Build free standing. Do Not fasten a ledger to brick veneer.

If the city guys handed you over to the irc,its up to you for the most part as long as you pay for the permit anything is fair game. They probley wont even come out and look until the final. Then if they dont like it you are in deep caccka. Thats the way it is over here,go on and build it,we come out and tell you if we like it or not.

So watcha gunna do Weedster????? You got a high $ cassa over there and you want to do that bunch of work your veryown Self.

You could go with out a permit.Or labor thu the code pages,keeping in mind they are so universal its silly and dont really have anything to do with deck building, and come up with a drawing take that to the permit store and go with it.

Or....You get in the phone book and call the local Deck Contractors. Tell them straight up you want to build all of it yourself, but you want to pay for their time in exchange for any info on the local way of doing things including suppliers,jobs they have done,tips on the soil things like that. Talk to several and compair what they tell you. Dont cheep out pay these guys several hundred for an hour or so. Keep in mind what you are getting.

I have been engaged this way the usual charge is $300. You might want to pick the one you get a good hit off of and keep him/her on as your project adviser should you run into a problem.

Not saying you wont get a little help over here cause you already know a little bout the site. But that will be very well spent money. J.

John hit the nail on the head - though don't nails, use screws :-)

Unless you have the special abilities to make certain all your posts and framing are done correctly and are square and allow some drainage with a slight slope, I strongly urge you to ask your final choice contractor/advisor to put in everything except the decking boards and rail system.

Before you start infringing on my handle though, take a look at this free-standing concept.

http://www.gretamobilefax.com/deck/may-deck.htm

Just my .005 cents worth!

Here is a link that might be useful: Free standing deck

1. If you build free standing, you run the risk of movement = twisting plus an unsightly gap. You can drill your lag bolts to go right through the brick into the block. I have a 30 ft span and I put in 28 half inch lags (staggered) into my slab. The deck is 5 ft off the ground on the far side and I didn't want it taking off on me. Better to be safe than sorry.
2. All sides. See #1 safe not sorry!!
You CAN do it yourself. The internet has lots of tables and tips. It's not rocket science...basic building fundamentals. My advice, take your time and think ahead as you proceed.

"You can drill your lag bolts to go right through the brick into the block."

Or into the framing, but the issue is that the ledger board will deteriorate quickly behind where it meets the brick veneer. Brick is like a sponge and holds moisture. Moisture will collect and condense between the ledger and brick. Even with proper flashing, it will get wet behind the ledger leading to premature failure.

A freestanding deck properly braced isn't going anywhere.

Sierra I had to look twice you and sreac looked the same there for a moment altough I knew better.

That project looks like brick over wood framing,not brick over a cinder block building. Look at the depth of the windows. Its brick vaneer over wood framing.

I dont know what the hell he was talking about far as twisting and gap goes.

Anyway fastening a ledger to brick vaneer is not a good idea. Its not that you cant flash it you can just cut out the mortor joint install the flashing grout in the joint again. Its the fact the brick cannot stand that kind of down force or pull away stress. J.

Thanks J, I can see the biggest reason is that the brick veneer just isn't structural, so that's the hook up on that, but I would still be leary of the ledger getting moisture even when flashed out in certain, wetter areas. Like stucco, brick veneer isn't waterproof and the framing staying dry is dependent on the underlayments, flashings, drainage planes behind the veneer as I know you are well aware of, but it's amazing how many folks think brick veneers and stucco are waterproof on the outside. I know someone who used redheads drilled into the stucco/ brown/scratch coat to mount a ledger without going into the framing or even flashing it. You know what happened. Same situation would happen with the brick veneer.

Thanks for the ledger/no ledger debate. I think we'll go with freestanding. I wasn't sure when that option was recommended (all the decks in the stuff I've read use a ledger).

We will definitely get a permit, as it's a pretty painless process around here. I'm hoping to have the inspector here on Friday to give us our final inspection on the sunroom interior plus an upstairs bath and laundry that we added. I'll ply him with deck questions then. And I'll keep the "consultant" option in mind if the inspector doesn't sound completely clued in to the details.

We're pretty intrepid DIY-ers, and have tackled all manner of projects, including ripping up floors and ripping down walls, and about the only thing we haven't done ourselves on this house was building the shell of that addition (we finished the inside). So I'm confident we can pull this one off if we're diligent in the design and careful in the construction. This wallet isn't fat enough to pay for someone else's labor. :-)

BTW, the brick veneer covers both a cinder block crawl space and a wood frame. Here's an in-process shot.

weedy, one more "I am going through it right now thought" from someone that knows nothing about anything - other than John knows his poop and that putting furniture on these large decks almost costs more than the deck material itself!

If you happen to do anything that is off a square/rectangle shape (trapezoid) make sure your posts line up before you set them.

The contractor that put in my frame goofed and the last board or two at the end of my deck are going to be ripped for about 30 feet and be shaped like a really thin slice of pizza because he missed! Band board on one side is 4" from the edge of the next to last laid board and almost 9" at the other side!

So, as John and I would say - Relax and take it easy 'cause we got nothing else to do!

