Mission Accomplished
I am finally done. With the fantastic weather we had this weekend, I figured it was time to man up and finish. After 81 days, the deck is complete! Eighty-one days ago I began ripping up the old floor boards from our deck and today, I screwed the last one into place. I could not be more elated. The end result is exactly as I had hoped. It looks wonderful. The project was actually much cheaper than I thought too (which is always a good thing). It was about $700 in materials (lumber and screws) and another $400 in tools (most of that is my brand new 12" Hitachi compound Miter Saw with Laser Guide ). It will be nice having a free weekend again.
The one nice thing about this project was all the nifty tools I got to add to my repitoire. There was the aforementioned 12" Compound Miter Saw, the 18 V Cordless Drill (with accompanying flashlight), and a Deck Wrench tool (more on that later). Not that bad if you ask me.
After a long project like this, it's always important to reflect on your accomplishment and try to figure out what you have learned.
1. Drilling a pilot hole did wonders in helping me keep the screws straight.
2. My original estimate of 5 lbs of screws was so incredibly off as to be laughable. I ended up using ~20 lbs. I just wish I knew that earlier when I could have bought the 25 lb box of screws at the start.
3. Measure Twice. Cut Once! I did a little of the Cut Twice, Measure once variety. I don't recommend it.
4. Never turn down offers of help. My dad was invaluable in helping me pull all the old boards off and my friend Dave helped me make great progress as well.
5. It's much nicer to use your own equipment than to rent. Borrowing is okay as well, but renting kind of sucked. Mainly because after 2 days, I realized I would have owed a small fortune if I rented that miter saw for the entire time.
6. Even though it seemed like an odd purchase, the deck would not looked nearly as nice had I not purchased a Deck Wrench Tool. I was really able to get those boards straight with this sucker. It seemed like an extravagance at the time, but by the time I was finished, I knew it was a necessity.
7. Amazingly, with all the power tools floating around and wood getting cut, I am thankful I still have 10 fingers and 10 toes. The worst thing to happen to me was a pulled chest muscle. I'd say that's pretty good.
8. If a friend ever told me they were thinking of doing this themselves, I would stab them in the leg. This would force them to find a contractor to do it.
I'm sure there are more, but that's what comes to mind right now. For pictures of the fruits of my labor, go to my gallery.
The one nice thing about this project was all the nifty tools I got to add to my repitoire. There was the aforementioned 12" Compound Miter Saw, the 18 V Cordless Drill (with accompanying flashlight), and a Deck Wrench tool (more on that later). Not that bad if you ask me.
After a long project like this, it's always important to reflect on your accomplishment and try to figure out what you have learned.
1. Drilling a pilot hole did wonders in helping me keep the screws straight.
2. My original estimate of 5 lbs of screws was so incredibly off as to be laughable. I ended up using ~20 lbs. I just wish I knew that earlier when I could have bought the 25 lb box of screws at the start.
3. Measure Twice. Cut Once! I did a little of the Cut Twice, Measure once variety. I don't recommend it.
4. Never turn down offers of help. My dad was invaluable in helping me pull all the old boards off and my friend Dave helped me make great progress as well.
5. It's much nicer to use your own equipment than to rent. Borrowing is okay as well, but renting kind of sucked. Mainly because after 2 days, I realized I would have owed a small fortune if I rented that miter saw for the entire time.
6. Even though it seemed like an odd purchase, the deck would not looked nearly as nice had I not purchased a Deck Wrench Tool. I was really able to get those boards straight with this sucker. It seemed like an extravagance at the time, but by the time I was finished, I knew it was a necessity.
7. Amazingly, with all the power tools floating around and wood getting cut, I am thankful I still have 10 fingers and 10 toes. The worst thing to happen to me was a pulled chest muscle. I'd say that's pretty good.
8. If a friend ever told me they were thinking of doing this themselves, I would stab them in the leg. This would force them to find a contractor to do it.
I'm sure there are more, but that's what comes to mind right now. For pictures of the fruits of my labor, go to my gallery.
posted by Eddie at 20:43
1 Comments:
WOW!!!! That deck looks absolutely awesome. You did a great job! Thanks for sending the link to the pictures. :)
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