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Lenardo

Vyemm Raider
3,617
2,523
if i was modifying the deck i'd go most likely right towards the garage- more room- If you do not move that ac unit


i whipped this up in about 10 minutes or so:
rrr_img_135042.jpg


i am guessing that the top of the deck is 2 foot off of the ground, if it is 1.5' then remove a step, if 2.5' add a step....

keeping that deck put in a couple of stairs all around- grade the garage side up to be level a good patio block system could have an awesome pad--and move that ac unit to the corner check the HOA for restrictions on placement (i HATE HOA'S -snobbish idiocy abounds in them)

i'm redoing my deck...starting monday- or rather the contractor is, i am buying the wood, he is doing the work for free. since i am a land surveyor/civil engineer, the contractor is one of my firm's clients and since we have done so much work for him over the years, he does the work for Cost of material- zero labor fee. so i just have to whip out my CC and buy the wood and he'll do the rest of the work. have not yet decided on the decking - we are waiting until the framework is done before ordering since we are going to order full Length(width of deck(so 20'+-) lengths so there will be no joints in the middle of the deck, just 1 piece of decking per strip- also redoing my stairs since frankly, the way the stairs were hung, was not code- i have had 2 2x4 supports wedged to the concrete and toenailed to the frame keeping it -sorta- rigid- it wobbles.

i currently have a 12x12 deck and making it 8' wider 12x20. the deck is 8.5' off the ground (drive under garage i live on a hill deck currently is all PT 4x4 posts with concrete pads (assuming they are 48" depth- deck was built in 1990) so adding in several new sonotube footings then going up. for railing i am going to use something a bit more decorative than just pvc/wood, a metal bowed thingy...
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
15,323
11,616
Have you done span checks? And are you notching the corner 4x4s for the band?
yeah. 4x4's are notched. In hindsight, not a fan, would not recommend it.
Joists are 2x8. 16" spacing. should be good for 12-13". actual span is 11'9".
Posts 6'
Father has experience building, and did the planning. Hindsight on that as well, doing some reading. might have gone 2x10 and 16" spacing, or 2x8 at 12"..
 

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
3,281
1,636
I have a bunch of flower beds around my yard that mostly accumulate weeds. Assuming I don't want to do major landscaping to get them removed, I hear the best way to reduce maintenance is to have them cleaned out and mulched. A couple of questions:

- Does this sound right?
- What kind of price should I expect to pay for a service to do this?

Just trying to get an idea, it's not a service I've researched before. Mostly because I fucking hate flower beds, foliage, my yard, my pool and my house. But that is a matter for another time. Let's stick with fixing the flower beds for now.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,597
214,435
Know what's good? This stuff:

Amazon.com : WeedGuardPlus (23 Garden

Paper you cover the beds with. Easy to stab through and plant where you want to, but it keeps the weeds down. Cover it with mulch, it's great. Breaks down over the year, put more down, mulch some more. Also good for vegetable gardens. It makes rich compost, too, so it helps the soil.

I have no idea what kind of price you should expect. I've never hired anyone for any kind of landscaping.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
yeah. 4x4's are notched. In hindsight, not a fan, would not recommend it.
Joists are 2x8. 16" spacing. should be good for 12-13". actual span is 11'9".
Posts 6'
Father has experience building, and did the planning. Hindsight on that as well, doing some reading. might have gone 2x10 and 16" spacing, or 2x8 at 12"..
The prob isn't the joists (well maybe) it's the band at the end acting as a beam. Sizing a beam for a 12ft joist span and 10 ft between posts you'd prob end up with 2-2x10. I'm sure it'll be fine but there are plenty of span charts to follow to give peace of mind.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,503
Post finished product pics. Like to see it.
Update on my landscaping retaining wall:

I may be hating myself for this decision later, but I opted to go with the original plan of running the pipe against the wall where I'd have to chisel a block to fit. I didn't like how the pipe looked in any other position (too obvious and eye catching).

To finish up I:

  • Chiseled multiple blocks to maintain running bond as much as possible
  • Placed a mesh barrier behind the blocks that were <3 high
  • Backfilled with a 6" thick layer of pea gravel behind the blocks <3 high
  • Glued all the top blocks on with a concrete adhesive
  • Glued the capstones on

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Obviously I still need to clean up the bed, put more soil in (at least up to the lip of the capstones), and place some plants in there (please feel free to make suggestions!). I originally put the mulch from the two nearby pine stumps in the beds, but I've been told that this is like laying out a welcome mat for termites so I'll be relocating the mulch to a compost heap beyond the backyard.

I still need to finish the other side (it's about 1/3 the total length of the side pictured below), and then I'll be attacking the salad bar that is my lawn. I'm hoping it's not too late in the year for it. It's not supposed to be consistently over 90 degrees for several weeks now (88 degrees is the high end for fescue), so I should be good.

