cantilever is so happening!

This is it. The rotting deck is rebuilt, the house has been prepped and waiting for the steel for the last month, and now comes the big climax. That cantilever we started talking about in May is on, baby!

Before David explains, let me remind you of this…

engineering drawing | deck, 04/02/12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the drawing our engineer provided (click to biggify it) as a way for us to remove the posts and cantilever the deck. To recap a previous post:

  • Two steel brackets (or cups) will tie all the wood together at the outside corners of the deck.
  • Two long steel straps bolted to each framing member they cross will support the outside corners by spreading the load across the sides of the house.

 

So, can I introduce you to the steel?

Steel, reader.

Reader, steel…

closeup of the steel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the niceties are out of the way, take it, David!

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Rhode Island Welding custom-made the steel our engineer specified for us (complete with pre-drilled holes as you can see above), and last week Joe and I installed it.

First, we drew exactly where the steel brackets (or cups) would fit into the existing deck structure…

drawing notes where future steel will anchor deck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we put up a story pole — the 1”x1” stick that Joe’s about to put a screw next to — that would serve as our marker for the proper height of the deck structure once the posts were cut away.

Here’s Joe cutting the 4” x 6” post so that we could jack the deck up slightly — we want the deck to settle back down to its original height after we set it on the steel. The bottom of the story pole is taped to the concrete footing with blue tape…

cutting the first post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, installation went fairly quickly.

Once in, the steel cup catches the bottom of the deck and the strap transmits the load up and spreads it across the house framing…

steel corner in place

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

32 galvanized bolts, each ⅜” diameter by 4” long, hold it all together across each framing member as planned…

installed! job well done, boys!

 

This week, Joe and I will take out the remnants of the posts and the deck will be fully cantilevered as originally intended!

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One Response to “cantilever is so happening!”

  1. […] and Joe finally pulled out the posts they had sliced a few weeks back. So now we’re not only officially cantilevered, it actually looks like we’re officially […]

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