Enclosing The Deck Day 2

Enclosing The Deck Day 2: Today's work brought with it a surprise, the chimney enclosure had some water damage behind the siding next to the door and needs repaired. Builders these days are in such a rush that work isn't done properly. That is why I hired American Patio Rooms, just tired of poor workmanship.

Day 2 Slide Show

If you cannot see the slide show follow the link to see the gallery: Day-2-Enclosing-Our-Deck

Day 2 work included:

• Removing the spouting
• Cutting off the roof overhang (to get more roof height)
• Installing the roof supports
• Putting up the roof (with lots of glue and screws)
• Take down the remaining old handrails
• Reassemble the bottom deck

Weather permitting tomorrow will bring the walls and windows. Yeah baby.

See yesterdays posts and slide show here.

Enclosing A Deck Part 6 – Construction

Monday June 30th, Enclosing A Deck Part 6 – Construction. Today the builders started to add to the length of the deck taking it from 13 feet 7 inches to 19 feet 3 inches. Now the deck will wrap around the chimney giving us a nice breakfast nook to add a table without it taking up the main seating area of the deck.

This post also contains a slide show of the construction process of enclosing our upper deck. I will continue to add additional posts with more specific information the next few days with each post containing a slide show for that day. Hopefully you will gain some knowledge of the process of enclosing a deck.

Day 1 Photo Slide Show

If you cannot see the slide show follow the link to see the gallery: Day-1-Enclosing-Our-Deck

The highlights for today were:

• Removing the hand railing where the deck was being added onto
• Remove the siding and add the wood support
• Put the main support post into place
• Connect the new support post to the rest of the deck and to the house
• Add the floor joist
• Put the plywood floor down on entire deck

FYI - We managed to work around the robin's nest and save the baby birds, but mama wasn't too happy with us most of the day!

Enclosing A Deck Part 5 – Breaking Ground

In the picture above we were still in the process of removing the old plants from the flowerbeds

It has been a couple of months since part 4 of this article appeared and work has just started on the deck. We ran into some problems with the county health department that had to be sorted out. The 3 existing supporting beams of the upper deck were within 10 feet of the septic tank and we had to request a variance before building could start. Although it passed inspection when the house was built, the regulations changed a few years ago and we had to take care of that.

You never know what is going to happen when it comes to adding onto your house. While waiting on the building to start we removed all of the plants from the rear flowerbeds and most of the brick that was placed there 10 years ago. No sense doing anymore and having it destroyed in the building process. Once the deck is enclosed we will finish the flowerbeds, plant grass, etc. We also removed a tree that was partially dead. Right now it looks pretty bad in the backyard, but that will change soon. The big problem was that the work was originally planned for May and now we are at the end of June.

On Friday June 27th the building crew arrived early morning and dug the hole for the new post that supports the add-on portion of the deck. The support post needed to go through my lower deck which required dismantling part of the lower deck. The new post is over 10 feet away from the septic tank so no code problems. One of the existing posts also goes through the lower deck so nothing new, it Just makes you nervous to see your deck get torn apart and holes cut through it.

The real work will start on Monday the 30th. I will keep you posted on the progress.

What to read the previous 4 posts leading up to construction?

Enclosing Our Deck Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Stay tuned for construction updates this week, unless it rains and delays everything!

Stabrova Youth Ballet Company

With nice weather comes the special events at Gervasi Vineyard. My wife and I went to the "Ballet In The Vineyard" on the first of June to see the Stabrova Youth Ballet Company. Photography is a hobby for me and I prefer not to move about and disturb the performers or guests. We got there early so I could get a good seat and I took all of the pictures from my chair in the front row (far right). I hope you enjoy the pictures and appreciate the talent of these young performers.

The Stabrova Youth Ballet Company is the pre-professional company associated with the Ohio Conservatory of Ballet in the Green Township/Akron area of Ohio

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Albert Einstein

Enclosing A Deck Part 4 – Building and Materials

Hello again and welcome to Enclosing A Deck Part 4 – Building and Materials. As discussed in my previous posts we decided to go with American Patio Rooms as our builder for our enclosed deck. I thought I would write few words about what they had available and why we selected them. We mentioned the BBB and the feel of a family run business as being something very important to us. However, even with that we still needed to feel good about the product they are selling and the team of people who will be at our house working. In the next few paragraphs I will highlight some of the key things you should look for with your patio or deck enclosure.

What To Look For From Your Builder All too many of us have experienced the starting of a project only to have the builders vanish for days or weeks while they go to another site and begin work there. This leads to a lot of disappointment and your spouse saying “you should have listened to me”.  My dad had a sun-room added to his house and when the contractors showed up they were subs and totally incompetent. It lead to a few weeks of delay with ultimately a backhoe arriving to rip out everything done by the previous team. American Patio Rooms doesn’t work with sub-contractors, they use their own team with years of experience. When someone is cutting into your roof you want them to have been there and done that before! Another plus is that they work on your enclosure until it is done, no jumping to another job before they are done with yours. These are probably the two biggest headaches you can have when working with builders.

The Style There are lots of styles to choose from, and as mentioned in my previous posts you need to have an idea of what you are looking to get out of the room, and of course what your budget is. The room is adding square feet to your house and you don’t want something poorly built or of low quality that could reduce the value of your home. Your budget will really help make some decisions for you along with how you want to use your deck. You could have just a roof covering your deck (open roof), a screened in porch, a 3 season room, hybrid, or a 4 season room. For us the best price point was a hybrid enclosure that is between a 3 season and a 4 season room, with a flat sloping roof instead of a gable roof. We wanted the weather protection and the chance to use our deck up to eight months (and hopefully a little more than that).

The Materials The materials used for enclosures can vary quite a bit. We expect our enclosed deck to be water tight and standup to the strong winds from the west. The deck is on the second floor, and we will have wind blowing above and below the deck. Our house has a very steep slope and water can rush down and sometimes overrun the gutters. We really need a 6” gutter which the builder took note of immediately. We need windows that won’t shake and rattle in the wind or if pushed on can leave a gap or space for something to come through them. For our Hybrid enclosure the windows and door have ¾” insulated glass and Low E with Argon, and heavy duty locks and hardware. To finish off the enclosure we have heavy duty weather-stripping, insulated roof, and wall panels. Since this isn’t a 4 season room, the roof and wall panels do not have a thermal break.

Electrical Electric wires can be run through the walls, and outlets placed into the walls just like you find in your home, giving you a neat and finished look. For our enclosure we have a double spot light to light up the backyard for security.

Extras We decided that we wanted to add about 4.5 feet to the length of the deck to make it 18 feet long. It will give us a nice little area to put a table and chairs to enjoy our meals without cluttering the main area of the deck. This is an important thing to consider, you don't want to regret not expanding your deck if it is on the small side.

That about sums it up. We are still looking at patio furniture and trying to decide on exactly what we want for our finished room. The next post will be when the builders show up to start the job.

Photo document your life. Get out there and takes some pictures of the memories that are created every day.