Remodeling
Decks
Our master plan for the back yard includes three new separate
decks. One of them is the large main deck, 16x16, extending from
the back of the house. The medium deck is a 12x12 that surrounds
a tree stump which we will be using as our "eating deck" after we
build a tabletop to go on top of the tree stump. The small 4x12
deck extends along the side of the existing shed.
All decks have been completed at this point. Last remaining task,
after the pressure treated wood has a bit more 'sit time', is to
stain and protect the decks. We've already purchased the stain/preservative,
just haven't applied it yet.
All decks were built using Deck Blocks floating foundation. Read
more about it here!
There's an existing deck, a very nice one but it's fallen a
bit into disrepair. |
In Fall 2000, we rented a power washer and cleaned off the old
wood. |
Here's a close-up of the condition of the wood before cleaning.
After, we let it dry and sealed it with Thompsons' Water Seal. |
A view of the shed, and the "hard liner" pond, before the deck
work began. |
Another view, after we've started clearing stuff to begin work.
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Here we are with our first deck block row, and support beam,
in place. We tackled this small 4x12 deck first. |
All three beams are in place now. |
A different angle view. |
We've nailed on the deck top boards now! |
Our first deck, finished. |
Here's a view of the second and third decks. The furthest deck
is the "eatin' deck", with the mimosa tree stump poking through
which will serve as our table base. I'm standing on the largest
deck. |
The large deck comes out from the back of the house, for entertaining
or visiting. Some extra 2x6x16s are there -- they were supposed
to be replacement boards for the most rotten wood on the original
deck, but these were so warped we can't use them for much of
anything. Screens are on the eatin' deck while the painters
continue to work on the house. |
Calculations
This has been an incredibly strenuous task. As I'm a statistics
nut, I did some calculations.
All told, we used 96 deck blocks, each of which weigh 45 pounds.
I would estimate that we picked up and moved each deck block about
six times in all -- sometimes for lengthy "carrying" trips from
their stacking place, sometimes just shifting them about. So that's
lifting a total of 25,920 pounds, or almost 13 tons, over the course
of three weeks. Or 576 repetitions of 45 pound weight lifts.
Then there's the lumber: we had 78 2x6x16, 42 2x6x12 boards. The
delivery people just tossed them into our yard like matchsticks,
and then we had to lift each and every one to restack them so they
wouldn't warp, and THEN we of course had to lift each piece of wood
at least one additional time, generally more than that, to place
them properly. So, let's say that each board was lifted 2.5 times.
Each 2x6x16 = .1667ft x .5 ft x 16ft = 1.33 cubic feet
1.33 * 78 = 103.74 cubic feet
Each 2x6x12 is .1667ft x .5ft x 12ft = 1 cubic foot
1 * 42 = 42 cubic feet
Pine weighs 520 kg/m cubed, or 32.4 pounds per cubic feet (re
Adonis Timber Group), so:
(103.74 + 42) * 32.4 * 2.5 = 11,805 pounds lifted.
Before that, we brought in our OWN wood for the 4x12 deck, which
took 14 8' and 3 12 foot, or:
9 deckblocks x 45pounds x 3 lifts = 1215 pounds
1 * 3 = 3 cubic foot
.6668 * 14 = 9.3352 cubic feet:
(3 + 9.3352) * 32.4 * 3 lifts each = 1,198.98 pounds
Total weight for this deck: 1215 + 1199 = 2414 pounds
So, over a period of three weeks, a total of 40139 pounds was
lifted. If that was divided up over each day, it would be 1911.38
pounds per day, but we didn't work every day (it just felt like
it).
Now, we also had miscellaneous lifting, like a couple of bags
of QuikCrete and pea gravel, and then there's the drilling of (72*16)+32=1184
screws for the largest deck, (36*10)+32=392 screws for the 'eating
deck', and (32*8)+24=280 screws for the smallest utility deck.
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