Thanks, great to hear! Running the joists parallel to the house looks great too if there are internal floor boards running long ways so then running the same way as the decking boards

Thank you sir 😀

Thanks mate! Even with my mumbling it's easier to understand than "3 and 5/16 of an inch"!

No worries! Good luck with your deck!

It’s a deck foot from Eurotec. The height changes by twisting the foot. It’s best to set it at the right height before fixing it to the concrete Good luck!

Thanks Dean! Good luck with it, and sing out if you need any advice 👍🏼

@@InStyleGardens cheers mate 👍🍻

Thanks Mat!

No worries Andrea. We've only done a couple of the composite decks, but I don't mind them. Certainly saves on maintenance, and it looks pretty much the same in 5 years as the day you lay it, not exactly, but pretty close. I hope it all goes well!

Thanks! My videos certainly wouldn't be described as 'top quality' but whether there's a fancy song at the start or not, the information is the most important part.

Thanks, I wouldn't span any bigger than 1000mm if you use 70x45. Spacing them at 450mm for the decking boards should still be fine

Hi Andrew, The rubber strips on the joists are joist protection. Even though we're using treated pine, this is extra protection which will extend the life of the deck/frame. The face board is screwed directly to the joist. Because the deck feet can only go a certain distance from the edge, ie they can't overhang it, I had to double up on the outside joists for the sole reason of being able to fix the face board to it. If we were putting a face board on the front edge, we'd have screwed it into the end of the joists as you suggested. Good luck with it!

Thanks. They're 90x45 and they're slightly less than 450mm apart and the span less than 1200mm between deck feet

Thanks Thomas! The spans depend on what timber you’re using. The decking boards are 19mm thick so we wouldn’t have the joists any further than 450mm apart, and the joists we use here are 90x45mm and while technically they can span 1400mm, I don’t like going over 1200mm. If the joist is bigger, like a 140x45, you could span up to 2300mm, but we didn’t have the height to be able to use them here

I wouldn’t bother with a hatch if you’re screwing the boards down. You’ll possibly never need to access it, but if you do, you can just unscrew whatever boards you need to

I work within three different municipalities, and thankfully only one of them requires a 25mm gap. I’ve only built one deck in that area and we had to have the gap. Not sure there’s any creative ways around it sorry!

Thanks Kane, It's just a normal rotary laser level

Thanks Tim. I've never come across one with less clearance than what we could use 90mm joists for, but you could use a 70x45 on it's flat but you'd want to make sure you use a joist tape so that no water is sitting on top of the joist. 70x45 isn't a legal way of doing things as they're not mentioned in the timber spans table as far as I'm aware. But if you go down that path, the more support the better. I haven't heard of Spax screws before but you generally get what you pay for with screws.

@@InStyleGardens thanks for the reply! Have just watched a few of your videos and they're great. Keep up the good content👌 Yeah I've got 80mm between the patio slab and interior floor height. Will just use packers close together under the 70x45 and it should be plenty solid. Good tip on joist tape. It's undercover too. Re screws, last time I used stainless decking screws from Bunnings. They were ok, but maybe not great. Is there a particular brand you like or where do you usually buy from? I'm in Aus too 😀

@@TimB-lb1zn I'm not sure of the brand but will find out tomorrow and let you know. I get them from a timber yard in Geelong. They're expensive but great quality and look awesome too.

@@TimB-lb1zn We use stainless steel screws from Anchor Mark

Thank you Mat, the production quality certainly isn’t! 😬

The ones I had didn't have holes either, I just drill it through the foot at the same time as you're drilling into the concrete. Don't drill too close to the outside of the foot.

Not sure what you mean by height paddles, but the orange rope thing is a masonry ‘spaghetti’. It partially fills the hole and then when the screw goes in it expands it. It’s just like a masonry plug but in a much longer length

Thanks Fernando. I’d have three along a joist that size. One at 0.1m, one at 1.2m (the middle) and one at 2.35m. That’s if the joist is 90mm tall. If it was any less, I’d add another one

Thanks man! That info was very much needed/appreciated!

I put a decking board on the ends so you can’t see under the deck. I explain this poorly around the 1.20 mark 😬

Not at all. 90x45 is what we use 95% of the time regardless of space. They can span 1400mm if continuous. There have been times when we've had less height than this example, and you just need more packing under the timber if it's thinner, so it doesn't span as long.

