TheSwamp
CAD Forums => CAD General => Topic started by: Guest on August 14, 2007, 04:56:03 PM
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I'm creating a 3D (don't even start!) drawing of deck plan for my father. What's the spacing between the boards. I know they say "place a few nails between the existing board and the next, then nail the board down", but what's that dimension? I'm being really anal about this one (just because I can!). Space isn't an issue, so it's not like I have to be 100% accurate here. It's more of a curiosity thing now that I've got this started. Also, does anyone have any good ideas for a design for the deck boards? I don't want to do the same ol' thing with the boards all running the same direction. Also, there is going to be a little nook for the grill and another area for one of those gazebos that you buy at Target.
<side note> Anyone got any dynamic lumber blocks they'd like to share? </side note>
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I don't know how "official" the number is... when my dad and I built the deck on his house, we fabricated some steel guides using 1/4" plate with a stop on top, and a handle, so all we had to do was drop it on top of the first board, shove the next up against it, screw 'er down, and repeat.
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Are you using dimensional lumber or composite?
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Having a fancy layout for deck boards looks great. But if you are going to be having them run every which way you are in for a ton of blocking. Joist run one way, decking runs another. You can run them at an angle to the joist but you will waste a lot of footage on those 45 dg (or whatever) cuts but it can look nice.
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Having a fancy layout for deck boards looks great. But if you are going to be having them run every which way you are in for a ton of blocking. Joist run one way, decking runs another. You can run them at an angle to the joist but you will waste a lot of footage on those 45 dg (or whatever) cuts but it can look nice.
You are thinking on a budget.
I dunno if there is a standard. Might depend where you are. If you have a lot of leaves, you may want a larger spacing so you can clean out the cracks easier.
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If we're thinking on budget... make 'em about 24" o.c.
That should be comfortable walking distance.
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Hardwood or Softwood timber species, softwood/treated pine - larger gap, more shrink/swell with moisture.
Here I think the standard is a couple of coins :-D
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You are thinking on a budget.
I'm looking for more info.
If you are using standard lumber.... When we build them here the boards are installed tight as you can get them. After roughly a month you are left with a very nice uniform 3/16" to 1/4" gap. (After the boards dry out.) We have done it that way for a long time and it has always worked out nice. I've seen decks where do-it-yourselfers have spaced them 1/4". They end up with almost 1/2" between boards. That is treated lumber. If you are doing Cedar space them with a 16d nail (roughly 1/8").
FWIW. Your mileage may vary. Some settling may occur during shipping. Colors will vary from lot to lot. E pluribus unum.
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Are you using dimensional lumber or composite?
Slight steal:
I started plans for a deck of mine and was told composites could not be used for structural members....true? ?
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I haven't seen any composite structural yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it's out there somewhere though.
IMO even the railing material they use is too flimsy.
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My dad's deck; we used treated cedar and it ended up being maybe 5/16" if it the gap grew at all. FYI... just adding this one singular instance of a deck built in Missouri with one single type of wood by a couple people.
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They treat cedar down dere?
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Man that deck would look kewl if you sunk the gazebo floor area, like a conversation pit.....
Matt you going to help your old man build this :-D
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Maybe run the deck boards parallel for economy but get a router and cut a geometric design in the deck? But don't cut it too deep into the decking. You could cad-up a design to scale and lay out a grid on the deck to transfer the design.
We lined a bath surround with some kind of rigid composite material and routed out the outline of a sunfish. Looked pretty good and was relatively simple.
Bo
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I've seen some structural composite "lumber" that has fiberglass tendon reinforcing. Although it's supposed to be as strong as wood, it's still more flexible. Looks phony, too.
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but get a router and cut a geometric design in the deck?
:-o
That coooool !
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That would look cool Bob. I wonder about toe stubbin' though. (I'm clumsy like that) :-D
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We used a super simple jig if you even want to call it that. Just two small deckboards at either end with screws put right through them so they stick through. Lay one board, slap your jig on top and pull the next board in tight and screw 'er down. The width of the screw seemed to work for us, anyway. And I strongly suggest using screws instead of nails to put the deck down with. Comes in handy if you ever need to pull some boards up for whatever reason. Others may disagree, but whatever... :)
As for the pattern, of the boards, why not cut them all into miscellaneous shapes and sizes and make a mosaic out of it! :-D
Actually, my buddy's neighbour had a real sweet setup with a sunken hot tub and something really bad happened to the hot tub and he ended up covering it up with a REALLY cool design. It took him a long time to do it, but everyone who sees it is wowed by it for sure! He used a couple different types of wood and it's in an octagonal design, I believe.
