What I've been up to lately

[Quickmarch 488]

Thin edge of the wedge.

 

BTW, @JA: Good note to self

[hifly 925]

Some job there QM,  and nice one too. Boats are a labour of love. Had an ex Navy Whaler as a kid, it seemed to spend more time inverted to be stripped and painted than it did in the water. Happy days.

 

Last couple of weeks been sanding floors in a Victorian house, beautiful boards too so not too heavy on the sanding so to let some of the provenance show through, well oiled and they look fantastic.  Bit sore in the shoulders though.

[stu7708 244]

That's a real behemoth of a project John!

 

I do kind of like the look of teak and wouldn't mind having my deck covered by it.... but the cost  

 

Using the same dimensions as the pine we used it would have ended up in the region of $48.000..... all of a sudden the $3.800 we spent on the pine feels like a bargain  

[Quickmarch 488]

The project didn't cost much. It is hugely labour intensive (as are most). The biggest single cost was in the adhesives. The 3 cases (10 X 10oz) of 5200 and equal quantities of the Sikaflex 290DC which was used to caulk the cracks, cost around $1000. Compared to that the extra teak was peanuts

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Thanks for justifying my dislike of teak. Epic job there...one I'm thankful I'll never do. Thanks also for the clarification that you were reattaching the deck as opposed to replacing them.

[jaydor 345]

Thank goodness I do all my painting these days in Photoshop.. 

[brett 2,315]

Teak looks like it belongs on a boat, even if it is expensive. Fiberglass is easy enough(?) to clean and maintain but teak gives it that rich stylish look. 

[allardjd 1,853]

I've never worked with it but have been told by some who have that teak is inherently full of silica and is very tough on saw blades, router bits, etc.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Very true - it's hard on tools. I didn't know it was due to a large silica content. It is otherwise a very strange wood with a soft pith and hard-as-iron otherwise (old growth). Very dense and almost rot-proof.

[stu7708 244]

Got a bit more done over the weekend, despite the Saturday being spent playing board games with friend.

 

Just after lunch on Sunday the last pieces of the stair leading up to the deck were put in place.

 

And after a thorough cleaning and leaving it in the sun to dry of the first layer of treatment were applied. The last bits were treated as the sun began to set at 9 PM.

 

Most of it had dried up, and been sucked in to the wood when I went to work this morning, and hopefully I can get the second layer on tonight so we can move on the the remaining parts.

Judging by the Swedish name of the treatment the final color of the wood when treated should be something that resembles Mahogany.

[hifly 925]

Great work there.

 

What I was up to at 7,00 pm yesterday evening involved a drain rod and rubber gloves, I'll spare you the details.

[brett 2,315]

I like the finish, has a nice glow to it. Never heard of the finish before and I don't think one can even buy it here in the states.

 

Don't forget to make sure the crawl space is vented properly.

[Quickmarch 488]

Looking good, Micke,

 

Should give you many years of enjoyment.

 

 

[stu7708 244]

Time for another status update.

 

Sadly the weather have been less than ideal for outdoor wood working lately, but we got some work done over this weekend.

 

The last layer of treatment to the finished part was applied on Wednesday night, and by Friday it was ready for the first outdoors dinner for the year.

 

Saturday was spent tending to the rest of the garden, but work on the remaining 90 square meters began on sunday.

For this part we've opted for a slightly different approach for various reasons. Instead of removing all the old duckboards in one go we will remove small sections and replace those, while adding the first layer of treatment immediately after fixing the new duckboards in place.

So to begin with we removed 5 rows of old duck boards, and re positioned a couple of the fence posts

 

By the time we finished we hadn't replaced all of the torn up duck boards. The first two rows took much longer than expected since we needed to fit those around the posts.

 

The same from the other side. As you can see there's quite some difference between the old and the new duck boards.. both in size and appearance  

 

But by now it was time to prepare one more dinner to be eaten outdoors  

 

And no, that's not a stout I've got in the glass. It's a dark Barley-wine with a healthy 11,8% alcohol content  

 

 

 

[hifly 925]

Great work going on there. If the day job goes belly up you'll have another career to fall back on. Good idea to do the duckboards in sections especially with little ones around. There's nothing better than sipping a beer while you admire your own handiwork.

[brett 2,315]

Wow Micke, you sure got a big deck.

[stu7708 244]

Thanks..

 

@Brett: I missed your previous comment on the treatment. In the first photo posted on may 5th the treatment was still wet and hadn't fully set. As you can see in the photo posted yesterday the glow have disappeared, and the final finish is a more tanned look. I think it have it's roots here in Sweden, primarily in the archipelago outside Stockholm, and Wikipedia have no mention of it in any other language so I guess it's mainly something used locally. The cans we got it in did have an English brand name on it, and it looks like it's marketed in the UK, Germany and Poland too. 

