As I mentioned in a previous post, we said to hell with Trex and decided to make the decks attached to the back of the house and our master bedroom a little more stout.
Each deck is supported by a total of six concrete columns, each with steel reinforcement at the base (’L’ shaped pieces that extend into the slab below) and vertical rebar through the center of each column. Doug got several lengths of 6 and 8 inch steel in various shapes - C metal, Z metal, and receiver channel. The C’s and Z’s look just like they sound, and the receiver channel is the same shape as the C but with a flat flange and just a bit larger, designed to fit over the C metal.
We measured and cut a large square out of the steel, with one piece of steel on each edge of the square. It took a bit of coordination and ladder prowess, but before long we had the elevated square held in place with some small welds - the corners welded together as well as a few welds to hold the steel to the rebar sticking out of the top of the columns.
Each piece of steel got another beam attached to it for reinforcement, and we cut four lengths of the Z metal to run perpendicular to the house and provide additional support. Each of the welds were cleaned and painted, and before long we had an impressive frame.
To cover the surface we cut sheets of metal decking to length, and laid them on top of the frame with a short overlap in each one. This decking will hold the concrete when it is poured, and will comprise the temporary ceiling of the patio below.
We had been planning this for a while, but wanted to give the framers a surface on which to stand so they could build the roof over the deck. To support the outer corners of the deck, we screwed some angle brackets that ran about 24″ out from each front corner, and they used stout 20′ boards as braces supported by the angle brackets. We will build an outside edge for the deck, pour the concrete, and replace their temporary roof supports with the permanent columns on each corner of the deck.
I had originally planned to run some Pex tubing through the slab to be able to warm it to melt ice and snow, but I’m not crazy about having to drain the loop every winter. I’m going to look into the electric heaters that they use in bathroom floors, and see if it would be cost feasible to use those instead.
Here are a few pictures of the structure….