It's certainly not ideal, but if you lay the joist on the side it'll fit. You just want to have the spans closer together. There's no recommendation for how close, but the closer they are, the stronger it'll be. I'd using skinny decking boards (90mm max) because the joist will be wider which will increase the amount of water that can sit on it, and bigger decking boards are more likely to cup in that situation. Good Luck!

Thanks Kevin. I used 50mm 10g Stainless screws

@@InStyleGardens thanks mate. Do you think 6g x 40mm will do the job?

@@kevinlay1797 Yeah they’d be fine. If the pedestal is fixed to the joist, it can’t really go anywhere. And the deck is too low to the ground for uplift to be a concern

@@InStyleGardens sweet. Thanks for the advice

You'd definitely want something more solid than soil or gravel to put the deck foot on. A concrete base would be the best option

I've used them for at least 5 years and have never had a call back about them. We may only do a deck with them two or three times a year though. I've recently seen KlevaKlip have some galvanised post supports/joist hangers which may be another solution. I'll probably give them a try the next one we do.

Thanks for the response. Yeah i have looked at these aswell but they are stainless steel not aluminium so they are no good for low lying decks in my opinion due to moisture and rusting. Wouldnt you agree? I am also near the beach but cannot find aluminium options. 👍

@@avianweber If you’re near the beach, stainless would be the only way to go in my opinion. Or these plastic ones in the video

Nah stainless will rust. Must be aluminium only 👍

Lol I saw your question on other videos as well, did you get an answer?

Thanks John, The Tuff Blocks look like they'd be higher off the ground. The Deck Feet I used can go as low as 20-25mm. You're not going to get much lower than that

You mean the orange stuff? It’s called spaghetti and is like a masonry plug. It allows you to screw to the concrete. I drilled a 6 or 6.5mm hole in the concrete, put the 5mm spaghetti in and then that allows the screw to get a good grip in there

I would have on my Instagram but it was 3 years ago, so you'd have to scroll back a fair way

It does depend on the local council as they have different rules, but everywhere I work you would need one, however most people don't bother because they can rip it up or get a permit if they're asked to.

Thanks Eric and good luck with your deck. www.bunnings.com.au/eurotec-30-53mm-small-pro-feet-pedestal_p0066017 This is the larger of the two I used. Not going to help you because it’s an Australian store, but it’ll show you the name of it at least. Eurotec is the manufacturer

www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-build-a-deck-over-a-concrete-patio/ Eric Emelianenko try the low tech version. PVC wood cut into strips. Can't find this particular size that he used in the video in the US. There's the bigger one for rooftop deck. But nothing this small. I think the link above will help you. That's the version I'm going with. Hope it helps.

@@grandmaraps I appreciate the response sir! I will research that.

Not using these materials. The joist alone is more than that measurement

Yeah you could absolutely put a layer of weed mat between the foot and slab. You could still screw the foot into the slab through the weed mat

@@InStyleGardens And what ideas you have in regards to preventing the wood from rotting with the weather. The deck will be exposed, it won’t have a roof. Is there a special kind of wood you would recommend that will prevent it from rotting?

@@fgrodriguezqac absolutely, the timber has to be treated to withstand being used outside.

Thanks Steve! You guys get too much rain for my liking up there

It's a self levelling rotary laser level

Can’t recall the brand but any stainless steel 8-10g screw at least 40mm will be fine in situations like this one

@@InStyleGardens Does the deck feet actually have screw holes in them or did you just drill two holes through?

@@jem6411 I drilled the hole in them to go into the ground. There’s a hole where it’s drilled into the timber.

@@InStyleGardens Thanks. Sorry to be a pain did you use the same 50mm screw to attach the feet to the timber? Same as the screw to attached the feet to the concrete?

@@jem6411 Yep same ones

The smallest one they do is 1 inch

I would've already rotated it to the right height. I'd have set the laser level to the finished height, and taken off 99mm (90mm for the joist and 19mm for the decking board) and that's what the laser was then set at, and I rotate the foot up and down until it is at the correct height. You need to get them to the right height before screwing them down, because they cant rotate when screwed down

@@InStyleGardens - thanks! Do you have a video of doing that process and making sure the edges are squared? That seems like the hardest part in this deck build to me 🤷‍♂️

@@calebprabhakar nah this is the only video I have of it. Not sure what you mean by squaring the edges, but if you mean having the outside decking boards square with the house, you can run the decking boards long and then cut them off at the end. Do a 3,4,5 off the house (a2 plus b2 = c2)

Can you let me know what tool you are using to measure height?

