Entrance porch: Deck

Yesterday, we started the back porch. The deck extends out 50'' (4'8'') from the foundation insulation and roughly 32' along the entire south side of the house. Lisa and I moved the lesser quality 2x6 and 2x8 hemlock planks we had sawed last spring from the woods to the work site (the good ones will be used for siding and the upstairs flooring. The crew (that's Gord near the pickup) cut them up and assembled the deck frame. We thought we might plane and sand the floor planks (1.5' x 6''), but decided that we'd sand the floor once the project is finished (doesn't make sense to make them all nice while work crews are coming and going).

Besides, this is a working country porch overlooking a gravel driveway, a maple wood, and a small pond, not a prefabricated deck to line a backyard pool from Club Piscine.

The frame is suspended on concrete pillars that we poured from pre-mixed concrete into cardboard cylinders called "sonotubes". Normally, these extend down 4 feet below the frost line, but in our case they extend down to the bedrock. We will need to put a polyethylene (plastic) as a barrier between the concrete and wood. Concrete is quite corrosive to wood, even eastern hemlock, which is more resistant to rot and the elements than most other species (cedar).

This picture shows some details of the deck framing. The double beams are made of 2x8 . They span the pillars, and will support the posts that hold up the porch roof. They also support the floor joists, which still have the bark from the trees on them.