I built a deck

We have a guesthouse that we would like to make available for other people. That requires making it usable for other people (surprise!)

One of the things we needed was "something in front of the door". Which is this deck I've made.

The starting point

• The area was a lot of wood chips on sand.
• The soil around here tends to settle, quite a lot.

The plan/structure

Piling felt like overkill. So I did the next best thing.

From top to bottom:

• The surface consists of deck boards of impregnated (pressure-treated?) pine.
• There are wooden slats of the same material underneath.
• The layer below that consists of sizeable hardwood beams
• These beams are connected to shorter vertical beams
• Each vertical beam rests on a concrete pier
• Each pier sits in a hole
• There is a tile under the pier
• Quick-drying cement surrounds the pier
• And to finish it all off, there's a sheet of cloth between the wooden structure and the soil to (hopefully) prevent plants rooting underneath

If the top ever wears out, or we're bored with it, then we can replace it quite easily. The hardwood structure underneath is very durable and solid.

The execution

Most of the help was with digging. The piers needed holes, and the entire area needed to be dug out a little to provide space for the structure (including some breathing space). Apart from that, I was able to do a lot myself!

Here's some visual proof of the process. The first image is the hardwood structure and cloth underneath.

Then there's the same structure, but with the wooden slats on top. It's starting to take shape!

And the final picture. After way too many screws, all the deck boards were in place. (This part was actually fun, because there were weeks between start and finish. So nice to see it all come together in the end!) To complete the picture, a picknick table stands on top of it all.

Concluding

Making stuff is fun. I never made anything like this but now I know: I can build a deck.
Don't send me requests to build a deck for you though. It's also a lot of work, and it took quite some time from start to finish. Worth it though. I love the result. It's incredibly solid, looks amazing and I think we'll enjoy it for many many years.

Looking forward to the next upgrades for our guesthouse, and having (more) people stay there!