Our DIY Deck Extension

To help you guys get more acquainted with out house I thought I would share a project that we are working on. And when I say "we" I mean my husband.

Excuse the husband, it was the only close up I had

 

 

This is how our deck used to look. Before we bought our house my husband and I both had our ownapartments, which meant very little outdoor space. We were excited enough just at the thought of having our own house and the deck was just icing on the cake. There was nothing wrong with the deck, and we were happy with it for a while but this spring ideas started floating around in our heads.

We wanted a more usable space for us to enjoy the summer evenings. So we decided to extend the deck out a few feet to better accommodate a table set.

The deck dimensions before were basically 10ft x 14ft so to keep it as even as possible, we decided to go out another 5ft to make it 15ft x 14ft. We really just needed room for a small patio table, a grill and maybe room for a lounge chair. Plus we didn't exactly have endless amounts of money to spend on this project so we wanted to keep it as low as we could but still make it worth while.

Don't worry, those flowers have since been dealt with, they did not like me at all.

 

I don't have many progress pictures but it went together fairly quick. I had very little to do with the project once the building began. My husband spent half of a Sunday and got the bulk of the framing done. He finished the rest of it, the floors and railings, throughout the next week or two putting in an hour here and there after work.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Once the wood sits for a while we plan on staining is so that all the sections match. You might notice how part of the railing isn't up on one side. That's because after spending a few evenings out there we liked it so much that we decided to keep going with it. We're going to take it out about seven feet or so towards the corner of the house and make it a step down. lower section. The half railing and stairs will be moved/taken down.

And once that part of the deck is done we want to gravel in the section from the corner of the house to the corner of the (soon to be) deck. That little addition will probably be next year though.


To take out our deck five more feet, these are the items we needed:
(the prices are what we paid at our local Lowes)

-Concrete Feet : 3 @ about $7.00 (forgot the actual price but they were under $10.00)
-Post  4x4x8 :3 @ $7.57
-Framing Support Underneath 2x8x10 : 5 @ $11.97 (we halved each)
-Bracing Between the Framing 2x8x10 : 1 @ $11.97
-Side Bottom Outside Framing 2x8x10 : 1 @ $11.97 (we halved it)
-Front Bottom Outside Framing 2x8x16 : 1 @ $18.97
-Flooring 2x6x16 : 11 @ $10.97
-Top Rail Sides 2x8x10 : 1 @ $11.97 (we halved it)
-Top Rail Front 2x8x16 : 1 @ $18.97
-Under Rail Support for the Spindles Side 2x4x10 : 1 @ $4.97 (we halved it)
-Under Rail Support for the Spindles Front 2x4x16 : 1 @ $7.97
-Spindles : I'm not sure how many we needed but they're about $1.00 each ( $40.00 probably)
- Don't forget screws and other miscellaneous hardware : another $40.00 or so


Grand Total: $379.05