I don’t think it’s bragging when I tell people I’ve done my fair share of awesome decks in my career … and today I thought I would show you one of the most recently completed awesome decks.
One of the projects I have been working on for a while is coming to a close, and most of our attention has turned to the exterior hardscape (things like patios and walkways, decks and the trellis). One of the very best things about this phase of a residential construction project is that all the ideas, the vision for the finished project, is finally on display for everyone to see.
The photo above is the deck I am going to be talking about today … a flush installed ipé wood deck within a patio made up of cut limestone. I thought it would make the photos that show how this deck was built make a little bit more sense.
This is the backyard … and a little more context for you.
Okay, that’s enough of that, let’s get to the construction photos.
This is what the backyard looked like before any work began … a lot of nothing. And dirt. The orange-ish dirt up above is the cushion sand that will be under the concrete flatwork that will be poured under the roof.
… and this is the concrete after it’s be set. The most important thing to look at in the above picture is the depressed slab where the deck will be built. Since we don’t want weeds and the sort to grow up under the deck (ever) and we didn’t want to see the underside of the structure that would typically support a wood deck, we poured this concrete substructure with a turned up curb along the edge away from the house.
If you look really carefully, you can see that the depressed portion of the slab is sloping in two directions – both away from the house along the short dimension, and to one far corner along the long dimension. To help you see this, I drew some red lines on the photo above to highlight the slope.
(p.s. – the plastic is in place to protect the brick walls and steel pipes from concrete splatter when it was poured.)
Looking down the length of the depressed slab minus the protective plastic. The drain is located in the far right-hand corner … but you’ll see that in a second depending on how fast a reader you are.
Closer look at the sloped concrete along the short dimension. The red lines that I added above indicate the mortar base for the thick-set limestone slabs should help give you a proper sense of how much the concrete subdeck is sloping.
And here is the drain, which is set at the low spot of the entire subdeck (I’m getting tired of writing the word “subdeck”). Nothing too fancy – just a PVC pipe that is tied into a perimeter drainage system. It won’t stick up like this when we are finished, this is just the plumbing rough-in.
Finally, we get to look at the actual structure for the deck … pressure treated 2×4 wood studs. By the way, sorry about the quality of this photo, this was a job site visit on my way in to the office and it was probably around 6:30am. The gaps between the 2×4’s are to allow the water that makes its way through the decking to migrate towards the drain.
In this picture, you can see that the contractor who was building this deck has been busy building up the substructure (joists) for the deck on top of the pressure treated 2×4’s. While this might seem like an easy enough task … it isn’t.
Each of the pressure treated 2×4′ is nailed (power actuated) to the concrete with no modifications. The tricky part is that in order for the top of the wood deck to be level, each of the boards attached to the pressure treated 2×4’s is tapered … in two directions. Each row is consistently tapered along the long run, but each row is tapered differently than the row before AND after it. It sounds just as complicated as it is – the substructure for this deck took a few days to figure out and install. I spoke to the installer on several occasions (he was the same guy who built this deck) and he was quick to point out that the concrete was not consistently – or evenly – sloped. This meant that every board had to be constantly checked and rechecked to make sure that the top was level with the surrounding structure.
I’ll show you how he made that happen in a few pictures.
This is the finished drain with the first look of an ipé wood board set in place. This picture also gives you a good idea of the role that the turned up curb plays by hiding the structure elements below. The finished outside edge will limestone slab along the face of the curb with the thinnest of profiles for the wood ipé board shown.
One of the details that allows a deck like this to appear so nice is the execution of how the boards meet the other pieces of architecture. In this case, it’s the bottom of the floor-to-ceiling windows. We set the ipé boards at an elevation that would allow them to slide just under the bottom sill … with no trim pieces.
*BOOM*
Maybe it’s just me but these are the sorts of details that I love the most. Few people would ever really pay attention to how this board slides under the window sill – and therefore never really appreciate the amount of work and coordination it took to pull it off – but that’s okay. They’ll like it and recognize it as something special even if they can’t figure out why it’s special.
Here’s a look that shows you just how much work went into getting the tops of the substructure set at just the right elevation. See all those shims in place? I bet there were close to 100 shims used across the entire structure. That level of obsession is admirable.
Wood deck art shot.
Once the substructure was set, it was fairly quick work to set the ipé boards in place. They dry set all the boards and arrange per color before blind fastening them in place.
Once the boards were arranged, they set to blind screwing them all in place. Considering that ipé is a really hard wood and they had to pre-drill and THEN drive in the screws, this part of the installation came together extremely quickly – about 4 hours.
