A couple, friends of Jay's, asked us for a deck quote and liked what they heard.

So I put together a 16' by 16' deck plan and we got to work.

The deck will go level with the doorway at this corner of the house.

The temperatures were in the 90s all week with plenty of sun so we borrowed a canopy from Jay.

 It kept us alive.

It was so hot even the camera gave up in the heat.  Our plan was to remove the top step and it wouldn't budge.  Luckily we only had to remove the top cap.

Then it was on to drilling holes into the cement of the house.

Even with my hammer drill they took forever.

But we did remove enough to clear the joists and get the ledger board very secure to the wall.

Then the main joists were put together and held up with scrap 2x4s.

This allowed us to square it all up and accurately mark the locations for all the support footings.

Behind that trash can is a doorway to a crawl space. We couldn't block it off so we disappeared that corner of the deck.  You'll see how later.

It took seven footings to hold it all up.

They had to be dug with the air compressor and chisel.

Buried bricks and dried hard clay caused more delay.

Here's how we did away with that corner.  The new 'short' corner got its own footing for support.

First we put in the 4x4 vertical support posts.

Then we added cross joists plus deck boards and it's starting to look like a deck.

Here's Sue helping to put in the second set of joists.

We used metal hangers, straps or corner braces for each joint.

The result is rock solid and will last.

Now we've installed all the deck boards, cut them off flush with the 2x8 outer joists and then added 2x10s all around to finish it off.  The 2x10s hide all the edges of the deck boards.  Then the first short piece of railing (next to the stairs) went up.

Speaking of stairs, here they are; all built and ready for installation.

Stairs and railings all in place. The stairs got a footing too.

It's important that no wood touch the dirt, even if the wood is pressure teated.

This shot shows the finished 'missing corner' plus my treatment for re-routing the drain around the deck.

I'd left enough room between the deck and the crawl space door to fit the drain pipe.

The railing corners here were mitered and secured with biscuits and gorilla glue.

At the other end of the deck I added an outdoor outlet.

It's in, but it doesn't work yet.  But that wasn't my fault (long story ommitted here).

We also made the simple railing (the homeowner's choise) very secure to the house.