Planning For Your Deck
Landscape With Decking
Enhance the beauty and function of your landscape by building a deck. Blend outdoor living space with your landscape and create an area for privacy, entertaining and family activities. Building a deck is the ideal do-it-yourself home construction project. If you can use a hammer, saw and level, you can be successful. To ensure a lifetime of enjoyment, use pressure-treated lumber along with hot-dip galvanized nails and fasteners. Good preparation will help you design and build an attractive pressure-treated deck.
Before You Start
Several factors must be considered before you can design and build your deck. Some of the key considerations are:
- Design a size to accommodate present and future needs.
- Anticipate uses – privacy, family recreation, entertaining, etc.
- Number of people and type of furniture your deck will need to accommodate.
- Desired exposure to sun, shade and breezes.
- View – highlight the good and not the bad.
- How well the deck will blend in with other landscaping and general terrain.
- Safety – keep children and elderly in mind.
- Access to various rooms of the home.
- Determine location and depth of utility and drainage lines, including access locations.
It’s important to remember that while your deck project could take a few weekends to complete, because you are using pressure-treated wood, your finished deck will last a lifetime.
Be sure that the design and style you decide upon today will make you happy and proud for years to come. Consider your deck as a focal point of the overall landscape of your home. Be creative in size, shape and levels. Choose decorative and unusual accents. Selecting pressure-treated wood makes the most of your investment in time, effort and money. Take time to check out various deck plans and completed decks in your neighborhood for design ideas. Draw out your planned deck to scale, showing attachment to the existing structure and location on your lot.