Just because I thought someone would ask to see it, this is what happens then the pipe column comes through the deck … nothing. The contractor simply cuts to the diameter of the pipe and then leaves it at that. (I’m sure it’s harder than I make it sound)
And here is the finished elevation looking at the extent of the ipé wood deck. We designed this small portion of the back patio to be wood just to visually reduce the amount of hard impermeable concrete-like surfaces touching the house. The wood brings a bit of warmth to this area and helps delineate this area as a space rather than just a continuance of a covered walkway/patio.
Since I don’t show too much in terms of finished photography on this site, this might be the best view you’re going to get of this backyard. Winter time isn’t the friendliest time to take photos and I have no doubt that the allée will make much more sense, and be much more spectacular, once the Ginko trees get some leaves on them and actually look like trees. In the meantime, I am content with the execution of the ipé wood deck.
It’s the little things in life that bring the most pleasure, and in my mind, the fact that this wood deck doesn’t look complicated at all means we did it exactly right.
Cheers,
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Beautiful work of modern wood deck. You have shown it in very detail. In the rooftop, people use POP today, but you have attracted everyone here by using wood properly….. well done good job!
To alleviate some of the work in dealing with the compound slope of the sub-slab, would a single slope in the long direction work with a trench drain at the low end running across the entire width?
Hi, I love the simple looking, but very detailed Design!
Where i come from they always use these black adjustable plastic spacer to level the framework. Its not as clean as the all timber option because the framework needs to be rectangular which you can see sometimes through the gaps of the decking. But its a very fast way….
That is a beautiful deck. Not just the ipe itself, but it’s relationship to the limestone, the slick architectonics, details details details… But I’m curious what you think about all those shims. I know they’re necessary, but I’m thinking long term. What’s going to happen after several hard rains, expansion/contraction in temperatures, people running on top of that deck… Unless every shim is nailed, isn’t there a little fear that they’ll come out over time? Just me?
Thanks for the nice comments and the question. Regarding the shims, all were screwed into place once set – just as any shims used when installing a door or window frame are screwed through and held in place as part of the installation process. The one big difference between these shims and those used in door and window installations is that these were cut from pressure treated lumber, not the (typically) untreated shims that you can buy precut fro your local big box construction superstore.
May be a newb question, but doors and windows are screwed on all four sides (if not more) to keep them in place, in addition to screwing in the shims for leveling. For this deck, you’re essentially trusting the shim to hold up (which they’ll do better since they’re p.t.) without cracking and slipping out – only on one side, if I’m not mistaken. I’m interested to see how it holds up after wear and tear. If God is in the details, trust your details, right? 🙂
there is still only one screw through each shim, regardless of whether they are on 4 sides of a window (only three sides for a door) and therefore no more likely to slide out. Also, guys that spend this much time and attention to their craft know if the shim has split when they install it and can remedy that situation in real time.
Hi Bob,
I am currently in my senior year of high school and I plan on pursuing a career in architecture. In order to broaden my field of study, I am planning on doing an undergraduate degree in urban studies and doing a graduate program in architecture after that. For the most part, aspiring architects typically do both degrees in architecture. In your opinion, is it more difficult for someone to be competitive in the field with only the one degree in architecture? Do you see value in having two separate areas of study or does it not really make a difference?
Thanks in advance
It might help you as a person and ultimately as an architect but I don’t think it would make a significant difference getting a job out of school
This is such a beautiful deck and I love it. Kudos to all the care that went into the design and construction of it. I do have a question though; why was the decision made to make the deck boards perpendicular rather than parallel to the ceiling boards?
I wanted the joints between the boards to run in the short dimension because 99% of the time you will be looking out through the windows into the yard beyond and I wanted the joints to run along with that view. It also meant that I didn’t have to have more than one board in length. Sometimes, when you have to but the boards end to end along the run, they aren’t quite the exact same width, thereby throwing the board joints out of alignment. I didn’t want to put this much effort into the detailing and then have the joints screw up the vision lines.
Very nice looking deck. My only suggestion since the concrete base is sloped in two directions would be to stagger the drain opening to be more along the fall line rather than all aligned perpendicular to the wall, to create a more direct path. Since water has a mind of its own, and knows how to find the low point it will get to the drain anyway. Your local golf pro could point out the fall lines, or just set a ball at the high point and ridge, and see where it goes. Ipe is a super nice (almost bulletproof) wood for decking. Maybe it should be named YIPE! I got to use it.
Hi Gene.
