Can a Deck be built in winter?

Here in Connecticut we can and do build all winter. Although the construction can take more time and can be more difficult, we build year round to keep working and make sure our decks are ready for spring..

I have found that temperatures of 20 degrees farenheight and above to be very tolerable. Once a carpenter starts moving it’s like a sport such as skiing or hockey, he warms up. The work standard does not need to change nor should it. If one cannot maintain standards,, it is too cold.

Digging the footings can be another story. Frostlines in this area rarely go below 8″ and we break through this “upper crust” of earth with a jackhammer. When pouring the footings, they say it is best to be over 32 degrees. Most of a footings’ concrete is below grade, our footings are 42″ deep. It is much warmer in the ground than above in the winter months. For the remaining 6″ +/- of concrete above the ground it should be wrapped in hay and/or blankets. Concrete generates heat as it cures and it will be fine at above ground temperatures above 40 degrees and there are processes to follow if there is a need to pour at colder temperatures.

Once “out of the ground”, construction proceeds as normal other than slippage when icey and cold tools and materials. We cover the materials nightly incase of snow, this will keep the materials easier to work and we clean up everyday (as always) because a snow fall will bury debris and hide in from clean up.

 When temperatures freeze, the ground is not muddy and does not get tracked on the new deck, hence, the deck is cleaner than when built in wet conditions.  Also, for wood decks, it’s first several months is not in the hot sun. Sun is the most damaging element to wood. Building a deck in winter is a tougher job but they come out great and in the spring just add friends and family.

White Plains Garapa Deck

We recently finished a modest size deck in White Plains, New York. The challenges of this simple design were Zoning and Wetlands setbacks. The design was restricted but by placement of the stairs, we maintained maximum utility near the door area for dining and entertaining.

What is different about this deck is that the floor surface, stair treads and rail cap are made with Garapa, a hardwood from Brazil. Garapa is a light honey color and dense material. It is reasonably consistant in color, it is  stable and weathers gracefully. It comes smooth and sands beautifully and will resist rot and termites for 25 years +/-.  It is not as dense as Ipe yet easily dense enough to be a fantastic deck. Best of all, the 5/4×6  board is almost half the price (per foot) of the 5/4×6  Ipe. 

Garapa is an unknown to many, a more durable substitute for Western Red Cedar, and a very high value for those seeking to build a natural wood deck.

If available in your area, check it out. 

Pressure Treated Wood is no longer rated for Ground Contact

In December 2003, The Pressure Treated Wood Industry agreed to stop treating Southern Yellow Pine and other lumber with chromium and arsenic. CCA was the chemical combination used for years and at .6 pounds per cubic foot, the lumber was rated for ground contact and was used when building a deck directly on grade.

The new treatment chemicals used are no longer suitable for ground contact and we no longer place our decks on the ground. We either must dig down to clear all dirt away from the deck frame or we build a patio. Shown, is a Belgard concrete paver patio with a retaining wall and fire pit. Many new possibilities will arise from products like this and we will be writing more about them in the months to come.   

Before                                                                                            After

Azek Decking and Border Trim

Azek is one of the newer PVC plastic materials now available for flooring on your outdoor deck. It is impervious to rot, easy to clean and maintain, and is quite handsome offering a variety of colors and looks.      Here we have a nice size deck featuring a stainless cable rail and a dark  Azek Acasia (color name) with a Morado border trim. The trim highlights the decks perimeter and segregates a large deck  into seemingly smaller areas.  

When installing border trim, stairs and other details on your new deck, oftentimes the hidden side fastener does not work. FastenMaster has developed the Cortex Plug that has matching colors to the Azek decking line. It’s a nice look. As to the endurance, “so far so good”.

Screen Porches bring Outdoor Living into the night

If one lives in an area where bugs such as mosquitoes and gnats thrive, they know that they are at their worst after the sun goes down. I am typically quite comfortable until that moment, and then I am attacked. So if “ the best defense is a good offense”, build a screened porch. Screens keep the bugs out but keep the room truly an out-door room. The air flow is open and typically uninhibited.    

Your screen porch can be well lit by lamps and ceiling lights or gently lit by a few candles or lanterns. Ceilng fans will add air movement on the hot and muggy nights and the roof keeps you dry in the soft summer rains.

