May | 2013 | your personal architect

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Architectural Solutions to Human Problems

Archive for May, 2013

Questions from the Market: Ground-level Decks

May 9, 2013 at 8:36 am · Filed under Farmers Market, Projects and tagged: composite decking, floating deck, ground level deck

Last weekend the Farmers Market season opened and I’m back in the swing of things. Had several nice conversations with people – both new and old. That’s my favorite part of the market – making and maintaining relationships.

I got a good question at the Newark Natural Foods Market about how to build a deck close to the ground so I wanted to spend a little time exploring that. The person was looking for a way to have a deck in place of grass but didn’t have a lot of money to spend on building a deck. We went back and forth on ideas. The usual way is building a traditional deck very close to the ground. At it’s best you will get a deck to be about 8″-12″ off the ground. Which was too high for this person.

from http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/ContentView?pn=Building_Ground-level&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053

Second choice was to use Dek-Blocks – saves time in digging foundations, but still has the problem of height.

from http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-build-a-floating-deck/index.html

I suggested using a timber foundation as a way to get the foundation & structure lower, since you can set it into the gravel. If you set the timbers on 24″ centers you can deck right on top of them.

from http://newdiyshedplans.com/easy-shed-foundation.html

That led to suggesting that they build a mat of composite decking on the ground, like duck boards. The idea is that it is a self-supporting unit that floats on the ground. To be effective it needs to be a pretty level part of the lawn. First you remove the sod. Then lay down landscaping fabric and 2″-4″ of gravel extending beyond the edges of the deck area. Then lay 2×4 composite decking on 24″ centers on the gravel, running the short direction. Level those and then install 2×4 decking on top running cross-wise. I’d put a large gap between the decking to allow trapped moisture to escape. Much like building a roof deck.