Winkler Crew: Deck building

We have been busy building a deck. We thought we'd have it done in the spring, but seeing as how it is October I guess that didn't happen. Hans drew up the design and specs and we finally turned them in to get a building permit. We haven't ever done anything that needed a permit so that was a new process to us. After making a few changes to the drawings we were approved. We began work on clearing out the grass on September 25th. As with all of our projects....the kids "get" to help.

We didn't get it all cleared out in one day, but once we did we ended up with nice big piles of grass.

On the 1st weekend in October we attached the ledger board to the house. It was a cold weekend. I think this was the first time that Hans said something to me about hoping we were doing this right....was that supposed to sound encouraging?

Makayla was being helpful by dusting off all the sawdust. I had to laugh as I watched her dust it into the dustpan to then dump in on the ground.

One funny side note - when we were buying the ledger board Hans realized that his drawings were the wrong dimensions. He had it that the deck was going to be about 8 feet longer than it actually was. It is funny because I don't know how many times we measured it out.

I had to hold up the ledger board as we got ready to screw it into the house.

Okay - now hold up this one piece of decking....can you imagine what it will look like?

Oct 6th was the next big step; digging the huge holes. We had strings everywhere to make sure that everything was going to be level and measured right. When we got the plans approved they made some changes to them. One thing was that the holes had to be 16 inches wide. Originally we had them at 8 inches wide. To do an 8 inch hole we were going to rent a hand-held auger, instead we rented this beast! It has an 18in bit on it. We had to do 5 holes - 3 feet deep.

Our friend Travis came over to help out. You know how guys loves big tools!

The kids hung out watching while each of the holes were dug.

The next day we had to go buy the sonotube to put in the holes. After we got them in place, Gavin dropped a pencil down inside one. He really wanted it back so Hans dipped him down inside to get it. Gavin was all for it until his head got close to it - then he was so nervous.

We had our first inspection later that week. Hans was so nervous. He has been on sites before but never had his own work judged by someone else. Luckily he flew the inspection with flying colors.

Next step, pouring concrete. On the 9th we got busy mixing and pouring and as always.... the kids helped out.