Hey I'm Chris and today we're going to be building a deck using a floating
foundation system seriously increasing the outdoor living space for our friends here.
Ours is the 200 square foot deck situated on a slight slope.
We're going to be using eight joists at 16 inch centers with
24 posts sat in TuffBlocks to adjust for the slope.
To tie it all together we're using merbau decking boards, adding steps
to the back and building a fireplace to create a wonderful outdoor oasis.
We're going to take you through step by step in this video
on how easy it is to do yourself.
The first step is to mark out the dimensions of our deck using a straight edge
and spray paint.
Now we know our TuffBlocks will sit just inside these lines and that's the ground
we want to level and compact.
There was a slight change of plans on the stairs and you'll see that
later in this video.
Alright so as you can see one of the challenges with building on a
site like this is as the ground drops away we're gonna have
to make sure we keep our deck level.
Starting on this side it'll be nice and low. As we end up down on this
end of the deck we're going to be a good two and a half feet off the ground
and we're going to show you how we come through that challenge
today in this video.
Okay today we're using this sod cutter here. It's going to make your life a lot easier.
You can do this by shovel.
If you don't own one of these you can rent them most places.
Here for this job we're just setting it to three quarters inch depth
and then let it roll. We're gonna get this grass out real quick this way.
Here we're loosening the top soil so we can easily scoop it up with a shovel.
All right we've used our sod cutter. We've cut up all the grass.
Now we're just going to dig it out, get our space later.
You can set this aside and if the homeowner wants to use it again
that's perfectly good turf.
Now that we've dug up all the topsoil we can move on to the next step
which is compacting the ground.
So at this point we're just going to dig a trench wide enough for the compactor
and the TuffBlock to sit in.
Compact the soil, fill that with a bit of paver base.
We'regoing to be just one foot in from the edge for our first TuffBlock.
Measure that out.
Dig our trench and we just need each individual TuffBlock to sit level
So now that we've dug our trench we've just leveled off one terrace here.
We're just checking that we want to be level in this direction,
which we're pretty much there. Here we're just gonna put a bit of a paver base
down next. Compact that. Sit our TuffBlock right on top of that.
We're creating four terraces along the slope, the first one foot in,
and then we've marked every five feet after that.
We're laying down our paver base which we're compacting down
with our compactor.
Now that we've got our terraces tampered down with our paver base
we're ready to get a really nice level surface which the TuffBlock can sit on.
For that we're going to be scooping out a bit of our road based gravel.
Just make a small area, tamp that down and there we're going to worry about
getting each individual TuffBlock nice and level.
Now they don't need to be level relative to each other, just it will sit level
and we'll show you how that's done.
We're scooping just enough gravel to cover the area of the base of the TuffBlock.
As you practice this process becomes extremely quick and you can level a
single block in about 30 seconds.
Lightly tamp it down then we're gonna check our level.
And there we've got it. Now this TuffBlock is sitting beautifully level
however it's not necessarily in the same plate as our first block that
we've laid back there and that's not important.
You're going to see how we account for that when we put our posts into these.
Now the alternative to this would be digging holes and filling them
with concrete which typically requires a minimum of 24 to 48 hours to cure.
By using TuffBlock you can get a deck like this done in a single day while it's also
reducing the number of tools and materials required.
We're placing down the first four TuffBlocks in the corners so we can get started
on the outer frame.
At this point we're ready to cut our joists. Just going to cut to whatever
length you need for your deck. In our case we're cutting to 16 feet.
Measure your joists, you've got eight cuts to make. Mark it and get cutting.
Even though we're using treated lumber it's a good idea to seal the exposed ends
where you've made your cuts.
Okay at this point we're going to stick on our first joist
to help us get a measurement for how high of a rise we have down on
that end. We've already marked off one foot in for our first TuffBlock base.
Just going to keep it tucked back a bit from the edge of the deck so
you can't see it when the deck is finished.
So here we're just going to slot it into our TuffBlock and then on this end we're going
to rise it up and clamp it until the board is level and that's going to give us a
measurement for our first post and we'll show you how that's done now.
Oh mate you are right on it dude.
Good, down a hair.
Yeah perfect that's it. Here we're going to measure from the base of the TuffBlock where
our post is going to sit right to the bottom of the joist here. 18 inches and 7 eighths.
