with two huge white oak trees in the middle. Even worse, to get to the backyard we had to go out the side of the house, down some stairs, across part of the driveway, and then through a gate in the fence. This just wouldn't do. The solution, build a deck and replace a dining room window with a sliding patio door.

We know that we wanted three things in a deck: cedar cladding, clean lines, and no railings. Building cedar would give us the look we wanted while avoiding the chemicals associated with pressure treated wood, although at a slight price premium. For inspiration on deck with clean lines we went to the internet. A quick Google search led us to the work of Peter Kirsch-Korff, an L.A. based landscape architect whose work was right up our alley.

We love the sleek look and right angles of this deck, which reminded us of a recent trip to Mexico where we stayed an a newly built modern hotel.

The next hurdle was to build a deck without railings while meeting code.  The challenge here is that the main floor of our house stands almost 3 feet higher than ground level in the back and the lot slopes gradually across the back of the house. In order to meet code we had to provide a railing to deal with the drop-off if we built at house level. The solution, surround the deck with steps running the perimeter of the deck so there was no drop-off. Again, we went to the internet for inspiration.

We really liked the corner detailing of the steps of this deck, which make the steps look intentional rather than utilitarian.

For the transition down to driveway level, we liked the idea of a "dock" made of deck platforms like this deck from who else but Peter Kirsch-Korff

Using these pictures as inspiration, Matt whipped up this rough sketch for Handyman Dave.

Armed with the sketch and more unskilled labor from Matt's brother Jon, Dave got to work building what looked like a simple platform deck.

After a couple months of blood, sweat, and cash this is the result:

Now all that is left to do is cut a giant hole in the side of the house to make room for a door to access our gorgeous new deck...