Share
It's time for another project and after design after design after design, I'm finally ready to begin!
The goal: to increase the usable space outside, enhance the outdoor experience all while providing some privacy while we're outside, and have some hidden storage as well!
the design shows the alfresco and the house, and all the completed decking, with seat and privacy screen from a few different angles and how i intend to use it as storage, with 3 panels on hinges. 
The following shows each part of the project, and the intended frame design. the privacy screen will be the specrite screen panels x4 as seen in this image from bunnings:
this will save me some time and cost along the way
the deck supports will be 100x100 H4 treated pine,
deck frame will be 140x45 treated pine and merbau decking, with merbau seat.
the screen will be supported by 100x100 cypress posts (DAR) which I'll stain with merbau stain and the seat/storage box will be 90x45 treated pine lined with plywood for the inside to stop any spiders and protect the storage contents from the elements.
the only real challenge is there's a storm water pipe beneath the garden bed on the outside of the alfresco. i just need to avoid that while digging, and the removal of trees and stumps, which will be a mammoth task.
next post will be some progress of the project with some photos
The first step of the process was removing all of these trees, we had 5 Yucca's that had reached at least 3m tall, and 8 conifers along the fence, in hindsight we should have removed them years ago but at the time we had no plans to do anything out here, fast forward 7 years and these monsters took a few days to remove!
I had some assistance removing all of these bad boys, the trees were all cut down to stumps and vegetation taken away, then i spent the next few days removing the stumps one by one, the ultimate test were the yucca's, and after some fumbling around with the tools, i found the best way to remove them without breaking my back was to dig as much as i can underneath the root mass enough to get a trolley jack underneath and force the whole thing up, snapping all the feeder roots on the way out! I managed to get them all out in one piece, kind of important if you don't want any piece left behind to grow through the deck a few years later!. the same method kind of works for the conifers, but it's all about getting underneath at the right spot.
there's a huge improvement! so much light enters the livingroom now!
anyway this is all I have this week, I'm ordering all of my materials shortly as I have some time off to start preparing them for the build!, i hope to have some more progress soon
Your design looks great, @TimGeo. Congratulations on getting all those plants, and especially the yuccas, out. That sounds like a massive job, so managing to tackle it over a few days is an impressive effort. They can be incredibly tenacious, and removing the entire root ball is no small task. Well done!
We’re really looking forward to seeing your project come together, so please keep us updated as you make progress.
Mitchell
I'm back with an update! it's been a few weeks since I've posted, but spending an hour or so between everything else has made for slow progression, anyway the first thing I did was to take care of the posts for the screen and seat, the petrol digger made light work of this, although still spent some time squaring up the holes and getting them nice and deep down to 1m. and lots of excess fill to get removed.
set up stringline and so much double and triple checking to make sure it's spot on with the location for concrete! thankfully you will see in the end it was pretty spot on.
trying to get clever with the bracing so it was straight
the framing up was easy, went up pretty quickly and not much messing around, although it might be hard to see but in the second image I secured a 90x45 to every joist with bugle screws, which meant I had to lift up 3 decking boards to access the frame, this allowed me to completely avoid needing any posts, i ran these 300mm under the alfresco deck to support the deck, and to maintain the line where the decking was attached, i just extended the joists and bugle screwed them to the tie-in joists, great for rigidity! and the other end i installed waling plats along the 75x200 garden bed and screwed it all down making sure the level was perfect
I partially assembled the bench in between tasks for rapid installation later
here it is almost assembled, i forgot to take a photo of it all done, kinda get swept up in getting the job done and forget to record some of the progress!
The screens were incredibly easy to install and so rewarding once it was up! it changed the atmosphere instantly. The lighting, the colour of the timber just changes the appearance so much! I just made sure that the two lower panels were perfectly centred and the rest was easy! the gaps between the slats are near perfect for trim head decking screws to fit in there to almost be invisible.
and a side angle with part of the decking already complete
further along and the lawn side is completed
I will most likely cover the bottom of the frame with another plank even though it's not super noticable. But I think it will make it even more clean looking, and down the road I would like to level the lawn and get rid of that horrible slope which will help.
But for now I've completely finished the decking portion now and the lower part of the bench seat except for 1 piece I need to scribe along the front of the seat as it pokes out about 30mm into the deck and that will finish it off, and the only other task I have left is to assemble the lid of the bench and install it with some piano hinges, I got some short screws which I intend on using on the underside so the screw heads are not visible (similar to how the screens were made) and i will put a sheet of coreflute on the inside of the box and lid for keeping the weather out, then line the box with ply so we can use it for storing heavy stuff.
I hope to have the rest finished in a couple days, get some trees planted and tidy it all up.
stay tuned for final update and then glam shots once the area is all "decked out"