Not only will one add after dark enjoyment to their outside activities, your porch roof provides wonderful shade relief from the hot summer sun. Skylights placed closer to the house walls will bring some lost daylight back into the house, and if positioned correctly, will not shine down into the middle of the room, “baking” the one sitting in the wrong chair.    

A screened porch will multipy your outdoor time with shade from the sun and relief from “the meek that shall inherit the earth”…Bugs. 

Enjoy the Good life  with                                                   

Outdoor Living by Archadeck   

Great New PVC Decking by Fiberon, Azek and Timber Tech

In a past posting (3/31/2010), I discussed the basic categories of synthetic decking. Those are the composites (wood and plastic fibers blended), solid cell PVS  (basically all plastic), and the recent Plastic wrapped around a composite core called Cap Stock. Some of the top companies have produced some very attractive new plastic deckings that even as a “wood guy”, I am impressed with the look of these products.

These new plastics are the latest developements in the evolution of synthetic decking and I believe them to be superior in overall performance in regards to fading and other appearance degradation and they are easier to keep clean as well. I also find the the plastic deckings offered by Fiberon (Outdoor Flooring), Azek (Procell) and Timber Tech (XLM) to not be slippery. They are offered in the exotic colors, mimicking woods such as Ipe, Rosewood and Teak.

Fiberon, and Timber Tech offer a full line of synthetic decking composites, cap stock and solid PVC. To the right is a Fiberon “Ipe” cap stock.

Azek Acacia and Timber Tech Radiance Rail

Azek offers a variety of solid plastics from the basic colors such as gray and beige called Brownstone to exotic colors named Morado, Redland Rose and Acacia, the dark brown seen to the left.

As to the cost of these deckings, composites are the first level, the exotic solid plastics are the most expensive and the cap stocks were developed to save some money, offering a plastic surface over a less expensive composite core, so these typically cost between the composites and solid plastics.  Check out these Companies and see if there is a color and product right for you.

These products come with warrantees ranging from 10 to 25 years, so familiarize yourself with those details. As a builder of over 25 years, I cannot say I have witnessed these products live up to their warranty standards. The synthetic decking world has evolved very quickly and the products have been developed and redeveloped. The synthetics we installed in the early ’90′s are quite different from todays improved offerings, so the products we install today, were not available 20 years ago. We will do our best to help create realistic expectations. Our expectations are optimistic. 

Archadeck of Lower Fairfield County, Ct. and Westchester County, N.Y.

203 978 9050

A Deck Collapse, Winter of 2011

On January 24, 2010 I posted an entry entitle, “Three Reasons a Deck Can Fail.  These three reasons stated were, Rot, Lack of or inadequate flashing and connectors, particularly those used at the house. In this post I said that the great majority of deck collapses happen at the house not on the outside edge. So here is an example of exactly that occurrance.

Today I was called out to this deck pictured, with a request for an insurance estimate. This winter, there has been a tremendous amount of snow, whose weight, has pushed all of our structures past limits they have previously experienced. Engineering for dwellings and structures is typically done for the worst conditions not the average, however, too often, assumptions are made based on the average conditions and that “which has worked before”.

This collapse supports my findings or three common reasons for failure. These are not the only reasons, just the most common. This deck is approximately 25-30 years old. It was attached to the house without flashing, directly over the house siding, with nails only. My Jan 24 post explains how we do it. The siding has rotted as has the interior sill plates and box beam. This is because no flashing was installed to prevent the rot from occurring. The nails used to fasten the band board to the house has lost their withdrawl strength due to soft and crumbling  wood. Add the weight of the snow and initiate the failure. The snow is not the reason the deck failed, it only exposed this deck’s inadequate installation. It was not enough snow to bring down a well built deck, just this one. In all fairness, our industry has grown and learned a tremendous amount in the last thirty years. History is a great educator.       

Do I Need to Shovel My Deck?

No Worries!

This has been a rough winter for Fairfield and Westchester Counties. By “rough’ I am referring to the amount of snow we have received. Each snow storm  seems to be worse than the previous and now we are faced with sleet, rain and Ice accumulation. As these storms continue, our decks accumulate more and more snow load.