I dunno, here's something super simple... just a thought and not very far outside the box, I know....
another couple... nothing is dimensioned right, but you get the idea...
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I LIKE M-d!!
How are you treating the interior lines paralleling the edges? Is that like an inlay?
Nice!
Bob
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This layout stars with an offset octogon and then repeats...with the asymetric portion leading the eye towards the shake roofed gazebow of your deams
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This layout stars with an offset octogon and then repeats...
seems like nervous breakdown material to me.
ditto with the routed pattern .. like putting icing on a steak.
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some quick ideas...
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...spacing between boards on my back porch is about big enough to lose something important in between (1/2 inch).
*runs off chasing lost cigarette before it lights something up*
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I LIKE M-d!!
How are you treating the interior lines paralleling the edges? Is that like an inlay?
Nice!
Bob
Thanks :)
Yeah, I was thinking like... if he were to use cedar for the deck, he could stain those inlay / border pieces just a shade darker or something like that... I don't know... something to play with, anyway. :) It's almost a sin to stain cedar though, isn't it? :)
OT: Cedar is one of my absolute favourite smells. I love it all... Starting with a walk in the woods, early in the morning while the fog / dew is still in the air and you can smell all that clean, fresh cedar.... *sssssnnnnnifffff* Hhhhaaaaa :-D (next time you see a cedar take some of the 'leaf / needle' off and crush it up in your hand and take a nice big whiff of it. Fresh cut boughs smell awesome too. Then there's the lumber and mulch for your gardens. I remember one time when I had my first car, I went and bought about 8 big bags of cedar mulch and stuffed it in the car. I ended up leaving one bag in there for about a month because it smelled so good.
*Snif ~ Haaa yes.... Cedar. My other favourite smell is bacon being cooked in the morning... especially if I'm on my way back in from the Cedar bush and the two smells mix... MAN! I can almost smell it now! I sure hope our camping trip that's quazi planned for September 7th doesn't fall through! :)
Sorry Matt... Back to the deck! I did NOT mean to go that far off track!
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This layout stars with an offset octogon and then repeats...
seems like nervous breakdown material to me.
Phew! I almost had a seizure looking at that screenshot! :P I think the finished product would look really cool, but man, that would be a lot of work!
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A quick Google search -> http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/decks/deck_10.htm
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(from one of my custom house designs) might help...
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A quick Google search -> http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/decks/deck_10.htm
I found this web site yesterday: http://www.deckorators.com/Deck_Modules/FDI.htm
Looks pretty cool from what I've seen.
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Man that deck would look kewl if you sunk the gazebo floor area, like a conversation pit.....
Matt you going to help your old man build this :-D
I'd like to... Depends on how the kids are. I built a concrete paver patio with a wall and walkway mostly by myself a few years ago. These pictures were taken using a digital camcorder so the quality isn't that great but they give you a feel for the space and size of it.
The patio came out pretty good. There are a few things that I would do different looking back, but I'm happy with the overall design and look of it. And it only cost me about $4,000 to do it. If I had someone come in a do it "professionally", it probably would've cost me around $20,000 (rough estimate).
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Nice work Matt. I'm looking at a couple retainment/paver projects next spring. I've done them before but not on my own house. :-D
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...spacing between boards on my back porch is about big enough to lose something important in between (1/2 inch).
I was in Sacramento for an SP thing a few years ago. Went to dinner with some friends who lived there and they took me to this very swanky, cool, restaurant that was on the river. We ate in a screened-in outdoor room that was built over the river. When I paid I handed my credit card to the waiter and he dropped it. You should have seen the look on this poor guy's face when he was juggling it. It landed on the middle of a board but there was probably about a 1/4" space between the floor boards and below that ...... open river. I wonder how many things they lose to that river every year. :-D One would think they would design some kind of netting for under it.
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very cool patio!
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They treat cedar down dere?
I think it was treated, my dad still has a lot of boards left (especially the 1x1s from the railing ..uhm.. spokes I guess) and each board has that little tag stapled to the end with the info on it... I thought they only did that to treated lumber, but what I know of lumber is very limited. I was 15 at the time I built it with him, and was mainly the "Josh, watch me do this pain in the butt task once, and go do it 80 times for me, k?" type guy. I learned a lot, but I wasn't in on a lot of the details like that.
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I was in Sacramento for an SP thing a few years ago. Went to dinner with some friends who lived there and they took me to this very swanky, cool, restaurant that was on the river. We ate in a screened-in outdoor room that was built over the river. When I paid I handed my credit card to the waiter and he dropped it. You should have seen the look on this poor guy's face when he was juggling it. It landed on the middle of a board but there was probably about a 1/4" space between the floor boards and below that ...... open river. I wonder how many things they lose to that river every year. :-D One would think they would design some kind of netting for under it.
