Decking frame help Ask questions and find answers on all your decking problems and issues

[jswarbri]

Hi all, I was looking for a little advice regarding a deck I am planning for the rear of my house, and I’m hoping someone could help.

The rear of my house is L shaped, with space on both sides between next doors house on one side and our garage on the other. I was thinking of building a deck to replace a fairly rubbish patio, to be attached to the back of the house which extends width ways to the garage wall and to the wall between us and next door (this wall is not attached to next doors house, but is butted up to it, and carries a fence, its also 2 bricks deep).

To the front of the deck is a retaining wall (1 brick deep), which leads to a garden that is lower than the patio.

Now, I know I can attach a ledger board to the house, and that I can effectively wrap it around the corner of the L, but I was wondering:

1. Can I extend the ledger board beyond the edge of the house to meet the garage wall and the fence wall on each side of the house?

2. Can I attached the rim joists to the garage wall and fence wall safely?

3. If I can attach to the side walls, can I then attach the front beam to the retaining wall?

4. If I can’t attach to the retaining wall, will I need to install footings that drop the required depth based on the level of the garden, or the patio?

I have attached a sketch to try and help visualize what the back of my house looks like.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[thedoctor]

Hi.....


It depends on the length of the overhang and the size of the timber you use as a plate (or wat you are calling a rim joist). With no dimensions on the drawing it's difficult to imagine what you have in mind. It looks as if a 6inch x 2inch timber, fixed to the wall all the way round the house would be good. These plates can then extend across the gap with a short post fixed to the ends (by the garage wall and next-door neighbours wall) to give extra support, obviously the posts should touch the ground, or even better, be concrete in. You can then use joist hangers to fix your trimmer joists from the house wall plate, to another plate fixed to the retaining wall. This removes the need to fix anything to either the garage wall of your neighbours fence wall as the joists will run from the back of your house straight to the retaining wall where more joist hangers will hold up the other end of the joists.

Using 6 x 2 timbers will allow you to spant the wider part of the deck up to about 4m (12 feet) but if the distance is any greater you will need to add a supporting timber across the middle to break the span of the main joists.

I hope this helps. There is a page on basic decking on the website here https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/decking.htm

[jswarbri]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, it was most helpful.

The gaps are about a meter either side of the house, so I will look into putting some posts in as extra support.

Thanks again.

[thedoctor]

No worries, glad to help. It would be good to see a photo of the completed job if you have time to come back and upload it.