Rebuilding the Catch Basin Deck

The first step in rebuilding the catch basin deck was some minor redesign.  When I built the original deck, I thought it was a great idea to attach each deck section to the concrete basin with heavy hinges.  The hinges worked well, and I could conveniently raise the heavy deck panels to get access to the basin.  But there was a serious drawback.

The top of the basin was five inches below the surrounding ground level and patio.  This allowed the top of the deck to be even with the surrounding ground level.  But it meant that there had to be space behind the deck for the lower edge of the deck panels to go into when the panels were raised.

I also needed a solid base for the panels to rest on when they were raised.  To this end I built a channel behind the basin, about five inches wide, and filled it with concrete up to the level of the top of the basin.

The concrete provided a firm base for the panels to rest on when they were raised, but now there would be a gap between the deck and the surrounding ground when the panels were in their normal position.  That would be a tripping hazard, as well as an aesthetic defect.

To avoid having the gap I bought a 4 by 4  beam (seen in the picture above) to put into the channel when the panels were lowered.  The top of the 4 by 4, would come up just to the bottom of the deck planks.  So I added deck planks on top of the 4 by 4 to create a level surface.

This provided a level surface, even with the surrounding ground level, and I thought it was aesthetically pleasing.  The only drawback was that I would have to remove the deck plank and the 4 by 4 in order to raise a panel.  This negated a lot of the benefit of having the panels on hinges.  But it was the best solution I could think of.

A problem that I didn't anticipate was that the 4 by 4 would swell as it absorbed moisture, making it much more difficult to remove.  After a while I had to use a crowbar to prise it out of the channel.

The upshot of all this was that I decided that the hinges were more trouble than they were worth.  With the new deck, I decided not to attach the deck panels to the basin and  just remove a panel when I need to get access to the basin.  There would be no need for the channel and the wood to fill it when the deck panels were in their normal position.  The panels should be heavy enough to be stable without being attached to the basin.

This raised the question of what to do with the channel.

One solution would be to cover the channel with more pavers, and continue to have the deck exactly cover the basin.  But the pavers had been installed by a professional, and I was not confident that I could do a good job of installing more of them. Plus I didn't have more pavers.  If I bought new ones, they would probably not match the old ones.  My conclusion was to leave the channel and pavers alone and make the deck six inches wider so that it would cover the channel.

In an effort to make the new deck last longer than the first one, I decided to use synthetic wood deck planks.  These are more expensive than wood planks, but they presumably will never rot.  Also, they don't need to be sanded or stained.  The downside, in addition to cost, is that they are considerably heavier than wood planks of the same size.  The old wood panels were so heavy that I could barely lift them.  The new panels would be wider and made of much heavier material.  If I made them match the old panels, there would be no way I could lift them.  There was no choice about the width of the panels; they must be the width of the basin, plus the channel.  I decided to make the new panels half the length (long dimension of the basin) of the old one.  So two new panels would replace on old panel.  They would still be heavy.

There was still the issue of what to use for the frames that hold up the deck panels.  I used "pressure treated" pine 2 by 4's for the original deck.  Despite the pressure treating, some of these boards had rotted.  I considered using metal for the frames, but decided against that.  I don't know anything about metal work and don't have any tools for it.  I thought about trying to get the frames constructed for me by a metal fabricator, but decided that that would probably be too expensive.  

I found that Lowe's now has lumber designated as "ground contact" pressure treated lumber.  The signs on this lumber indicate that it is more rot resistant than the ordinary "pressure treated" lumber.  I decided that this was the best alternative available.  I bought enough 2 by 4's and synthetic wood deck planks to make two new, half size, panels, which would replace one of the original panels, about one fourth of the deck. I wanted to check out my design before buying enough material for the entire deck.  Just this much material cost more than $200.  And it was as much as I could carry in my Prius. 

As with the original deck, I would use construction hardware and screws (no nails) to build the frames for the deck panels.

Construction Hardware

      

Angle Brace                       Joist Hanger

I would use an angle brace to connect two 2 by 4's at a place where they would be supported by the basin.  I would use a joist hanger to connect one 2 by 4 to another at a place where there was no support.


