After a busy week at work, I found myself back out on the deck. I was on my own this time because Amy Sheep was away in Nashville and Samuel Sheep is yet to return from the 108th running of the INDY 500.
I started off by securing the ends of the boards. We could have done this when they were installed, but we ran out of appropriate screws. It was actually easier to do it this way. The screws need to go through the "open" sections of the deck boards - you don't want to hit a "rib." I made some marks on a scrap piece of deck board which indicate the center of each cavity:
These marks, and two more which align with the gaps between the boards, were transferred to a small piece of 1/4 inch plywood...
With the plywood template I can set four (4) screws per board in the exact places where I want them. I found the template worked best when it could be rested against partially installed screws because it could not slide as much. A design improvement would be to make the temple 2 boards/8 screws wide and move it along every four screws.
I ended up setting batches of screws and then deploying them. The screws are set about an inch back from the perimeter of the deck, so the photo below shows that there is a significant overhang to the boards.
After all the screws were installed, I snapped a second chalk line and then trimmed off the excess deck boards. Which gives the nice straight edge you can see below. I still plan to cut probably two (2) more inches off the deck, but I am waiting until after the facia boards and gutters are installed.
All of which leaves this one section of the structure to deal with:
The 3-ply rim joist is still an inch or so higher than would be ideal, so I started with that. The blackened area is where the post was located. I was planning to cut out the damaged material and patch it, but I decided not to because it was very solid....just a bit discolored.
The area below the next post was too badly damaged to ignore:
This is after all the damaged material has been cut out and patched and the rim joist has been sistered with new timber:
Continued installing plywood in the area above the table saw room:
Covered in case of rain. We have a few family events coming up so it will be a while before I can work on this some more...
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