so i'm thinking about building a small 12X14 deck on my patio. the deck will be on an inside corner with two sides of the deck touching the house. will i need two ledger boards? should the ledger boards meet at the corner (vinyl siding and the siding inside corner piece are there. should i cut the siding inside corner piece? will i need to put in a new starter strip for the vinyl siding above the ledger boards? let me know ya'lls thoughts. thanks.
You could save yourself a whole lot of grief, but letting the deck "float". The only issue that the causes potential problems is getting at the siding should you decide that it needs to be changed, or you damage a panel that is below the deck level. I guess that you could remove any panels that would be below the level of the deck, install new starter strip, but then still allow the deck to float. Close to the house, yet unattached. In my first house, I removed a panel of siding and installed a new ledgerboard, and flashed the exposed area going over the ledgerboard. Sooooo I guess you have options, and you are probably still confused on which way to go....sorry. I guess it depends on how much work you want to make of the project. Others may have additional thoughts.
You won't know if you can do something if you don't try.
First off, find out if you have frost freeze on your patio...
If you see that the whole or part of the concrete 'lifts up' even a 1/4 inch, or more then you will have trouble with the deck if you permenantly attach it to the wall, after many years, and I would go as Fireball says, free floating and no one will be any wiser because you can butt that thing up against the house and leave a small gap so that the water will drain...
If you 'do' put in the ledger boards, make sure you put in flashing so that water will fall away from the boards and not get behind the wood and start mildew, and rot against the house.
If the deck your thinking about puts you closer then 4" below the door openings then do not do it. Water will get in under the threshold and take out the flooring or worst. It's called a free standing deck, not a floating deck. Attaching any single story deck to the side of the house is almost never a good idea unless you do a lot of prep work ahaed of times. All it involves is another row of piers just out away from the house to get behond the footing and cantilevering the ledger boards closist to the house. 6 X 6 piers work best for this job becaus there big enough to be cut into to set in the rim joist. Run two rim joist, one on the outside of the piers and one inside and through bolt them with at leat 1/2 galvinized carrage bolts. What this does is stop side sway and supports the decking when installing around the post for the railings. Counter bore where the heads of the bolts are going so an outside skirt board or vinyl skirt can be added to improve the look. Never install any form of deck board tight up againt the house. Make sure to leave the decking overhanging the rim joist, not flush with the outside edges.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: joecaption,
joecaption
Posts: 10965 | Location: Halieford VA | Registered: Jan 31, 2004
