Side decks close to completion July 13, 2011

Today we finished the west side of the deck. This portion is about 52 feet long and 10 feet wide. It was a little tricky getting the last board installed against the base of the house. The sill logs extend beyond the edge of the basement walls.

The second photo shows the progress on the east side deck. This portion of the deck is the same size as the west side. I plan to complete the east side tomorrow and begin the portion of the deck on the front of the house.

The front section of the deck is the final phase for the deck board installation. The dimensions are 36 feet long by 10 feet wide. There are 4 poles I have to scribe out.

I bought a lumber straightener a few weeks ago to help keep the 2 X 6's straight as I screw them down. It appears the longer they stay stacked together, the more bends they develop. I broke the tool today. Triple S in Butte replaced it at no charge. I also had to buy more deck screws. I started out with 42 pounds; I purchased 10 more pounds today.

Once the decking is completed I plan to install and wire in the can lights over the deck. With these completed I can begin installing the soffits over the deck. I will need to get back to tiling the shower at some point very soon.

Deck in progress july 10, 2011

Here is the deck after the second day of installation. I went into the mountains today on dirt bikes with my cousin so I did not start work until 5 PM. I have a little over 50% of the decking completed on this (east) side. I have lost my hired help for the next three days so I will start the west side tomorrow. Scribing around the logs is the most time consuming so I will get this completed before Jimmy returns on Thursday.

Jimmy has been doing an excellent job cutting the deck boards to length, routing the ends and staining them. When he comes back I will be training him to screw the deck boards down. I found out today that I can easily cut the boards to length using my portable circle saw, which will eliminate a lot of extra handling of the boards.