I drew up detailed plans for the two distinct kinds of deck panels, one with the planks running across the basin and one with the planks running parallel to the basin.

In the final product, each of these half size panels would be paired with another of the same kind to make an approximately square section with all of the deck planks running the same direction, matching one of the original panels.  But initially I wanted to make one panel of each kind in order to check my plans.  I started with the panel having planks running across the basin (the lower one in the picture above.)

Having only two hands is a distinct disadvantage when it comes to assembling deck panel frames.  I tied the crosspiece to a table to hold it up while I drove in the screws to attach it to the end piece.

OK, this was a hack, but it got the job done.

I did the same thing again and then put the two parts together.

All of these joints would rest on the basin.  So I used angle braces and construction screws to attach the 2 by 4's.

Then I used joist hangers to attach two cross pieces in the inside of the frame.  I put the finished frame onto the basin in order to check the fit.

This looked good.  So I cut three deck planks to the width of the frame and attached them to the frame with deck screws.

Half of one section was now complete.  This panel weighs 45 pounds.

I followed the same steps to build the other panel, according to the plan at the top of the plans picture above.  This time I needed to cut eight deck planks 18 inches long, to run across the frame in the narrow dimension.  Here is the final result.  This panel weighs 42 pounds.

With that step, one quarter of the deck was complete.

To be continued.

Catch Basin Deck Demolition

On Wednesday (9/18/2019) I stepped onto the first plank of the deck on my back yard catch basin and felt a crunch, as if my foot might break through.

I pulled up the boards on the south side of the catch basin so that I could raise the deck panels.

I found that these boards were seriously rotted.  (They had been in contact with damp earth since I built the deck five years ago.)

Investigating further, I found that practically all of the wood was rotted and most was infested with some kind of bugs.  I had used "pressure treated" wood throughout when I built the deck, but that was clearly not sufficient for this environment.

     

It seemed clear that I had to completely rebuild the deck.  Rather disappointing, only five years after I put a lot of work into building it initially.   http://rollinsturner.blogspot.com/2013/12/


The first step was to remove the old deck.  I raised all four sections of the old deck, and improvised a barrier around open catch basin.  One of the panels was so rotted that it broke loose when I raised it.

There was a lot of water and muck in the catch basin, below the level that the pump could remove automatically.  I manually raised the float on the pump's switch in order to pump most of the water out.  Then I used a shop vac to extract most of the remaining water.  Finally I had to climb down into the catch basin and shovel out the remaining muck (a nasty job that I have done once every year or so.)

I broke the panels loose from the catch basin and removed all of the remaining wood.

I dragged the panels and other wood further back in the back yard in order to get them out of the way, and tidied up the catch basin.

        

With this, the demolition was complete, and I was ready to start building the new deck.

A Train Ride at the Florida Railroad Museum

One of Sherry's quilting friend's husband is deeply involved with the Florida Railroad Museum, in Parish.  So we see a lot of their posts on Facebook.  Yesterday this one appeared at about noon, and I was inspired to take the ride.  It was just about the right time to leave in order to get on the 2:00 PM run.

We arrived about 1:30 PM and spent some time walking around and looking at the exhibits.

The lower two pictures are the train that we would be boarding.  The engine is not there yet.

There were two modern looking passenger cars, with a caboose at the end (on the right).  The first car, on the left in the lower right picture, was open to the air.  We decided to board the open car.

Sherry and I sat in the first seat.  Looking down the track in front of us, we could see the engine approaching.

The car host warned us to be prepared for a jolt.  It actually was not bad.

The ride was a bit bumpy and noisy.  We were moving at about twelve miles per hour, seeing mostly dense vegetation on each side of the track.

At times we passed some farm land, barely visible beyond the vegetation along the track.  We saw some serious irrigation equipment in several places.

The car host told us that these orange trees were covered with fruit a week ago.  It had been harvested during the week.

After about half an hour we arrived at our destination.  There are more museum exhibits here and additional train cars and engines waiting to be restored.  Sherry and I got off the train and walked around here, as did most of the passengers.




