This is one of those classic tales of how a seemingly simple project can become surprisingly complex & how the gut instinct of the DIYer can be right...
We have heaps of owner-builder renos coming up but the first thing will be a deck around our new pool.
I asked the engineer for some specs for the deck as he was short on info for this section & he just dismissed my request saying ‘It’s a simple deck, you don’t need engineering…’.
I then asked our designer for some advice & he said ‘Oh, just go to your local timber place with the plans & they’ll do a take-off for you…’
I still wasn’t comfortable with any of this mainly due to clearances – across much of the area there was no room for a typical bearer & joist arrangement due to ground level.
So I went with my gut feeling and talked to a builder I know.
He instantly said ‘No mate, that’s complicated. You can’t have timber that close to the ground, you’ll have termite & dry-rot issues…’ etc etc.
In other words the ‘experts’ hadn’t paid attention to the clearances.
Soooo… anyhews… I’m now having a prefab steel sub-frame built for the project by Steel-Deck & we’ll be decking it with the HardieDeck system so stay tuned… I’ll keep you up-to-date with the project as it progresses…
The moral of the story is… never be afraid to question the experts…
