Hello all,
We had a hot tub on top of a flagstone patio. We don't use it much and removed it and now it exposes a square concrete pad in the middle of my patio. Redoing the patio is way too expensive thus I plan to lay a small 12x10ft deck on top to cover it. The sticks in the picture show the rough shape of the deck. The decking boards will run parallel to the house. The deck will NOT be attached to the house and because of this, I believe we can build it however way we want. I am open to both: low deck on sleepers or higher deck (up to 9" from the ground as I don't want to build a step) on joists.
I need some advices & suggestions on few open items:
Substructure: I am wondering which is easier to level. The patio is sloped down away from the house but the concrete pad is leveled. You can't see in the picture, but near the house, the concrete pad is about 1/4" lower than the flagstone, while near the grass the concrete pad is about 1/4" higher than the flagstone. I see 3 options:
1) Deck on sleepers. It seems tedious to me to level 15 sleepers and bolt them down to the patio.
2) Joists resting on beams. I would place 3 beams parallel to the house below the joists. Leveling 3 beams seems easier but they would straddle over the concrete pad and the flagstone. I would attach PVC trim at the bottom of the beam to avoid the ground contact w/ the wood.
3) Small wood block under the joists. Basically 4x4 blocks with a dado in middle for the joist. Not sure if this is an approved method but seen some youtube videos like that. With this method, I can individually adjust the height of each support block. Seems tedious but flexible. I would attach PVC trim at the bottom of the blocks to avoid the ground contact w/ the wood.
Anchors: since the deck is not attached to the house, would its weight be enough to keep from moving from daily use? Do we need to anchor to the patio. I live in California and haven't seen strong wind in 25 years. Never got my patio furniture flew around.
Fasteners: I see people use both screws and nails to build the substructure. I thought we were supposed to use nails which are more tolerant to movement. Is that not correct? I personally prefer using screws because if I did something wrong, I can easily detach and redo.
Simpson strong tie: I see some use Simpson H1 and H.25 to attach the joists to the beam, but other put screws from angle. Given this is small deck sitting low on the ground, I thought screws are plenty strong and much faster to build. I could use H2.5 at those place I can only drive screws from 1 side.
Many thanks in advance
We had a hot tub on top of a flagstone patio. We don't use it much and removed it and now it exposes a square concrete pad in the middle of my patio. Redoing the patio is way too expensive thus I plan to lay a small 12x10ft deck on top to cover it. The sticks in the picture show the rough shape of the deck. The decking boards will run parallel to the house. The deck will NOT be attached to the house and because of this, I believe we can build it however way we want. I am open to both: low deck on sleepers or higher deck (up to 9" from the ground as I don't want to build a step) on joists.
I need some advices & suggestions on few open items:
Substructure: I am wondering which is easier to level. The patio is sloped down away from the house but the concrete pad is leveled. You can't see in the picture, but near the house, the concrete pad is about 1/4" lower than the flagstone, while near the grass the concrete pad is about 1/4" higher than the flagstone. I see 3 options:
1) Deck on sleepers. It seems tedious to me to level 15 sleepers and bolt them down to the patio.
2) Joists resting on beams. I would place 3 beams parallel to the house below the joists. Leveling 3 beams seems easier but they would straddle over the concrete pad and the flagstone. I would attach PVC trim at the bottom of the beam to avoid the ground contact w/ the wood.
3) Small wood block under the joists. Basically 4x4 blocks with a dado in middle for the joist. Not sure if this is an approved method but seen some youtube videos like that. With this method, I can individually adjust the height of each support block. Seems tedious but flexible. I would attach PVC trim at the bottom of the blocks to avoid the ground contact w/ the wood.
Anchors: since the deck is not attached to the house, would its weight be enough to keep from moving from daily use? Do we need to anchor to the patio. I live in California and haven't seen strong wind in 25 years. Never got my patio furniture flew around.
Fasteners: I see people use both screws and nails to build the substructure. I thought we were supposed to use nails which are more tolerant to movement. Is that not correct? I personally prefer using screws because if I did something wrong, I can easily detach and redo.
Simpson strong tie: I see some use Simpson H1 and H.25 to attach the joists to the beam, but other put screws from angle. Given this is small deck sitting low on the ground, I thought screws are plenty strong and much faster to build. I could use H2.5 at those place I can only drive screws from 1 side.
Many thanks in advance
