3 VIDEO OPTIMAL DECK VIDEO TOUR*

In this video, I want to give you a little tour of the course in general

starting with this illustration here. I want to touch on some of the things that

I'm going to be covering. As I've mentioned in the course, this is not

about building a particular shape or size of deck. So many situations are

unique and there are already so many resources out there that will show you

shapes and styles of decks that I don't need to go into that here. But the main

aim with this course, at least the first part of this course, is to help you to

build a deck that will last as long as possible. And by as long as possible, it's

probably twice as long as a regular deck. And the reason for that difference is

not because of differences in materials or anything. It has to do with strategy

and how the deck goes together to minimize wood-to-wood contact that will

hold moisture and promote rot. So a longer-lasting deck is one of the things

this course delivers. Another thing is a better-looking deck and I will be going

into details about that. There are a handful of things that you can do. I'm

surprised they don't happen more often. A handful of things you can do to make a

deck more beautiful. It doesn't really add a lot of expense or time to the

project. So just looking here at this illustration, up here you'll see this

inset shows a method of using double floor joists every so often wherever a

joint will exist between actual deck boards. So here we have the double joists

And the reason for two of them is so that you can have a space between them

And the space lines up with the joint in the deck boards. So there's two

advantages to this. First of all, you don't have to have the ends of the deck

boards touching each other. They can be apart a little bit. Maybe an

eighth of an inch, three sixteenths of an inch, a quarter would be too much. But the

idea with the spacing is that it lets the water drain down. So water is not

wicking into the ends of the deck boards, promoting rot. That's one advantage

Another advantage is that with this space you can locate your fasteners

further back from the ends of the deck boards. So you're just going to get a

better job. If you're using visible surface-mounted deck screws, there's less chance of splitting. If you're using hidden deck fasteners, the

systems I've seen, the systems that are out there, work better when you can pull

them back a little bit from the ends of the deck boards. So that's one of the

details I'll be getting into. Another has to do with with how a deck is fastened

to the house, if you're going to do it that way. This is an area that's often

done poorly and it can result in premature failure of the deck. Once again

one solution to making it better is to include a spacer. That's what you see

here. The spacer separates the ledger board from the house, so there's room for

drainage. Later on I'll also be explaining how to fasten a deck properly

to different wall surfaces, if that's what you're going to do. I say if because

putting a deck on its own completely self-supporting foundation is actually a

great idea. That's what you can see going on here. I'll also be talking about

different ways of doing stairs properly. It's actually fairly uncommon to see

deck stairs of any age that are actually aging well, and sagging

wiggling, moving, things like that. Very common, but not necessary. Another thing

I'm going to be touching on is the great value there is in applying wood

preservative to areas of your deck after it's built. So periodically, maybe every

couple of years. It's not very often, but it can make a big difference in areas

where you can't eliminate wood-to-wood contact, or where rotting might set in

even if you're using pressure treated lumber. So that's what you see here. I'll

be going into lots of other details, but really the idea behind this course is to

help you see how to build a really premium deck. And by that I mean one that

lasts longer than most, and one that looks better than most, regardless of the

overall design you're following. And one that actually can last well because

of other maintenance and design strategies that are involved. So it's really all about building a great deck, whatever size and shape and style you want