Backyard deck questions.....

Punchdrunk Monkey

Punchdrunk Monkey

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I am in the planning stage of building a backyard deck with a bar, cooking area and seating area. The area I want to cover is all rounded. Basically, it was a kidney bean shaped grass area (approx. 40' long and 13' wide) with concrete flat work around it. The grass is now weeds/dirt. I have never built a deck, but it doesn't seem to ridiculously hard. Well a square deck doesn't seem too hard. Now with all the rounded corners it might be a little tougher. 

Does anyone here build decks or have experience building decks? Guess I am looking for someone to bounce some questions off of. Will trade beer for knowledge 🙂

You can see the dirt area in the picture. 

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Just build a square deck and then cut off the parts you don’t like to get the shape you want with a chainsaw or a jigsaw or something 

 
I just built an 1100 square foot in my back yard. One tip, I ended up pouring a curb vs beams for main supports. As for all the curves I would think a composite ie. trex would bend better than natural wood. Any questions feel free to ask. 

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Keep it simple, Don't round the corners keep them straight.  Don't get cute just flatten out the curves. 

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The price of lumber right now is crazy high !!  Im thinking about waiting out the current 300% increase on wood before I do my deck.

 
I have built a few decks over the years (wood).  After three years when I am redoing it I always wish it was concrete.  I would figure out a way to do it concrete and be done with it.  Even if you need to build a wall and backfill.

 
I did Trex for mine.  Wasn't hard at all, just make sure to get the special screws or side mounting system to save on aggravation.

 
I used Trex on my front porch. It faces south and gets sun all day long. I'm very impressed with how strong it is and how good it still looks after 11 yrs.

 
SLIM said:
The price of lumber right now is crazy high !!  Im thinking about waiting out the current 300% increase on wood before I do my deck.
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Yep. I have about 1200sqft of second story deck I need to replace.

Just got a quote for $40k to reframe using my existing kasons and use composition decking. 

Ah, nope. Looks like I'll be waiting for material costs to come down. 

 
Last house had TREX, stuff is awesome. Stays clean, easy to clean when its not even with dogs and very low maintenance. 

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SLIM said:
The price of lumber right now is crazy high !!  Im thinking about waiting out the current 300% increase on wood before I do my deck.
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One more argument for trex.   It really is the way to go if you intend on keeping the house.  

 
Rockwood said:
I did Trex for mine.  Wasn't hard at all, just make sure to get the special screws or side mounting system to save on aggravation.
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100%.  As soon as we get settled in, I'm replacing everything with Trex (and covering it all up).

I also want to use Trex around the pool and pool house.

 
Build a square/rectangle base that fit's inside the grass curved area. Let the top deck material overhang the curves. use a vertical guide to draw the curves, trim with saw as needed to match desired outcome. You can always add a small T brace or something to help with overhang sagging.

 
TheLatinLover said:
100%.  As soon as we get settled in, I'm replacing everything with Trex (and covering it all up).

I also want to use Trex around the pool and pool house.
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I just ripped up my TREX deck. It's Texas so maybe the heavy humidity / heat / freezing cold temps could have contributed. But it lasted great for 25 years. Then went to crap. It's NOT a lifetime product. Got very weak and started breaking in half where the majority of the traffic occurred. Plus, the color changed as time wore on. But....I didn't treat it with any type of treatment (Thompsons). So maybe that contributed to the decrease as well. What will I use for the new house? Peace

 
ChEFF said:
I just ripped up my TREX deck. It's Texas so maybe the heavy humidity / heat / freezing cold temps could have contributed. But it lasted great for 25 years. Then went to crap. It's NOT a lifetime product. Got very weak and started breaking in half where the majority of the traffic occurred. Plus, the color changed as time wore on. But....I didn't treat it with any type of treatment (Thompsons). So maybe that contributed to the decrease as well. What will I use for the new house? Peace
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Thanks for the feedback Mr. Cheff. I'm 45 so if it lasts 25 years, I'll be happy.  peace.

 
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