What shows I really like are the realistic shows like Holmes on Homes. Of course, we are not Mike Holmes caliber but we use his advice of building over minimum code. We always try to go beefy whenever we can. Better to have too many deck posts than not enough or better to have too many big joists that are too close together than not enough and have them space too far apart.
So it wasn't surprising that today while we sat on the deck preparing to install the spindles that we pondered "what would Mike Holmes do?"
We were talking about whether to use 1 5/8 inch or 2 1/2 inch deck screws. Neither one of us said anything after R mentioned not knowing which one to use. I sat there thinking back to last night's Mike Holmes show about handymen and when he kicked one of the participant's table and it fell apart. I had visions of Mike Holmes kicking the spindles and watching them fall to the ground.
Just then R said, "I better go with the 2 1/2 inch screws because I wouldn't want Mike Holmes kicking the spindles out."
Yup.....we watch too much HGTV.
Today we rounded the corner of the deck and installed more spindles.
We will install the top cap once the entire run of railing is complete. Tomorrow we install the handrails on the steps. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get both handrails completed so we can get back to doing our least favorite part which is installing another piece of 2X12 and jacking up the saggy old.
Haha ... we just saw that episode of American Handyman ... too funny!
ReplyDeleteYour deck is looking really great! It's come a long way since you started!
Wow! That is looking amazing! You guys sure do a great job!
ReplyDeleteWow, that looks amazing! You guys sure do an awesome job!
ReplyDeleteSorry if this is a double post...not sure what just happened...
The deck is huge and it would have cost a fortune and a half to totally rebuild from scratch. That is why we decided to rehab it. Unfortunately that means fixing old mistakes as we rebuild and that takes longer. We figure we will still need to do some rebuilding on the deck next summer. We are pushing for 2/3 done by November.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it crazy how much lumber costs? We've been using up the woodpile here for odd projects too, before running to the hardware store. My daughter's chicken coop was almost completely constructed out of left-overs and free lumber. I think we only bought one sheet of plywood and a couple of 2x4s.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have to re-engineer, but we had to be creative with what we had!
It's always easier to just build new, but that's way more $$ and, frankly, not as interesting. :-)
We prefer using old lumber because it is already dried and cupped and warped as much as it is going to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when you use old you have to be creative. I told R yesterday that people are going to question why we did some things the way we did and that sometimes we had no choice in the matter but to do something that was not necessarily the normal method.
R wanted the new back portion of the deck to be level with the old deck. I told him no that it was uninteresting and that we needed a step down. It wasn't until after it was built that he agreed that was the way to go.
When I do the figuring for lumber I try for only a couple of inches of waste on both ends. It would be really easy to figure if I just bought long boards and lopped off a foot or two. But who wants a bunch of 1 foot boards in their scrap pile?