I thought about angling the PT nailer that is attached to the concrete along the slope line and then running the nailer board that the ipe attaches to parallel to the house (for consistent alignment of the screws) but thought that I was adding yet another level of complexity to what was already not very straightforward. As you put it, the water will get to the low spot so on that day, I decided to pick a different battle.
I like your rebranding of ipe … I might start using it in my client meetings when I’m trying to convince them it is worth the cost.
Not angling the sleepers toward the drain, just the position of the gaps.
Easy to make suggestion when not having to do the work ;-).
Wow. Those tolerances are incredible…. well done!
I will gladly take the accolades for all the work on this deck by others and pass it along.
Hi Bob, looks great! Does the amount of wood boards fit exactly between the stone walls where the windos are without cutting one on one or both sides? Or did the contractor made the wood boards fit according to the width of the window? Cheers!
Fits exactly, all the boards used are full width. … #mathskillz
Okay, while that last statement is technically true, I would imagine that the installer might have modified the gap between the boards over a long dimension so there wouldn’t have to be any cut boards – but it’s such a minimal adjustment that you would never know it. We did the math in the office but the likelihood that some site adjustments were made is pretty good.
What a great collaboration. Everyone cared to get it right.
Given the level of precision required to pull this off, I must ask for your opinion of the following warning I received from a great carpenter who had just finished the ipe siding on a house:
“The stuff [ipe] is horrible to work with. It is extremely hard, but the worst thing is its strength. If a piece wants to bend when it gets wet, it will tear apart anything in its path.”
Is that true? I hope not, or in the extreme that deck will flip the house! 🙂
I haven’t had any experience with the bending/warping of ipe boards. For what it’s worth, there are ipe decks that have been in place for decades, and the original boards are still in place. We use it all the time – I love this material.
very detail,, love it.
I’m curios about base for wood deck how in contact with concrete, if using wood like that dont they will go bad after few years because of the contact with water?
and any photo about blind screw? i dont know about how thats work
The wood that was used for the structure of the deck, is pressure treated southern yellow pine … it is made to come in contact with the concrete and can handle being exposed to prolonged amounts of moisture. The concrete below is sloped so any water that gets below the ipe wood boards will move towards the drain and be removed.
Blind nailing is a technique where the screws are driven in at an angle through the sides of the boards. As a result, the next board to get installed hides the screws used in the previous board.
and i see the window is a bit flying in order to iIpe board to slide under. did its use steel beam or how thats work
take a look at the 3rd photo and look specifically at the bottom of the window – there is a concrete grade beam under the house that follows the perimeter, and sitting on top of that grade beam are 4″ deep concrete masonry units – that is what protects the wood flooring joists and plywood subdeck. The concrete pad for the exterior wood deck was poured later and allowed us to exactly coordinate the height needed so that the ipe boards could slide under the lip of the window.
I really appreciate your care for details and the perfect fit with other materials. Many years ago I was project architect on a house where we did an Ipe deck and so I know how difficult it is to work with. Thanks for sharing this project. Its projects like these and their exquisite execution that makes architecture so amazingly satisfying as a profession.
Thanks – I consider myself very lucky to get the opportunity to work with people who work with pride in what they do. It literally makes all the difference in the world.
Cheers
I love the details (and lack of details due to flush fit!). I wonder how the board which wraps around the column was installed since it seems like it would not fit past being more than half a circle.
Would calling the size of bricks ‘Roman’ be accurate?
To be honest – when I saw your question, I went back through my photos to see what I could find (I know I took a few of that condition) and I’ve attached the best picture I could find … it’s magic!
Roman would be correct.
If you take a look at the 16th picture down from the top, you can see that the installers laid out the boards equally between the columns (the missing boards in that picture are the ones that eventually would need to be cut around the column) and the equally spaced those boards to fit within the space between the columns so that we wouldn’t have any cut boards. The assumption is that the two boards that would fill those gaps could each take some of the radius to fit around the pipe columns. For the most part, that logic worked out.
When I was looking at that detail, I was thinking the same thing.
My theory was that the hole is close enough to a half circle that the board will “snap” over the column, especially if the tail ends of the cut are tapered out from tangential. There is likely just enough compliance in the ipe (and just enough clearance on the cut diameter) to make that possible with a little mallet persuasion. I think the key is the grain direction, and the location on the edge face of the board instead of the end face. It would likely not be possible with a hole on the end face of the board, as the board may split along the grain axis when forced to deflect around the column diameter.
Think about putting something round in the C-shaped hand of a little Lego person; the “C” has to deflect at the point of largest diameter, and then relaxes past that point as it travels over-center.
check out the photo I just added in my response to Simon … it’s still a bit of a mystery even when looking at the new photo. I’ll have to go back and look more specifically since this view actually hides the bit we want to see.
