Wow, it has been a while. Deck of death!

So earlier this summer I decided to take on a large deck with wrap around stairs. We opted to go with Trex Brasilia with their new hidden fastener system because it is a nice dark red without the cheesy grain of normal Trex. The vote is still out as to wether this was a good choice or not. Trex is cool, but it is scarier to work with then wood because there is no sand-out-the-bad-spots, and I am not sure how it will hold up eventually. I have had to be very careful not to scuff or scratch the boards too much, and that kind of scares me. Due to the 30' of wrap around step, I have still not finished the project, but should this week.

Some things I have learned are below:

• After framing your deck, immediately start on the decking. Otherwise pressure treated wood warps like crazy when it dries without the influence of the decking, and then you have to work hard to get stuff to line up again.
• Overbuild your deck structure. Do not come close to maxing the spans of your chosen wood because decks should not have spring at all.
• Be extremely careful when making stringers. I had to make around 28 for my stairs and inaccuracies in my stringers have made things much harder then they should have been.
• Stringers warp horribly, so get your decking on quick. (see the first gotcha)
• Galvanized pipe works great as simple foundation stakes. You can cut it with a metal cutting blade, and drill holes in it with normal bits. Then screw it right on to your wood.

There are some pictures in the More Summer 2009 flickr collection.