I can just see it now...
"Carla.... will you marry... NOOOOOO!! OH MY GOD!!! IT'S GONE!!! IT'S GONE!!! SON OF A....!!! AWWW, GOD!! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!! THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!!"
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very cool patio!
Thanks.
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That is some nice work, Matt! :)
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That is some nice work, Matt! :)
Thanks. I'll have to bring in some hi-res pics if I remember. These fuzzy pics just don't do it justice.
I used mostly Techo-Bloc from **cold chill runs down spine** Canada! :-) :wink:
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I used mostly Techo-Bloc from **cold chill runs down spine** Canada! :-) :wink:
Heaven forbid! ;)
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I used mostly Techo-Bloc from **cold chill runs down spine** Canada! :-) :wink:
Heaven forbid! ;)
They make some good stuff. The wall blocks were Techo-Bloc (I think). Anyhoo.... They were really easy to install (after I did some drawings in AutoCAD for the design). Just drop a row down, throw in the pegs and drop down another row. Before I did the drawings I was fiddling with each block trying to figure out "Okay... which one should go next? I want them to be staggered. Okay, maybe this one should go here.... Um... maybe not." I DO remember that the largest wall block weighed in at 64 pounds. Yeah.... didn't want to have to move that one anymore than I needed to.
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Free bottle of Ketchup with every pallet.
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Free bottle of Ketchup with every pallet.
Call in the next 15 minutes and get 4 litres of Maple Syrup and a tuque at no extra charge!
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Matt,
Can you email me those photos?
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Matt,
Can you email me those photos?
Ummmm.... Why? What are you up to?? Hmmmm???
You can just right-click on the file name and select the save picture as option.
If that doesn't work, than, yeah... I can email them.
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Matt,
Can you email me those photos?
Ummmm.... Why? What are you up to?? Hmmmm???
You can just right-click on the file name and select the save picture as option.
If that doesn't work, than, yeah... I can email them.
Just to show my wife. Future improvements to our place.
Yeah I can go through all that trouble, but I was trying to be like management and push it off on someone else.
I'll grab them myself.
Thanks
Greg
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Nice work Matt. I'm looking at a couple retainment/paver projects next spring. I've done them before but not on my own house. :-D
You know what they say... the cobbler's children have no shoes.
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You know what they say... the cobbler's children have no shoes.
Mmmmmmmm...... Cobbler
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Matt,
Can you email me those photos?
Ummmm.... Why? What are you up to?? Hmmmm???
You can just right-click on the file name and select the save picture as option.
If that doesn't work, than, yeah... I can email them.
Just to show my wife. Future improvements to our place.
Yeah I can go through all that trouble, but I was trying to be like management and push it off on someone else.
I'll grab them myself.
Thanks
Greg
Here are some more. If I remember I'll grab some of the hi-res pics tonight.
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Nice work Matt. I'm looking at a couple retainment/paver projects next spring. I've done them before but not on my own house. :-D
You know what they say... the cobbler's children have no shoes.
Cobbler's Children = Crumbs? :)
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Nice work Matt. I'm looking at a couple retainment/paver projects next spring. I've done them before but not on my own house. :-D
You know what they say...
Ummm.... no.... actually, I don't.
the cobbler's children have no shoes.
:?
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the cobbler's children have no shoes.
:?
You never heard that phrase? Maybe it should be updated a bit since I can't say I know of a single person who uses the title "cobbler" as their profession. Just means that what you do as a profession, your household often lacks. Usually that's because most people would hate to do their job all day and then come home to have to do it off the clock too.
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hahah nice... get them kids workin'!! Crack that whip!
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the cobbler's children have no shoes.
:?
You never heard that phrase? Maybe it should be updated a bit since I can't say I know of a single person who uses the title "cobbler" as their profession. Just means that what you do as a profession, your household often lacks. Usually that's because most people would hate to do their job all day and then come home to have to do it off the clock too.
Nope, never heard that. I know what a cobbler was is was.
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hahah nice... get them kids workin'!! Crack that whip!
:lmao:
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He made his kids dig that whole thing with just that little shovel????!!!!!
And then he made them roll those 64 pound blocks into place????!!!
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He made his kids dig that whole thing with just that little shovel????!!!!!
Well, they broke a few of them. He had a whole crate of those shovels just in case. :)
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Don't even start on how they had to compact the gravel with their wittle bare hands!
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He made his kids dig that whole thing with just that little shovel????!!!!!
Well, they broke a few of them. He had a whole crate of those shovels just in case. :)
That's because they were made in Canadia! :wink:
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Well, they're designed to break when a certain load is reached. It's a safety issue.