Rear porch demo and beginning on the rear deck

I've started building the deck in the back yard. I'm doing this project now because I want it done before the 4th of july. we're planning on having a big cookout with a lot of family and friends over.

Before I could start building the deck I had to demo the old, rotted back porch... of course. It seems like I cant start any project without a little demo work first. Here is the back porch from an old picture of the house:

First thing I did was rip the screen out, take out all the 2x4 posts and remove the gutter.

Then I got on the roof and removed the shingles.

I then removed about 2/3 of the boards. I'm leaving the rest for now until the deck is built. Then I'll take it down and build another small overhang in it's place.

then I cut the supports and removed them and the 4x4 corner posts. then I cut the stairs in half since I'll be using them temporarily until the deck's built. Then I removed the floor boards and the joists.



It's hard to see from the last picture but there is a very old brick walkway in front of the stairs. I'll leave it there for now, once I find a use for the bricks I'll remove them from under the deck.

Now it's on to building the deck. I made a quick sketch of my idea for the design of the deck then figured out the measurements.

With that done the first thing I needed to do was hang the ledger boards, these are the boards that attach to the house. First I measured and cut out the siding:


Then I began hanging the ledger boards, not a fun task to do by yourself with pressure treated 2x8x12's.


I'm bolting the ledger boards to the house with 4 1/2" lag screws. Left, right, and center are doubled then there will be a single between each joist.



This is a fairly large deck so I want it to be as sturdy and safe as possible. The joists will be 2x8's. The beams will be 2x10's and the posts will be 4x6's. Because the joists will be running from left to right on the left deck I'll be running the beam under 3 sides of the deck with 7 posts. The joists will be running out from the house on the right deck so I'll be using a single beam with 3 posts, and 3 other single posts between the beam and the house.

I finished all the ledgers yesterday evening.


Today I'll be working on the posts and beams. I have 4 days scheduled for the deck, let's see if I can stay on schedule.

Big changes

A lot has changed since the last post. I went back to the bank, got a 6 month extension and also got more money. This will allow me to get all the things I need done quickly as well as add a few other things. This extended my project time by over a month but I believe it's well worth it. A few of the things added to the list is a deck, rebuild of the front porch, painting the house, and plumbing upgrades.

The other day I finished painting the second guest bedroom. I used the same blue that we used in the dining room.




Sorry about all the spots, there was dust on the camera lens. The trim still needs to be painted and we still have to figure out what to do with the fireplace and doors, paint them or poly them.

I started hanging the pendant lights in the kitchen. Only one of them are up at this point, I should do the other one today or tomorrow.


Over the weekend we tackled the front porch. The wrought iron railings were ok but we really wanted wood baulisters and railings. In the shot below you can see the old iron railings, they appear to have been put in sometime in the 40's or 50's:


I removed the iron railings (we're going to use them in our garden) then built and installed the new railings in a day.



The baulisters are $2.29 from Lowes but they didn't have hand rails long enough so I had to make my own our of 2x4's. I put a bevel on either side of the top railing as you can see in the above picture.

The top rails are anchored into the wood portion of the column. The bottom rails had to be anchored into the brick.I used a Forstner bit on the bottom rail about 2" from the edge then used a 3/8's bit to create a channel to the edge of the board. Then I drilled a 3/8's hole in the brick and installed an anchor bolt. Then I brought the bottom rail up from underneath and thghtened the bolts. The hole will be covered with a small piece of board. I forgot to take a picture of this but you should be able to see it in the above picture. If anyone has any questions on it I can take a picture of it later and post it.

I will be rebuilding the second floor porch. We still haven't decided how we want it though. Once we do it will have balisters like the 1st floor just a bit thinner though.

The next project is the shutters. We decided on board & batten style since it's easy to build. I'm using 1" thick 1x4's and 1x6's to build them.


Once we paint the house the shutters will either be black or dark green. the house itself will be some type of pale green or olive and the trim will be an off white.

Next I'll be finishing off the shutter for the front of the house, painting the Foyer, installing the other pendant light then starting the demo for the old porch so I can begin the deck.