DH is addicted to a Canadian HGTV show about decks. They almost always do a deck and a patio. If they don't do a patio, they do multi level decks. The host hates a large expansive deck all on one level. The different levels allow them to set up multiple "rooms". So there'll be a cooking "room", a sitting "room", a lounge, the hot tub room, the kids' play room, etc. All defined by a step down or step up. I agree that it needs to be near the kitchen, though. I could see a BBQ up on the deck, and then a lounge area with a fireplace down on the patio. Or, can you put in a door and some steps down to the patio from the morning room?

I want to build a combination covered porch with an open deck above in one corner of my house. It's kind of hard to describe exactly what I mean but I got the idea from a Drummond Design house. See the link. My question is, how should the flooring of the upper deck be constructed so that water runs off the deck and doesn't leak thru to the covered porch below. I know I'll have to put a little bit of a slant on the deck floor and I'm thinking it will probably need to have a drain-pipe (like a shower drain) that leads over to something like a gutter downspout that runs down beside the porch. I will probably do an enclosed ceiling on the porch below so that the pipe is hidden. But, what kind of flooring/sub-flooring/waterproofing etc should I use on the deck level? I'd like to be able to put lights on the roof of the porch so waterproofing is absolutely necessary! Thanks http://www.drummonddesigns.com/plan/detail.html?planid=1001786

Thanks for your quick response. Good idea on the aluminum - I've got a friend with a CNC plasma cutting table so he could fab them for me. With aluminum against steel would I get a galvanic response (with oxidation)? Is paint a sufficient barrier?

I'm not trying to waterproof the floor. :). There's no grout in those pedestal systems. The water flows right through to whatever is beneath. I suggested the porcelain as a nice floor for a deck as a non-water proof deck refacing or for above a complete and correct flat roof system, not tiled to the membrane (which I wouldn't even do with schluter), and I recommended the translucent panels as being nice on a second story deck above another to serve to let light through. Rain will blow onto a screen porch. You don't want to trap it. I would definitely have to have solatubes or skylights above to make the translucent panels worth anything. I think some of us are seeing a dry screen porch at the basement level, some are seeing a "wet" screen porch at the basement level (me, first read through--then I wasn't sure), and some of us are seeing a dry screen porch at the upper level (my second guess). And people are recommending flooring either to make the upper level nice or keep the lower level dry. So this whole thread is a mess. I think OP just wants a nice--not waterproof--floor for a second level screen porch which just happens to have a basement beneath.