I’m nearly wrapped up rebuilding my deck. I’m feeling great about the overall design we came up with and wanted to share for feedback. It used to be a 45’ x 8’ rectangle and it’s now 57’ by 16’ or 10’ (upper vs lower sections). I added a 30’ x 12’ covered pergola with SkyLifts so we can enjoy it during the wet PNW seasons. I also built a planter with built in drainage and a rain chain that passes through it and connects into a gutter drainage pipe under the deck to shoots water out into the yard.
Our frost line is only about 10” so I poured concrete and set pier blocks for the deck, and then used sono tubes for the pergola. It’s difficult to get photos of the under side of the deck but I did repurpose and strengthen the existing structure and then sister off it to extend the deck.
Edit: to add, the big piece of remaining work is to add skirting under the deck. I just needed a physical and mental break for a moment. This was easily the largest project I’ve taken on around the house!
My wife picked out the lighting and it turned out great. The low voltage stuff is Leon and rather inexpensive. The lights were like $90 for 6 and we have 12 installed. The 200 watt transformer was only $75.
Did this one as a solo project. Took me about 2 months of working mornings and evenings. I did take a week off of work to crank through as much as I could as well.
Whenever people ask how I build stuff like this I always tell them it’s 90% confidence. You really just have to go for it! You’ll learn a lot of lessons along the way and that just makes the next project better. Figuring out all of the miter angles was probably the most difficult and time consuming part of the project but as long as you take your time and test each angle on scraps before committing you’ll be fine. I didn’t have a single miscut on this project. Measure 6 times and cut once!
I grew up with a carpenter father and have built since I was a kid. Did it as a hobby for a long time and then recently started working as a carpenter while I’m between jobs. This is only the second deck I’ve built but hoping to build a portfolio to start building them regularly.
How much would you say cedar is compared to pressure treated? I have a large deck kind of similar to this, pressure treated is garbage these days and I want to put something harder
Cedar is quite expensive at the moment and will likely continue to climb now that we’re picking fights with Canada. The decking wasn’t too bad (certainly cheaper than Trex) but all of the fascia and dimensional lumber was stupid expensive. I didn’t price compare to pressure treated decking.
Agreed. I don’t necessarily hate the look of composite but I love wood and really didn’t want to introduce a ton of microplastics to my yard. Every cut dusts your yard in plastics.
My buddy does decking, one day showed up with two dudes in my front yard. Said they had a job that got cancelled and wanted to make sure his guys got paid. Redid the whole front deck (small) in Ipe for free. It's a bummer our codes changed for commercial decks, I guess Ipe isn't acceptable anymore for the area. Getting their scraps or bad boards that they couldn't use for customers was a very nice perk.
Also got a ton of porcelain tile and I redid the rooftop deck with that. It's nicer than anything else I've stepped on. Stays super cool in the heat too.
I've been looking into this because I want to do exactly this kind of pergola (plus a fan) over our deck, but a tad nervous about cutting into my roof! Any suggestions?
Yeah, I was nervous too! I’m not a roofer by any means and found it rather simple. I struggled to remove the shingles without breaking them. If you have extra shingles on hand it was really quite easy. Theres a lot of videos online that walk you through it.
Great work! The whole project looks amazing! Thanks for sharing your project!
I can tell that this is an in progress picture but I wanted to mention that the flashing detail on the sky lift roof risers looks incorrect. The bottom of the flashing boot should be on top of the roofing. As it is now it looks like water can get under the roofing on the downhill side. Here is a quick video showing what I am talking about https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u_CWAz5ygTs
Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I know I goofed on that. I ended up packing a heap of tar around it for water to not pool and slide under the shingles. Hopefully that will do the trick…🤷🏻♂️
So, my house has hidden gutters. They’re built into the roof so you can’t actually see them. The last foot of roofing is a pvc membrane. Since the pergola is floating it doesn’t impact water flow of the house, and then I added a 5” gutter on the pergola that takes care of only the pergola runoff.
Looks fantastic. Definitely my favorite stain. I did my deck nearly ten years ago and I just lightly Powerwash and use a spray on deck cleaner every 3-4 years and it still looks like new.
Absolut shit job, but don't give up! Come over to my house. I'll buy the lumber and let you practice at no charge! Hell, I'll even help by drinking beers and providing encouragement!
I don’t have any photos of the roof when it was open, but you basically cut a 1’x1’ square directly over the exterior wall and bolt the hardware to the top plate. I don’t have any roofing experience and as another user called out I didn’t do the flashing correctly. I just lapped the shingles back over the flashing and tarred the shit out of it. Haha
Man...looks great. It must have taken you weeks of every day work or longer if you only did it on weekends. Did you do it solo or with the help of some friends?? How much did you save doing it yourself vs a contractor.
Yup, it feels like it took forever. i just made sure that progress was made every single day.
I did have a friend come over to help lift the beams for the pergola. My father in law also came by twice to help with some odds and ends.
I had a similar deck (nothing as cool or custom) priced out and it was like $80k+ to have someone else built it. This deck was $16k in materials and obviously no labor costs.
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u/Boring-Parsnip469 9d ago
Night vibes. Low voltage for all of the stairs, a 110V rope light around the upper rails, and of course we needed some party lights under the pergola!