The brand of this rotary laser level is Spot-On. It’s not an expensive model so any rotary laser for outdoor use would be fine

90x45mm

No because the rain will go through the gaps in the decking boards. So it's more important that the concrete below is draining away from the house.

@@InStyleGardens Thank you .

@@InStyleGardens Hi Joel and team, with regards to this topic of making sure that concrete slab is having a slope going away from the house. The concrete slab under my pergola where I am planning to do this decking is fairly flat but whenever it rains there are 1 or 2 sections which form very thin puddles. what actions should I take before I get on with building a subframe. What material can I use if need to tweak the existing concrete slab in sections where these really thin puddles do get formed. Is it really important to get this done even before thinking of doing the frame as the deck mostly will be under the pergola. Any easy options at bunnings to look into ? Few more questions, sorry but need all the help I can as my first DIY deck ( decking area is 39m2): 1) what is the type of joists timber used for subframe ? 2) if laying composite decking in diagonal pattern in a picture frame. what should be the spacing between the joists. 3) what screws did you use to screw the minifoots in the concrete ? Thank you.

@@pwaghmare1258 Hi Parag, You could potentially use some structural grout or levelling compound to fill the puddles, but this may just move them to another position. It's not ideal having puddles under the deck, more so because you can get mould building up under there rather than the timber rotting, because there's no timber in contact with it. The timber we use for joists is 90x45 treated pine, but due to the timber shortage, you won't be able to get any unless you order it, and that could take 4-6 months! We haven't built a deck since the one in this video. The decking boards can't span more than 450mm, as a general rule, so if you're doing them on a 45 degree angle, the joists can't be more than 318mm apart. We used 10g stainless steel screws to fix the deck feet down Good luck with it!

@@InStyleGardens Thank you instyle gardens team. your project work inspires me. Thank you for responding back to my queries, appreciate it. Oopsie the news about about timber shortage, didn't expect it to be that bad.

For this situation it was no more than 450mm one way and 1200mm the other way

The width of the deck was 3006mm. I was chasing a 5mm gap with an 86mm decking board, so divide 3006 by 91 and you get 33.03 boards. Because we want full boards you then divide 3006 by 33 and get 91.09. Then, because I don’t have spacers that are 5.09mm, I install every 5th board every 455.45mm. Even if it was exactly 91 and you had a 5mm spacer, there’s too much room for error over 33 gaps, so I always do every 5th or 6th board and then fill in the gaps

Thanks for the prompt reply. What if gap is less than 5mm 3.ish or over 5mm 6.ish is that still alright?

@@ric6561 I wouldn’t go less than 4 or more than 6. The boards will swell up when the get wet, so the gap will end up smaller than it starts. The smaller the deck, the harder it is to avoid doing a cut at the end. What you can do if you’re using an 86 or 90mm board and the same timber has 136 or 140mm options, is cut a bigger board down if the spacings don’t work. For example if you use 5mm gaps and it’ll end up with a 30mm cut at the end, you can use a bigger board and cut it down to 116. It’ll still be noticeable, but won’t look as bad as a 30mm rip

The slab is slop away from the house say 5° why deck don't follow the slope?

@@ric6561 you could do that if you want, but most things look better level. Paving and concrete can't be level because it'd hold water, but the gaps between decking boards mean the deck doesn't hold water, so it can be level

Yep drainage of at least 1% is preferable away from the house. You might have to put a screed down first to get it falling correctly before you install the deck

@@InStyleGardens where abouts are u located?

@@type_one Geelong, in Victoria

Most new houses built have an under cover outdoor concrete slab built into the house like this one. Usually about 3.3x3.3m or 11x11 feet and they always step down about 160-170mm or 6-7 inches. Some people build a timber deck over it so the floor level is the same as inside, some people put pavers over it or leave it as concrete

Thanks. Yep you just rotate them to get to the right height and you could do it with a spirit level as long as it’s long enough. Can’t remember what range the small ones go to but it might be 25-40mm and then to go over 40 you’d get the next size up like you say. They have to be at the right height before screwing them off as they can’t rotate when screwed off

Aussie tradie is the language

It’s not a big deal if it’s a garden bed or concrete up against the bricks, but when it’s a deck or paving with small gaps, it’s pretty important that they’re straight!