Big deck, if I can add a comment. I dunno how far out of square it is, but its very difficult to get square when you're dealing with really odd shapes. Mine was not only cut off at 45 on the corners, but the opposite side had a long notch in it.

If you're dealing with regular treated decking, heres one idea. If you're "rip" is still fairly wide, then you're ok.

If the ripped piece will be a sliver, then I'd use a 2X8 piece of wood, notch the joists down to make the 2X8 sit at the same level as the rest of the decking. Then rip a sliver off of it if need be. I'd rather have a slightly tapered 2x8 piece of wood, than a full piece of decking, and then a sliver of another piece. Just a suggestion that might help you.

I talked with our local inspector last week and picked his brain about decks. Our local requirements are pretty standard. Here are a few more questions IÂve come up with, though, that IÂd appreciate your help with.

1. Our frost line is 24". Inspector says piers need to be minimum 24" deep. For safety, how much lower than that would you recommend? How deep becomes overkill? WeÂve got about 30 holes to dig, so will be renting a tractor augur.

2. IÂve seen a few layouts where they sandwiched beams on either side of a post. Decks.com said absolutely not, either rest them on top or do a cut-out. I want to be conservative, so IÂll do the cut-out (will use 6x6s for posts). But IÂm also building a pergola over a large portion of the deck, and was hoping to design the thing so that some of the posts could support both beams and the pergola. Am I stuck drilling separate pier holes for the pergola posts? Or can I notch out the post just for the width of the beam (like a C-shape)?

3. For a freestanding deck, do you recommend we put diagonal bracing on the beams? What about diagonal T-bracing to prevent sway?

4. For the decking, IÂd love a Brazilian hard wood, but this isnÂt our forever house, and even the pricey homes around here use PT or composite, so I doubt weÂd get our money back when we sold. So our compromise is looking like cedar. Red Western Cedar is the way to go, right? The local Menards carries cedar, but the sample in the store looks pretty knotty and it's #3 grade. I called a couple local lumberyards and they donÂt carry cedar decking. Any online places youÂd recommend? Google produced Austin Wholesale Decking, San Antonio Wholesale Lumber, and Buffalo Lumber (which sells "seconds" for $.99/lf). Any input on any of these?

I vote do not use WR cedar its just too soft,even a clear garde,and prone to earley failure in a lot of ways. J.

My husband is the deck expert/commercial construction contractor....but we have a "big ol' deck". It's redwood. After 25 years it's starting to rot in places. We're in the process of replacing sections. If it's NOT your forever home then don't over do it....money wise...:0)

{{gwi:43351}}

Is there another kind of cedar that's better? At least better than PT?

I hadn't looked much into redwood. What does it cost compared to cedar?

High grade s4s western red cedar and redwood are equal in price. Garapa is less than both of them. J.

Garapa is cheaper than cedar or redwood? You just got my attention and made me salivate a bit, John!

I just let my fingers go a-googling and a-dialing, and here's what I've found:
1x6 garapa for
$2.24/lf at Advantage Lumber
$1.91/lf at East Teak
$1.75/lf at ABS Wood (E4E, S4S)
and a couple more expensive places

2x6 redwood (assume you need 2" thick?)
$1.59/lf at Buffalo Lumber (STK, S4S)

So haven't found garapa for less than redwood yet, but for 16 cents more, that's awfully tempting...a few hundred bucks more in total.

Would the golden color clash with the red brick of the house? I suppose that's what reddish stain is for. :-)

Do keep in mind>>>Redwood has about a bazillon gradesThe going rate for Con Ht 2x6 rw over here is around $2.60 a running ft. Con Ht redwood grade allows for very little sap wood and is second growth. This lumber can not be compared to S American lumber in quality or long life.

If you want quality oats,you will pay a quality price...Butttttttt if you dont mind oats that have been thru the mule one time.....Lets Make A Deal!!!! J.

Mmmm, nice visual with that oats analogy, John. ;-p

I've got a layout now. I was working through all the load calculations by hand in figuring out where the piers needed to go, how thick the beams and joists needed to be, etc. when I saw an offer on decks.com. $100 gets you a deck design. That was hard to pass up, so I bit the bullet, and 24 hours later I've got them in hand (how cool is that?). It's bare bones, no 3D rendering or anything, but it did my engineering calcs for me, so I'm a happy camper.

Here's my excel mock-up, showing some of the detail.

Here's the framing plan and the pergola plan. The left portion is about 15x20 and pergola'd. The upper right portion is about 10x20 and pergola'd. (this is west-facing). The bottom right is just benched, with a fire pit planned.

Decking is going perpendicular to the house so I can use full boards and avoid butt joints. Any input welcome, as to our layout and any issues you potentially see with construction.

Several over spans with the joists.

Not bad over all. J.

Which ones are over spanned? They spec'd 2x10s for the joists, which are ok to span up to 15 feet, I thought.

I have said this so maney times I should just get a form so I can click on it.

Those span charts are maxed out to the faliure rate and were never ment for deck framing. Even a joist system inside a house with a 15' span would get a row of bridging or blocking mid span more than that if had a second story on it. Just increasing the size of the joists or for that matter the on center measurment will not take out the bounse if anything the added weight will make it worst. J.