Progress Report

Dec. 19  The four deck sections are in place now, ready to stain.

Dec. 20 I have applied stain to the exposed wood.

For the record, I used Olympic Maximum Stain + Sealant in Canyon Brown.

Dec. 28  When the deck and adjoining patio are complete, the patio pavers will come up to the deck, covering the space to the right of the deck in the picture above.  The tops of the pavers should be even with the top of the deck, forming a smooth, level surface.  But the deck sections are movable, hinged on the left side.  When a deck section is raised, there will be a five inch drop from the patio to the concrete basin wall.  What will prevent the pavers and the dirt below them from sloughing off into the basin?  This has been one of the toughest design problems of the project.

I considered several alternatives, none of which seemed entirely satisfactory.  I finally decided to attach a stationary board to the top of the basin wall.  The basin wall extends about an inch and a half beyond the edge of the deck sections, just enough space for a 2x6 to sit between the deck sections and the patio.  (The actual dimensions of a 2x6 are 1.5 inches by 5.5 inches.)

The next question was how to attach the board to the basin.  Again I considered several alternatives, constrained by what material is available at Lowe's and Home Depot.  My first choice was aluminum angle stock, which would be easy to cut and drill, but strong enough to hold the board against the pressure of the dirt and pavers, and not subject to corrosion.

The problem with this solution is that with one side flat against the basin wall and the board, the other side would stick out and be in the way of the pavers.

The hardware stores have strips of perforated galvanized steel, one eighth of an inch thick, thin enough to be cuttable by hand with a hack saw but fairly strong.  This is appealing because the fastener would not interfere with the pavers.  And I would not have to drill holes for the screws.

I decided that this would be a better solution and actually started to use it.  I cut three strips eight inches long and attached one board to the basin, using heavy lag screws into the board and Tapcons into the concrete.  Unfortunately, the attached board felt flimsy.  The flat steel strip is strong, but does not provide much resistance to bending.  So, back to Plan A.

I cut and drilled seven strips of the aluminum angle stock and used them to fasten the boards to the basin, as shown below.  With the aluminum fasteners, the boards felt absolutely rigid.  I will just have to deal with the problem of the fasteners sticking out from the board and basin.  Maybe cut a slot into each paver that needs to fit against a fastener.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 23 I had a job interview with Geographical Solutions in Palm Harbor, and got a job offer from them the same day, which I immediately accepted.  I started the new job on December 30, which is going to seriously interfere with the catch basin project.