Finished deck and gazebo

Comment

Comment by Derek Gould on September 10, 2012 at 12:45pm

A floating foundation makes something like this easier, but again I'd caution against using this approach unless you're building something very low to the ground. The problem with a floating foundation is that you don't have the same kind of horizontal stability that you get from using footings; not an issue if you're 6 inches off the ground, but a potential problem if you're 6 feet off the ground!

Comment by Carlos on September 10, 2012 at 12:40pm

Floating foundation? Wow, i love it, I might just have to give it a try.

Comment by Derek Gould on September 10, 2012 at 5:22am

Carlos: not sure what your question is, but I did everything including the foundation and the decking. The foundation is a 'floating' foundation, using deck blocks; I based it on the sample plans available on www.deckplans.com. In this case the deck is very close to the ground, in fact i dug holes for the blocks at the higher ends to make the deck as low as possible. For anything higher I would use buried posts set in concrete, but for a low deck this works. In my case the blocks were being set on very rocky and stable soil, but if you were building on softer soil I think you'd probably need to excavate and place gravel to ensure that the blocks were stable.

Comment by Carlos on September 10, 2012 at 2:42am

Does it include the decking? I figured you would have to know something about laying out a foundation.

Comment by Derek Gould on September 9, 2012 at 6:27pm

Carlos, I'm very much an amateur carpenter, so there's nothing here particularly complicated. I found there are lots of good resources online (including this one), so I researched each part before starting, and read as much as I could beforehand. There are a couple if minor things I would have changed if I were to start over, but nothing substantial, and this has been used every weekend since it was built.

Comment by Carlos on August 29, 2012 at 12:07pm

wow, this is way out of my leauge. I love it!!!

Comment by James Waller on August 26, 2012 at 6:59pm

I could enjoy this a lot, heck I will even be the boy statue.

Incredible job, this looks really great!

Comment by Mark J.Glinski on August 26, 2012 at 5:57pm

Wow.  Just wow.