Hey choochnbob Unfortunately I was unable to view your pictures because the album is private. I believe we may have some products that could help you with your existing deck and patio. We sell modular flooring options which are great for pool areas because they are designed to provide water drainage and if need be are designed for easy access to fix any issues occurring underneath the tiles. Please check out our website www.coverdeck.com Or give us a call at (800) 550-3325 I am unable to help with the leveling of the decks for pool but one of our phone reps may be able to help as they are more knowledgeable in that area.

Honestly it is doable. I just did one based on reading the code from my town and youtube!! Its going to be alot of work and it will take some time but its definitely doable and alot cheaper to do it yourself. Just make sure you contact the town who will inspect your footings before and after you pour the concrete then after that its just connecting wood together and cutting and ensuing you have the correct galvanized ties and alike. Good luck though - if i can do it you can too!

It's more ROCKET SCIENCE than you appear to be want to give it now. Your questions were so inanely basic, that you obviously haven't even begun to do the research that you need to do this job SAFELY and LEGALLY. I can't explain to you the entire ARTICLE 680 (and by reference 250 and 300) in a few news postings. If you can't be bothered to actually do what I suggested and go read and learn Article 680 (and the prerequisite sections of the code) and you are too pigheaded to get a professional in there, GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR POOR FAMILY. As I mentioned earlier, we LOSE people in pool wiring screw ups several times a year. This is no place for cocky know it alls.

I've never seen a surge strip without a ground. If you could find an old 2-pin plug strip, you could make one with an MOV, but why bother? That's effectively what you have anyway when you plug a 3-pin one into your current receptacle. An ungrounded surge strip provides some measure of protection from surges and lightning, but not nearly as much as a properly grounded one. As for your DSL friend working on your wiring - I recommend saying "no thanks." In most cities, it is not legal for an unlicensed person to work on your wiring, with one exception - YOU are permitted to do so, *if* you own the home, and *if* you obtain a permit from the city's building department. I was going to recommend that you install a GFI yourself - the only installation differences between "with a ground" and "without a ground" is that without a ground you simply don't connect anything to the ground terminal, and on the GFI face you stick a label that says "no equipment ground." But then I looked again at the photo you posted. It's tough to be sure, but the junction box your recept is in doesn't look very generous in size. It might be OK, but I'm a bit concerned that you might have a tough time fitting a GFI in there. I'd hate to have you start the job and not be able to finish it. So, if you really want a GFI, you can do two things: 1) Hire an electrician to install a GFI. 2) Buy a plug-in GFI adapter from the hardware store. But I'm not so sure a GFI is what you really want. I'm getting a sense that you think having a ground is helpful for reducing radiation exposure. I don't know if that's so; it's not my area of expertise. However, note that while a GFI will provide protection from electrical shock, and that's a very good thing, it won't provide a ground. In order to get a proper and safe ground, you'll have to have a new receptacle installed, with a homerun directly back to the house's main panel (breaker or fuse box). My guess is that your friend who can "ground your outlet" is talking about either "bootlegging" a ground, or running a separate ground wire back to the main panel. The first is dangerous. The second is so much work that you might as well go ahead and do it right, installing a new cable run and a new receptacle. Unless you have the time, skills, and inclination to study up on the techniques of home wiring, that's most likely a job for a pro. FWIW, I bought my first home computer in 1984. I was living in a late-1950s home where the only grounded receptacles were in the kitchen and garage. I didn't want my $2000 system destroyed by lightning or power surges, so I did as I described above - installed a new, properly grounded receptacle for the computer with a home run back to the main panel. That's what I recommend for you.