There is a side track here, which  the crew uses to move the engine to the other end of the train.

They don't turn the engine around.  They just move it to the other end of the train for the trip back in the other direction.


This woman, a museum volunteer,  had been in the open car with us.  Now she climbs out of the car and down to the track.  She sets the brakes on the car and then decouples the car from the engine.  (Not exactly a delicate operation!)

Then she climbs into the engine and drives it ahead and then back onto the side track.  She takes the engine around the train cars and back onto the main track.

She will drive the train on the return trip.

We can't see this, but the engine will be connected to the caboose for the return trip.  Our open car will be at the end of the train and we will have an unrestricted view back down the track.

Bromiliads

Someone put a bunch of bromeliads out beside Lake Magdalene Boulevard yesterday. 

I picked up four of them and transplanted them in my back yard.

Used some of my compost for them. This was the first time I have used it.

Turning the Compost on Earth Day

Everything that I have read about "rapid composting" says that you should "turn" your compost every few days. I think that means shovel it out of the bin and then shovel it back into the bin (given that you only have one bin.)  So, in observance of Earth Day (April 22, 2019), I have done that.

Shovel it out.

Shovel it back.

Getting a workout in addition to helping to save the Earth.

It's working!

My compost heap is up to 109 degrees.  For the first time, it seems to be working as intended.

Composting

My son Michael had been composting food scraps for several years.  I was starting to feel guilty for disposing of food scraps with a garbage disposal.  I resolved to start composting.


On January 10, 2018, I ordered a rotating barrel composter from Lowe's.

When it arrived I began dumping all of our food scraps (except meat and dairy products) into it.  I occasionally added dry leaves to the barrel and rotated the barrel to mix them with the food scraps.

I ordered a compost thermometer from Amazon.  (Yes, this is really a thing!  Amazon has a wide selection of them.)   

Elevated temperature indicates that composting is happening.  Unfortunately, this compost was consistently at the same temperature as the air.  There was actually some composting action, but it was very slow.


On Sunday, January 13, 2019, I attended a composting workshop at The Sustainable Living Project in Tampa, and heard a very informative presentation by Josh Whiton, of MakeSoil.org.  (He has a short version on YouTube .)

By this time, I had been collecting food scraps in the barrel for almost a year.  The barrel was almost full, but the scraps did not seem to be composting very well.  One thing I learned at the presentation was that composting will go much faster if you have a larger amount of material.  The Sustainable Living Project had compost bins that were much larger than my barrel, as you can see in the picture below.  That's Josh in the gray shirt at the left side.

So I decided to build a similar bin, using old pallets.

On March 12, 2019, the new compost bin was complete. I did a FaceBook Post  about it:

"Compost bin project complete. Built primarily from old pallets picked up for free.  Estimated build time: 4 hours. Actual build time: ~40 hours.   Same as a typical software project."             

A few days later I moved the contents of the rotating barrel composter to the new bin, and added some dry leaves.

From what I have read about composting, I need at least a cubic yard of material, and a pile at least 32 inches high, in order to get the heat generating effect required for rapid composting.  (Two or three weeks vs. six months or a year.)  Original paper: The Rapid Composting Method )  That would require the bin to be filled at least to the level of the top of the gate, on the left side of the bin in the picture above. The material from the barrel filled the bin only to about six or eight inches.  I would need a lot more material in order to get rapid composting.  I talked to Michael about moving some of his compost to my bin.

Michael agreed.  And on March 31, we moved a load of his compost to my bin, about three or four house widths away.

Fortunately, I have two carts suitable for the job.  We dumped some of his most mature compost directly into one the carts, and loaded a partially full barrel of it into the other.

  

And pulled the carts to my house.

We shoveled the compost into the bin, along with more dry leaves, and used a hoe to mix it up with the compost that was already there.

We added more dry leaves and stuck the compost thermometer into the pile.

This is still only about half as much material as I need in order to get the rapid composting effect.  And as of April 1, the thermometer indicates that the pile is at the same temperature as the air.