We're now ready to cut our upright post. So I've measured out
my 18 7 eighth inches, but on top of that I want to cut an additional length for the
height of your joists in my case another five and a half inches on top of that.
So this is where I'm going to make my cut the rest will be used for
notching in which i'll show you in just a moment.
Okay so I've got my post cut to the height of my deck
and then we're just going to make these additional cuts to adjust for the height
of the joist as well. What you want to do is you want to measure the width of your
joist and set your circular saw to that width, to make that depth of a cut into
your post.
Make a series of close cuts.
Grab your hammer.
We're just going to level that surface with a chisel.
Once you've got the end of the post cut out it's going to allow your joists to sit
right on top of there. Therefore all the weight bearing portion of the deck is
going to be coming directly down into the major axis of the post rather than
having it stuck to the side and all that weight being held just by your hardware
your screws or whatever you've got in there.
So that's why we take this extra step.
Now because we have made a fresh cut in what is treated timber
again we're just going to take an extra few moments
and just treat that again.
We're just going to extend the life in our deck in any way we can,
prevent rot. Something that takes just a few moments. It's well worth it.
There you go.
So here we're placing that post we just checked in and connecting
it to the joist we leveled earlier. The post fits snug into the four inch post
slot and it's checked out so it'll create a strong base for the joist.
Here we're marking out our joists on the opposite side and going through the
same process as before by leveling and then measuring the height for the post.
We've gone and attached our joist hangers to our end joist at 16 inch centers
which is recommended for a rigid base.
Okay so to this point you can see we've got the outer joists of our deck set.
It's really important at this point we're checking that the deck is both level
and square. To check for level, simple, you just set your level on either of the four
sides and you can even run a long runner across and set your level on that as well.
We've done that. We're level right across. Next before you start setting in those
center joists we want to make sure our structure is square.
There are two good ways of doing this. One is the three, four, five method.
With the three, four, five method you're going to choose any unit you would like
whether it's five inches or one foot and you want to measure three units down
one leg of your corner, four units down the other leg.
Mark them, and when you connect those two points via the hypotenuse
you should have five units distance. Now if you do that in all four of your
corners, you know you've got a square.
The other and possibly the more simple way is just to measure the hypotenuse
of your square. Just measure the diagonals.
If they're the same distance then you're square.
At this stage you're measuring the distance from the joist to our TuffBlock
and then cutting posts to that height.
Remember to add additional length for the portion of the post that will
be checked out.
We're fixing our joists to the joist hangers using galvanized nails and repeating the
process you've seen earlier, which is to level the TuffBlock using a tamp to compact our
road base, measure the height required for our post, check the post in and then connect
that to the TuffBlock and joist.
We'll essentially repeat this sequence of events until we've built out the majority
of our frame.
We just have our final post to connect before our frame is complete.
One thing to note as we end on day one is that due to covering each step
on camera it's extended our build time, but with a professional or an extra set
of hands you could easily cover this build in a day.
Hey we're back on site for day two of our deck build.
We've done most of the structure here behind me. Today is just
laying on those top decking boards, finishing up the siding.
We're going to put a couple nice steps around that high side.
We'll plant a nice small garden around and make it look beautiful.
We just wanted to take a moment to show you one of the benefits of why
we've chosen to use TuffBlock for this deck build.
It's really nice that it's been machined to fit standard two-inch lumber.
They'll slot right in there, give you a nice steady base. Those are for your cross joists.
It'll fit a second size lumber if you've got a different size cut. It'll also fit our upright
4x4 post good and snug straight down giving you a firm footing. Or if you twist it
onto the 45 it'll accommodate slightly larger lumber.
Okay so at this point we are running these braces down this side of the last bit of joist.
It's because the joist itself is not supported from underneath by one of our upright posts.
The reason for that is that we have our TuffBlock sat back one foot by one foot
in from the edge and that'll just hide its footprint.
Now that is the maximum allowed overhang but then this outer joist isn't quite as strong
so we're gonna put in a number of these cross supports and once we lay the decking
on top of that it'll be plenty strong to support the weight.
As you'll see later on, this overhang along with our garden allows us to use
fascia boards that make the TuffBlock more discreet.