 

Ventilation below it shouldn't be an issue. The structure is the same as it was before changing the duck boards, and there's plenty of room (roughly 20-60 cm), as well as gaps in the "walls" covering the sides.

 

And yes I do have a big Deck 

 

 

@Geoff: With the time it takes me to build it I would have to charge way to much for anyone to be able to afford hiring my services 

But it does fell good to work with your body for a desk jockey like me 

 

The decision to not tear up everything in one go is mainly due to the fact that we wouldn't be able to store everything that's normally standing on the deck on the finished part, and it also leaves us more outdoor space to utilize while we work..

 

The little one is actually pretty good at avoiding the gaps when he's playing.. but when we're working he's got a real knack for standing or sitting in the exact spot where we need to do something 

 

 

[brett 2,315]

It still looks nice dry, it has a nice color to it.

 

Little hint: If you run into a situation with ending up with a small width deckboard against the house, due to starting from the outside edge, take a measurement while your still four or five boards away and cut them all a touch smaller. The eye will not notice many boards being smaller but will zero in on one small one.   

[hifly 925]

 

 

Little hint: If you run into a situation with ending up with a small width deckboard against the house, due to starting from the outside edge, take a measurement while your still four or five boards away and cut them all a touch smaller. The eye will not notice many boards being smaller but will zero in on one small one.   

 

Alternatively you could move the house back a bit.

 

[stu7708 244]

Little hint: If you run into a situation with ending up with a small width deckboard against the house, due to starting from the outside edge, take a measurement while your still four or five boards away and cut them all a touch smaller. The eye will not notice many boards being smaller but will zero in on one small one.

Alternatively you could move the house back a bit.

Yeah, that sounds like the easiest solution

Regarding the more practical way of doing it now that you mention it I can totally see your point Brett, but for practical reasons I think I will stick to my original plan and just adjust the width of the last board, and hide the side with the cut under the panel on the wall.

Mainly because I don't have the tools to make a precision cut along a 4,5 meter long board. All I've got for cutting something lengthwise is a small handheld electrical reciprocating saw. And then there's the fact that on this second section of the deck I have walls on three different distances from the outside edge depending on where on the deck you are, so I'd have to do a neck of a lot of sawing

[stu7708 244]

Another weekend passed, with splendid weather I might add, and some more progress on the deck.

 

 

Another ten rows of duck boards was removed on Friday night.

 

Four new rows in place just after lunch on Saturday.

 

And another two rows were added before we stopped working for the night

 

On Sunday Kasper and Ylva got busy indoors with preparations for Kaspers 4-year birthday next weekend.

 

And I managed to fit the last two rows of duck boards in between going to vote in the EU-elections, and visiting a birthday party for one of Kaspers friends.

 

Using the number of screws used over the weekend (just over 500 pcs) as a measure I'd say I managed to fit roughly 125 meters of duck boards over the weekend, equaling roughly 15 square meters...... and with the 4 rows fitted last weekend added that means about 1/4 of the second stage is done.

 

And to finish of this update, a slightly warped panoramic view of the whole deck. This should be roughly a 90 degree view with the hot tub behind my back....

 

Next week will see very little work being done since we will be busy preparing Kaspers birthday party, but at least that will give me some time to ponder on how to succeed with getting a nice fit on the duck boards around that concrete pipe that's sticking up in the middle of the deck 

[hifly 925]

More good work in progress Micke. Regarding the concrete pipe I suggest you make a template of it's circumference and cut the curves with a jigsaw.

 

Looks like Kasper is going to have a good birthday.

[stu7708 244]

More good work in progress Micke. Regarding the concrete pipe I suggest you make a template of it's circumference and cut the curves with a jigsaw.

 

Looks like Kasper is going to have a good birthday.

 

That was my plan too Geoff..

 

I'll probably end up fitting a plank across the current rows of duckboards before removal, and use that as a template since those fit very close to the pipe.

[brett 2,315]

It's looking like spring out there Micke, very nice.

 

As to cutting a decent looking edge around the planter, a template is a good idea, temp nail everything until all the boards are in place. It is very easy to have everything get out of square when going around an object. I used to snap a series of chalk lines off the existing boards across the beams so you have something to measure off of as you go along on both side of the obstruction. 

 

Another way to find the cut lines is to use a cheap school compass to scribe the boards as you go, working first on one side until the first full board is placed past the planter and then filling in the other side to match it keeping it squared the whole time. You would be surprised how easy it is for the boards to start going awry from one side to the other of the planter due to different size boards and gaps even though it is not that big. 

 

Have fun and Happy Birthday Kasper.

 

    

[stu7708 244]

With our climate it was more like summer over the weekend Brett, well over 30 C in the sun.. Many pints, of water, was consumed in order to keep hydrated while working.

Thanks for the input on how to approach the next few rows too, certainly some food for thought there. Using some sort of temporary fixation until all boards are done was a very good suggestion.

To be honest, this is the one part of this project I've dreaded the most!