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I had previously posted about building a deck next to a pool with some progress pictures (https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/t5/Outdoor/How-to-build-a-low-level-deck-next-to-a-pool/m-p/283...). The project is now complete, so can go through the whole process. It took a long time, but I guess that is expected with limited weekends to work on it.
I ended up digging footers by shovel, I didn't want to hire machinery to ruin freshly laid grass. I also had the power for the pool equipment running underground so had to be mindful of that. Footers and power trench were both 600 deep.
We had a lot of rain around the time the footers were dug. They filled with ground water straight away and the area was a mud pit framing up the footers. Ended up buying a transfer pump to empty the water pre-concrete.
Ended up using a concrete taxi for the footers, saved a lot of time. Once they were done I laid around 1m3 of gravel for drainage above the agg drain which I had also installed.
Because I didn't want to anchor a ledger board into the side of the pool or go too close to the fence deck board sizing was a bit tricky. I ended up going with 140mm wide boards, and then adding supporting timber to the exterior of the bearers so that the wide boards could get closer to the pool the fence. In the end I ended up with a 40mm gap between the deck and pool which I was OK with given the narrow tiles and trying to avoid too much splashing onto the timber.
Joists and noggins installed. Bearers were 75*175 GOS hardwood. Joists were 50*50 GOS hardwood. All fixings were stainless, including ~700 stainless connector nails hand nailed into the joist hangers. Probably should have bought a framing nailer for that job in retrospect. Joists and bearers also taped.
There was some fiddly framing at the back for a screen. I was originally was going to screen with the decking boards and 100*100 posts blocked in between a joist and a rimboard. In the end I went smaller posts and plastic screening, didn't want too much weight counterlevered over the end of the deck and I was sick of digging holes by that point. To support the blocking for the posts I joined the last two joists with M12 bolts into steel plates. These fixings were galvenised rather than stainless so I covered them with epoxy paint.
Decking boards and screens finished. The boards were a bit bowed so I had 4 framing boards and used 5mm packers and some wedges that I cut to force the rest straight as I screwed them down. I went with 140*32mm spotted gum boards. I though additional thickness would give me a bit more longevity next to the pool. I had to rip one of the boards, but that was no drama. I used the ripped board for the decking lights. The screening had to be cut down to size, but I framed it up with the leftover from the deckboard rip, and think it turned out pretty well. At some point I will build a house for the pool equipment but this does the job in the meantime.
Linked up the deck lights with some new garden lights on the Holman controller and also put the pool and festoon lights on a timer.
Mistakes were made. Biggest being an incorrect bearer cut day 1 which meant I had to dig another footer and put a stirrup under the new lap join. I used a 360 laser level to get the stirrups level, but it was tough to see outdoors and there ended up being around a 5mm drop in height over the length as I kept having to move it. I spent a long time planing the bearers down to get it deck level from there. Overall pretty happy with how it turned out. Good excuse to buy more tools.