KK2whEd.jpg


32Daceo.jpg


Rt2DL96.jpg


qf5R7VQ.jpg
 

Lenardo

Vyemm Raider
3,617
2,523
RE: the weedguard stuff.

works great, while i have not used that particular product, there are several different types/brands and i have used one of those, provided you keep the openings small, they last for years without weeds (though you do get grass/weeds starting to grown on/in the mulch).


about that wall, very well done, filter fabric on that height of a wall isn't necessary, but works great for preventing soil erosion through the cracks. one thing on where you have the drain pipe adjacent to the foundation, get a bend/diverter in there to have the gutter flow, flow away from the foundation, being adjacent may result in water in the basement if the waterproofing is not up to snuff.i do see a path the water seems to take, just put something to ensure minimal infiltration near the house.

and i gotta do that for my front yard some year looks really good and clean, this year is the Deck redo-maybe next year.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,503
Your concern is that there will be water leaking out of the pipe so it's better to run it away from the foundation? I didn't get a picture of the popup drain, but it's several feet away from the house and flows down hill towards the creek behind the house.

The pipe connected to the downspout in the middle of the house is running along the foundation until it connects with the downspout at the corner of the house. You're saying I should dig it up and move it away from the house?
 

Ryoz

<Donor>
845
194
Need some advice. Getting ready to sell my house, my realtor recommended a pre inspection. My roof shingles have like a year left, I knew that, but the inspector found some mold on the plywood in the attic. Says it's due to insufficient ventilation. I'm not sure how much I'm looking at spending, there's not too much. So the same company that is doing this inspection did my inspection 7 years ago and never mentioned an attic ventilation issue (there's a ridge vent, that's it). Would they be liable? Ive not had any work done in the attic or roof and nothing has changed in those 7 years.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,503
I've never run into a problem like that, but I wouldn't think that they would have any liability. Hopefully someone with expertise in this area can comment.
 

Frenzied Wombat

Potato del Grande
14,730
31,803
Update on my landscaping retaining wall:

I may be hating myself for this decision later, but I opted to go with the original plan of running the pipe against the wall where I'd have to chisel a block to fit. I didn't like how the pipe looked in any other position (too obvious and eye catching).

To finish up I:

  • Chiseled multiple blocks to maintain running bond as much as possible
  • Placed a mesh barrier behind the blocks that were <3 high
  • Backfilled with a 6" thick layer of pea gravel behind the blocks <3 high
  • Glued all the top blocks on with a concrete adhesive
  • Glued the capstones on

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Obviously I still need to clean up the bed, put more soil in (at least up to the lip of the capstones), and place some plants in there (please feel free to make suggestions!). I originally put the mulch from the two nearby pine stumps in the beds, but I've been told that this is like laying out a welcome mat for termites so I'll be relocating the mulch to a compost heap beyond the backyard.

I still need to finish the other side (it's about 1/3 the total length of the side pictured below), and then I'll be attacking the salad bar that is my lawn. I'm hoping it's not too late in the year for it. It's not supposed to be consistently over 90 degrees for several weeks now (88 degrees is the high end for fescue), so I should be good.
You don't see an issue with all that flowerbed earth piled up against your plaster/stucco wall? I ask because on my property we had to lower a similar flowerbed below the foundation because water was seeping through the stucco and also wicking up into the outer wall..
 

Ryoz

<Donor>
845
194
I've never run into a problem like that, but I wouldn't think that they would have any liability. Hopefully someone with expertise in this area can comment.
Just strange that at the time I purchased there wasn't an issue with the attic ventilation and now it's a problem. Had I known there was insufficient ventilation I could have done something about it. Now it's created mold. I know that's how it goes, I've had to take a lot on the chin for being a young first time homebuyer. I hate to pass up the opportunity to be able to blame someone else for their fuckup.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
Are you sure you don't have a bathroom fan venting into it or something? Attic is the last place I would expect mold simply because of lack of ventilation and people are horrible to not vent shit all the way outside
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
15,323
11,616
The prob isn't the joists (well maybe) it's the band at the end acting as a beam. Sizing a beam for a 12ft joist span and 10 ft between posts you'd prob end up with 2-2x10. I'm sure it'll be fine but there are plenty of span charts to follow to give peace of mind.
ah yeah. There is a another set of posts not yet added there for the 10' spacing. Floating. Although, second guessed the outer one, which will have stairs. Dug another hole, and will be anchoring that into a proper base.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,503
You don't see an issue with all that flowerbed earth piled up against your plaster/stucco wall? I ask because on my property we had to lower a similar flowerbed below the foundation because water was seeping through the stucco and also wicking up into the outer wall..
The wall you see there is the foundation. The other side is a crawl space. I check it regularly and haven't seen any water or wet spots in the two years I've lived here. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put some sort of barrier there if you think it's wicking moisture out of the dirt, but I haven't noticed this happening.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
If that's a block wall I wouldn't worry about it. If you have that much moisture building up in front of your house you need to fix a downspout or put in a french drain
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,503
Yeah it's a block wall. I spent a lot of time tinkering and testing the downspouts to ensure everything was draining as expected.