Alright so for this phase just before we get the decking down on top of our frame
we're laying down this protective barrier. It just allows for if there
would be any moisture between your decking and your frame.
It'll stop any mildew or rot from getting a foothold.
All right we're ready to go. We've we've checked that our frame is square,
it's level. We've now protected it against any rot.
We're ready to go and start getting our decking on.
Now the style of decking that we've chose uses an invisible nail system.
It works by a series of spacers which slot into a groove on the side of our
decking boards. Each one of those will be screwed on,
with a countersunk screw that sits right into each of the joists on each of the boards.
For our end spacer as we place it onto our last joist
we want to make sure that plastic bit isn't overhanging that last joist
because as we come along and trim our deck boards
we don't want to be cutting into plastic.
Now it's unlikely that all your lumber will be the same length or even big enough
to cover the width of your deck.
For the first few boards we've used our long cuts and as we progress
we've used some of our shorter cuts which creates a join in the middle.
Now I want that join to be centered and nice and tight so I'm just going to tap
on my ends until I get that joint centered in the middle of the joist
and with a nice tight fitting.
We've made sure to space these shorter cuts throughout the length
of the deck so that they're not all grouped together at one end.
Make sure to focus these joints over the joist and alternate which joist
to place the cut to create a random and a more visually pleasing pattern.
Periodically through your deck build we want to check to make sure that
we haven't built out one side farther than the other.
We want to make sure we're coming square right across the deck
with each of our deck boards.
Now because we're not running a string line, the way we're going to check
we're going to periodically measure from the edge of our decking
right down to the end of the deck.
The measurement should be the same on either side.
If it is we're good to go.
If not we're just going to make small adjustments and I'll talk
about that in one second. Let's just have a look to see how we're going thus far.
110 and one half inches.
110 and one half inch.
Now if one of my measurements were to be off, rather than waiting to the end
of the deck and trying to make all of those corrections at the end,
with our next board we can just adjust out slightly, re-check,
and we're just going to do that periodically until we reach the
end of the deck.
You can see we're about three quarters of the way through putting on
our decking and it's got a great feel underfoot.
It's quiet, it feels firm and solid. Not shifting anywhere.
And you can see one thing that we've done is we've laid these
decking boards is we've gone right up to this side
as close as we can and left all the extra overhang off this side.
What we'll do eventually is we'll come down and we'll trim all those boards
giving us nice big pieces if we'd like to use around anywhere else
on the deck and minimizing wastage off of that end.
So what we've just done is we've just ripped our last decking board
because you'd be pretty lucky to have your board just fit perfectly right flush
to the end of your deck.
So all we've done is we've stuck that last board on, we've taken a measurement
and then ripped right down the board to get it to length.
We've now got all our decking boards down so the job's complete for the finish.
All we need to do now is come down the sides and trim off these extra bits.
We're going to put some stairs on the end,
make it look beautiful with a little garden.
We're maximizing our lumber by using all the trim pieces
to create our stairs and fascia boards.
This will be the first step off the back of the deck.
Here you can see we've added paver stones leading to the fire pit
to help tie in the deck to it's surroundings.
We've just built the basic outside frame for our stair set going up to the
high end of our deck.
Here again we're using TuffBlock. We've just slotted a couple under
using these same joists
slotted sideways into our TuffBlock, and we're going to have them up here again
using the upright 4x4 post to stabilize the upper set of stairs.
Here we're using a dremel to create grooves on the boards for our stairs to sit flush.
Here we're using a miter saw to make 45 degree cuts into our fascia
boards for a seamless finish which you'll see when we trim the boards.
Here our straight edge which we've clamped down provides
our circular saw with a guide to create a perfectly straight edge.
Here we're making sure to stop before our miter cut which we'll finish off with a handsaw.
We just finished our deck and we're really happy with how it came out. We've installed
the stairs off the back high side of the deck and then just used two of our decking boards
width just to cover down around the joists on the outside right around the edge of the
deck. Just for a little extra aesthetic we've installed a small edging garden,
a couple paver stones and a beautiful fire pit just to make this look good at the end.
As a little extra we've thrown on some furniture and added some lights.
Now let's sit back and enjoy our backyard oasis.
We hope you found this video useful and gave you some ideas for your own projects,
showing you TuffBlock's multiple applications and how it can save you both time and money.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you on our next build.