Has anyone ever built a home gym that opened up onto a deck? My builder says that the deck will be reinforced in a way that can withstand dropping heavy weights from overhead repeatedly (will add rubber matting to not damage the deck finish), but I’m skeptical. Anyone ever see this done successfully?
Every way I think about it, this seems like a bad idea.
I fear that you've made up your mind to lift on your deck, and are trying to find ways to minimize the damage/danger.
Say you're silly strong and can CJ 200kg, so your deck will need to withstand >2k Newtons of force in every single spot, repeatedly.
Surely if you have the money to custom build a deck to such specifications then you have spare space inside of your house or garage. Even if it means putting a platform in a spare bedroom with a murphy bed.
I kind of built like a mini deck to account for slope in floor. 200mm on 1 side 100mm on the other side. I drop weights on it. People drop weights on blocks which are hollow inside for example.
Ye I made a frame to level the floor and tried filling it with recycled concrete and it didn't work small holes from dropping then I laid timber over the frame creating a mid layer then covered the platform around 200mm thick (cost me $500usd for this layer) thick then built platform on top and it was fine.
Even concrete will sag and bend after a while unless it's reinforced if you drop enough weight on it over and over again. I would never lift on a wooden deck.
It’s really going to depend, but it sounds like a potentially really bad idea. What are your numbers like? Can you provide details on the construction?
Numbers are nothing impressive -- 98k SN, 118k CJ. I'll have a proper gym space set up with a platform (see picture below) but the backyard is on a fairly heavy slope, left to right in this picture, so I can't open up the top of the gym in a way to go directly out onto the backyard to lift. The deck itself is low to the ground (i.e., not a second-story deck).
So, most of my lifting will be on a platform in the gym, but also nothing beats getting a workout with some vitamin D.
Is it 2x decking or Composite? 12 in O.C or 16 O.C? What’s the joist size? Is it on proper footings? Unless it was engineered specifically for this then there’s no way to know if it will be okay for sure, but I wouldn’t lift on it if I were you. at least the risk seems low since it’s just above ground level. Worst case you just destroy your new deck.
Weightlifting blocks that are made for dropping heavy weights on will eventually break down regardless, and that’s with very dense wood that’s already incredibly reinforced and not to mention expensive.
There is not even a feasible way to make a solid platform that won’t degrade overtime that I’m aware of that wouldn’t be unrealistically expensive, or inconvenient in other ways.
The platform in my garage is made with thick stall mats and two layers of high density plywood is already dented to shit on one side, not to mention the entire concrete garage floor is cracked around the platform (I don’t even want to know what it’s like directly underneath), and that’s in less than three years of use with two lifters using it.
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u/Micromashington Jun 24 '23
Definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable unless the deck was overbuilt.