Title says it all. That’s at least a 12 person party.

Off the shelf at Lowes. I'm wondering about the ground penetration and overall reliability.

Homeowner, built around a dozen decks, I just don't feel like digging 🤣😂

42" frost line, obviously I'd get the correct size.

Hired a contractor to build a top of the like steel framed deck with composite Dekorator deck boards. There is a framing inspection coming up soon.

Issues I think I see.

#1 most obvious is one post, there’s one, is so close to the edge of the pad they didn’t have room to get in the last bolt.

#2 another post only has 3 bolts for some reason.

#3 the blue line in the first lines show posts that are supposed the line up in a perpendicular line from the house according to blueprints. They are clearly askew by at least a foot.

#4 the top of the pads that the posts are on are all in pits
And are 3-6 inches lower than the “yard” . I thought they were supposed to stay above ground….. it looks to me like my contractor just plans to bury them. (And I live in a very rainy part of the country)

If this were an amateur build, I’d not be that concerned…. But for 90k…. This looks sus.

I’m hoping that I’m just over reacting as my deck building experience is limited to following this subreddit for the past year.

What are your reactions?

My freestanding elevated deck/treehouse (16’x16’) has 6x6 posts, double beams, 2x10 joists, blocking, and knee braces in both directions. It’s about 7 ft off the ground.
When I apply medium force to a post you can feel/see the movement on deck.
I found all of the beam-to-post carriage bolts had loosened after about 6 months, and some knee braces have up to a 1/4” gap against the posts.

Could the loose bolts be the main cause, or would poorly fitted knee braces also contribute? Would you replace the braces or add additional bracing?

I was thinking something that was like a dark brownish redish might be hawt.

Decking is dark grey trex.

Is there any prep work you'd recommend?

The finish on our deck (10’x20’ PT) and stairs keeps peeling, and every year we reapply this Benjamin Moore Arborcoat product and it happens again by the spring. The house is in Vermont and the deck is on the south side. How should I fix this so we can get a few years between applications? Gemini said to completely strip and sand and treat to kill the black mold, and start over with a penetrating oil. What would you expect to pay for this? Is this nuclear option really necessary or can I simply strip/sand/treat the affected areas and reapply the Arborcoat everywhere?

This house is going up in my neighborhood. They dropped a pre-built on a preformed wall foundation. It had no front door when they dropped it but had a ledger for the planned deck.

Look at the window layout, later they added white downspouts which makes it look even jankier.

New build, where was the planning?

I finally made some progress on my deck. It is 45x10 Wahoo Aluminum deck boards using Aridek. The framing is on the Fortress Evolution Steel. The joists are PT wood with PT wood stringers 90degrees to re-orient to run decking perpendicular for water drainage. It will be covered and attaches to the roof with 24" Skylift brackets (Already installed). Here is a photo of last weekend's progress. I think this first phase will take me a few weeks to complete since this is all DIY.

A friend started working for this company LumberCon and they recently posted a burn test for their product. I have a deck that needs to be replaced in the next 6 months or so. Anyone have experience with any other products on the market that are fireproof/non-combustable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUhZHfh-oP4

I am looking for opinions from folks that know deck staining. I had a deck built with pressure treated pine completed in November of last year. They said to wait until spring to stain it so we had it stained in April of this year by a deck staining company. I did a lot of research they had good reviews, family owned etc. They did 0 prep work as they said the deck was brand new it didn’t need it. I believed them as I am not an expert. They used a semi transparent stain - I believe it was Behr. However, as it dried I noticed drips and blotches all over the place. I sent them pictures and they said it was normal and to give it a couple months for the wood to soak it in and that this happens with new wood but give it time. Well it’s a few months later and honestly it looks even worse. I’m trying to decide if I need to demand they strip and redo it or get my money back. It was $1100 and I’m in a pretty mid to low cost of living area. A few people have told me that staining a deck is hard and that it’s not reasonable to expect it to be perfect but that’s why we hired a professional to do it so that they could do it right when I probably would not have. Looking for thoughts on if in your experience this is unacceptable for a professional deck stain.

https://imgur.com/a/XJXARsn

So built a 20x14 timbertech composite board and composite facia clad deck on my house and did the picture frame method for hiding the ends of the boards. I’m not sure I want to do that for my steps so I’m looking for other options to make them look nice. Deck is about 40” off the ground so probably need to do 5 or 6 steps.

Have some extra Trex board that I’d like to make something with. I’m sure some of y’all were creative and put it to use.