I have received a number of calls from my clients, asking if they should worry about the weight of the snow on their unshovelled deck. While I cannot, in this blog, comment on decks built by other companies, I can speak to our many Homeowners who have purchased a deck built by Archadeck of SouthernFairfield and Westchester Counties. http://southern-fairfield-county.archadeck.com

Our decks are built to a design load of 60 pounds per square foot. The design load is for “live load” which includes people, furniture and yes, snow. A 10 x 10 area, evenly loaded, should hold approx. 6,000 pounds. That’s a lot of friends and/or a lot of snow.

So how much does snow weigh? That can vary greatly but here are some loose numbers. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds. Light flffy snow has less water than wet heavy snow and Ice is almost 100% water but hs some air in it. Ice typically floats.  So, light fluffy snow is in the neighborhood of 12 pounds per cubic foot, wet heavy snow approx. 21 pounds per cubic foot and figure Ice at approx. 62 pounds per cubic foot.

So a deck built by Archadeck should accomodate 5′ of light fluffy snow, 3′ of wetter heavy snow or 1′ of ice.

Does this mean you should not shovel your deck? Of course not. Shoveling your deck helps to not push limits or challenge any of these approximate numbers. It also helps move snow away from your doorways and sidewalls of the house where damage could occurr. It will also expedite the melting process and render your deck available sooner as the weather breaks.

Please remember, when shoveling your deck, use an all plastic shovel. Metal tips can scratch the deck surface. Also be carefull how you remove ice because that too can scratch. And finally, if you find 2′ of ice on your deck, it’s time to move south

For those of you who do not yet have a deck, or, would like to replace one,  it is never too early to start planning for Spring.

Building a Deck and the many Regulations

In previous Blogs, “Do you need a Building Permit to build a Deck?” and “How much does a Building Permit Cost?”, I write about general Town and State requirements for Building Permits and the real expenses when one hires a Company that delivers a Deck that meets these requirements.

In general, the public often approves of regulations on any industry that does not negatively impact them. The Government has resently imposed new regulations on the Banking Industry, S.E.C., Health Industry and the Residential Remodeling Industry. On the surface, regulations make sense but at times, there are hidden implications and  that might not at first be understood.

For builders who abide by, and follow, the regulations, and restrictions created by the regulations, there is far more administrative work, more detailed process by which one builds (meaning slower) and more fees to pay.

As a residential Deck and Porch builder our projects are  mostly outdoors and our regulations fall under a variety of State and local requirements. Our list of regulations fall into one or more of the following jurisdictions, building Codes, Health Codes, Planning and Zoning ordinances, Inland/ Wetlands, Coastal Area Management, OSHA and EPA.

One of the  recent additions to residential construction regulations are the new RRP Codes regarding lead found in residential homes. RRP stands for Renovation, Repair and Painting and it is the new Lead Safe Practices for contractors. Under these requirements, Contractors are required to take an 8 hour class to learn about the safe handling, containment, disposal and record keeping of the work, when working in areas where lead paint may have been used. This new regulation is particularly important for families with children under the age of 6. Additional awareness and work effort are required by the Contractor, in effort to keep families free of lead poisoning.

Other new or more stringent efforts at existing regulations fall under Planning and Zoning. Many Towns in Connecticut are now requiring new Plot Plans for any addition to the “footprint” of the house. Also, fees for the Zonng Permits are going up as well.

Regulations can cost money and increase the time needed to perform a construction project from contract signing to completion. Regulations are intended to protect the general public. A properly built construction project is no longer just labor and material. Cost of administration and residual work, continues to grow.

Timber Tech Deck with Vinyl Rail

Here is a recent completion of  a deck built with Timber Tech Twin Finish deck floor  (www.TimberTech.com)   and a vinyl rail by Digger Specialties (www.diggerspecialties.com).  The  floor is a composite (wood and plastic combination) and the rail is a vinyl (all plastic) with an aluminum interior for strength.

As for the deck design, we have inset stairs along the house wall, descending to a landing and turning to the back yard. This creates a scenario where the stairs do not protrude too deep into the yard.  The stairs were lined with solid board skirting to fill the space where the rail would be too tall. It’s a nice look and feels safe. 

The deck is a simple design and it’s space is preserved by keeping the stair entrance near the door.  The deck’s floor is 8′+ above grade and we used 6×6 supports, an extra beam at the second floor contilever bracing and a diagonal brace to prevent racking.