Winner: Steven Chenevey - June 2009

Overview

I would like to thank your company for your excellent product, and great website. I do not like wood working projects and usually do everything to avoid them. I have little to no experience either. I had never built a deck, or even assisted in the building of one. My wife and I built this entire deck using a worn out circular saw, a 3' level, a cored 3/8" drill motor, and a hammer. My wife and I had a small 10' x 10' patio on our house that we wanted to expand. We had a small budget so decided that what ever we did, we had to do it ourselves. Expanding the patio by pouring another was completely beyond my skills. We had decided to use patio blocks, when I stumbled accross your website with a google search for pool decks. We found that we could build a deck the same size, cheaper than using the patio block. Another thing I like was not having to dig out for the patio blocks. Your free deck plans were great, we just went to Lowes with the list your plans provided. The only thing I would suggest is adding to your list the metal connectors between the risers and the joices. I hope Lowes is giving you guys a kick back. We were able to build a 12' x 12' deck for less than $600 including lattice and plants. I took photos at each step, I will leave comments for each below in the order they are attached. My wife and I started laying out the blocks in the morning. I did not have a truck to haul the 36, 2 x 6 x 12's so I had a friend with a truck help, this delayed starting the deck portion untill about 3:30pm. My wife and I and the friend with the truck worked untill about 8:30pm then the bugs said time to quit. My wife and I finished the deck the next day by noon. We permantly attached a screen gazebo to the deck, to make a low cost screen room. We decided against a railing so as not to limit our view. We installed a chair rail around the 3 exposed sides to keep chair legs from sliding off the deck. Notice there is no step yet at the patio edge. We now plan on covering the patio with deck, and adding another 12' x 16' deck on the other side. The patio decking will be lower than the other two decks, and we will use steps to give that multilevel look. We will not do this untill fall due to budget restraints. The 12' x 16' section will have a railing and will be reinforced underneathe the far end to support a hot tub in the future. Since these decks are not considered permanent, I needed no permit, and my taxes will be unaffected. We intend on adding another screen gazebo to the front part of the second deck to use as an outdoor dining room. I will of course document and send along the second phase of the project as soon as its done. This wont be the best deck on your site, but it should give hope to those who like me have no skill for this type of work.