Amazing deck. There’s nothing that can’t be made more beautiful with the careful addition of Ipe. Nothing.
If I was at that house, and saw the decking extending underneath the window sill and flush to the top, I would have a private fit of giggling because I know that someone really cares about details. Things like that are appreciated, even if they go unnoticed by most people.
It takes an extreme amount of thought and effort to make something look so clean and simple when finished. Bravo.
Thanks. It’s interesting just how many people really respond to that particular detail. Since we pour our exterior flatwork towards the end of the project, the windows were already in place so this detail was actually pretty easy to execute. (says the guy who didn’t build any of it).
The real skill was in setting the substructure – that took some planning, patience, and pride in craftsmanship to make that come together.
Today’s post is one of the reasons why I like this blog so much. I love seeing how things are made – start to finish – anything really. Even more, I love it when the people doing it are committed to quality. And when the quality reaches a painstaking level, that’s the best of all. It has certainly made me look at things with a much more critical and often more appreciative eye. Most people who see it will never know how much went into it, but kudos to everyone involved with this deck. Well-done! ⭐️
Thanks – and I will confess that receiving comments from non-architects is one of the most rewarding things that can happen when I write one of these posts. It’s hard to tell a story when you assume that the person reading it doesn’t necessarily bring a huge base of knowledge to the conversation and the trick is to tell the story in a way that you will a) want to read it, and b) get something out of the experience.
Thanks for making my day.
PS – forgot to mention how pretty the ipe wood is. Lovely choice for a deck. Never even heard of it before & couldn’t find it in the dictionary.
it is nice – and extremely resilient. We typically leave the boards unfinished and over time the color will change to this really nice silvery-gray.
So, somewhat like teak? That tends to go grayish, doesn’t it? I love teak, too.
Very nicely detailed and executed.
thank you
That there is a sleek deck. Got to love the low rainfall and warm winters you have there in Texas. [grins]
Living in Texas does have some benefits. Dallas averages about 37″ of rain a year (which is the same amount Seattle) so we do have to deal with rain. This porch is covered so only driving rain will make its way onto the deck and subsequently down to the concrete slab and internal drain.
Yeah rain is easy to deal with, now snow and freezing rain, that’s where lawsuits are made.
Unfortunately, freezing rain is also something we deal with a lot. Snow, not so much.
Freezing rain – the bane of my existence.
The level of quality control on something like that is shocking. How many site visits do you allow in your fees?! I don’t think anyone except people in the construction industry can appreciate the symphonic coordination of setting window sills at an elevation (far in advance of concrete flatwork or decking) so that deck boards run flush underneath them with no trim! There are so many variables to consider. I think you wrote another post about why Modern (capital M) design is more expensive: only a few care enough to coordinate that closely. Chapeau!
We typically work hourly so there is no limit or cap on how many site visits we provide. However, since I love this as much as I do, I frequently make these trips out to the job site on my way to or from work and unless I am there at the owner or contractor’s request, that’s not something they get billed for. Many of the timesI stop by the site and simply to document a process which does not need my constant vigilance but because I want to use those image to write a post like this one, I make the extra trips. If the contractor spots me and asks me a few questions while I’m there, bonus to the client.
I love posts like this, thank you!
you are most welcome.
I love it. I think you nailed the simple (yet actually quite complex) look.
I especially appreciate the way the wood slides under the windows with no trim That was extremely nicely done. kudos to the construction crew for that, and you/your firm for the design of it.
Did the deck installer say if the previous deck (that you linked to) was more or less easy than this one because of all the extra shims needed?
I don’t know if you took any, but I would have loved a shot of the thin-profile of ipe showing at the front of the deck which you mentioned.
Aside from that, I think maybe an extra sentence on what blind fastening is could have been helpful, but I got google to answer that one, so no worries.
I appreciate another great post.
Ask and you shall receive (most of the time and if I actually can accommodate the request)
Both decks had their challenges – the other deck took considerably longer because they had plane the boards on three sides so that they could maintain consistent gaps. That was a hard request simply because the boards ran parallel to the house and the boards were not always the same width. I find it hard to describe with text so hopefully you understand what I am trying to describe. The addition of all the shims on this project was tedious but not particularly difficult. As to which one was more difficult to install, just based on the amount of bellyaching I heard, the KHouse modern deck was harder than this one.
Cheers.
That’s one of those shots that kind of befuddles the mind, per Simon’s comment above. How’d they get that (almost) full circle around the column?!