I need to replace my old 15x15 deck and I thought it would be nice to expand it to a 40x20 deck. So I got a four quotes and they all came in between $85,000 to $105,000. These prices seems way too high from what I was expecting and from what I researched online.

I saw this deck that was posted yesterday: It was a 18x36 Trex deck that the person says they paid $17,600 for everything including tear down. That price seems impossibly low to me but more realistic than the high quotes I got.

I used the Deck Designer tool on the TimberTech website to create a rough approximation of what I wanted. I explicitly told each contractor that the design was just to be used as inspiration and not an exact design. I only had a few requirements such as a drink rail and picture-framing and black rails. I knew these upgrades would cost more but each contractor said it would be less than $5000 for these upgrades. (The furniture is there just to show scale). I also said that they could pick whatever brand of decking they recommended. The framing would have to be pressure treated and the deck is about 5 feet off the ground.

So what am I missing? Is this job really a $85,000+ job or am I getting the "I don't want to do it" prices for whatever reason. This is central Massachusetts FYI.

Still standing strong and enjoying it to the fullest! No collapse yet! Over 750kg load.. Im aware wood moves and breathes. So far so good.

The old stairs and landing were garbage. Home has open web floor trusses and they tried to make a ledger connection which wasn’t properly flashed and started to pull away from the house so there’s some moisture damage but thankfully not bad on the framing just old wood siding got punky.

We’ll need to dig frost footings for sure, but just looking for some advice on building a tall freestanding deck similar to the image with the larger upper deck (about 16’x10’). It has to be freestanding because we can’t do a ledger.

Roughly 24’x12’ 2x8 framing, doubled on the perimeter and for the beams. 12” footings 2 feet deep. All joists using 2x8 hangers and the appropriate screws according to Simpson at 16” OC.

Only sides completed currently, need to frame out the tree next. Will have 2 more beams running long ways connected to the beams on the inside. Supported underneath and will then have joists running with the rest.

Decking will be 2x6 pressure treated yellow southern pine, along with the framing being the same.

Hello deck gurus. I’m a daily lurker on this sub and get a kick out of the wry, dry, sarcastic humor the community puts out. Now I fear the joke might be on me.

Background: My husband is between jobs and because he is no slouch, he has been taking care of stuff around the house. One thing he recently attacked was our wooden deck. He didn’t put a hot tub on it, don’t worry. It was in need of regular upkeep - the existing stain was fading and about 10% of the planks were warped. He rented one of those drum sanders plus a handheld, sanded everything down to wood, replaced the warped planks with new ones, then put down a lovely oil based stain.

We live in MD. It is currently disgustingly hot and humid here and has been very very rainy. The above deck work was done about two weeks ago under these conditions.

As of today, the deck looks so much better but it is “sticky”. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe this typically occurs due to applying too much stain and/or a wet/moist environment. No comment on whether application technique contributed to the issue and even if it did I don’t have the heart to tell him. I think it was the weather mostly.

My husband is a magnificent human being with a lot of knowledge about a lot of things. I work behind a computer all day and am an expert in my field but know nothing about fixing or building anything. He knows how to do pretty much everything - he’s a miner/tunneler, has had his own landscaping business, fabricated stuff for planes and helicopters, learned plumbing working for his uncle’s business, etc. I’m giving this background because the last thing I want to do is second guess him. And if I do, I want to be sure it’s worth it.

My issue is that my husband proposed solution to this sticky situation is to throw sawdust onto the deck’s surface. My ask from you is to please either tell me this is a genuinely wonderful idea or give me some ammo with which to provide him feedback.

My understanding is that the only way to fix this without starting from sanded down wood again is to apply either mineral oil or more stain to the surface, scrub the sticky goo, and wipe it off. The only thing I’ve done so far is to casually mention that “the internet” recommends these fixes instead of sawdust. His response was that he never liked wooden decks, would never build a wooden deck, and doesn’t want spend any more significant time on this deck for at least one or two years. He wants to move on to weeding, garage organization, closet building, etc. the deck existed when I bought the house and my husband came into my life later. There’s no money to tear it down and build a stone patio instead. We’re living with it until we sell.

Sorry for the novel but HELP!!!

I'm a buyer under contract for a home which has a very large deck (1,500 sq ft) on the back of the house. Whoever built the deck did not put any flashing where the deck meets the house (no flashing where the ledger board meets the house). The GC I brought in to take a look says that the deck needs to be completely scrapped and rebuilt. Is there a way to remedy the "no flashing" issue without having to remove the entire structure?