Right, good morning. So, new
day. Yesterday, as I was saying
, we finished the bracing, just
a few nails, now it's done.
Another thing I did yesterday
with a cousin that came here to
help me was this last post,
always more of an end rail post
only.
This is the last piece that was
remaining for me to do the end
rail all around the deck.
Look, I didn't know what it is,
it doesn't need to be rely on
the ground because it won't
have any load vertically, it's
just to handle the end rail
here.
It's put on a relatively
quickly, do what can with,
change it a bit later, but that
's done.
And another big piece of work
yesterday was starting the
stairs, actually. So, here I
want, I don't see it yet, but
we used those two posts, I want
a big stairs that will go down
to the grass, to the lawn.
So, I bought these pre-made
stairs, so the way it works,
you bought two stringers, my
two six steps because that's
the height I need to go down,
and then you bought the stairs.
So, I chose it quite wide, so
they're 1.8m wide, very big
aspects to the lawn, to the
grass is what we wanted, and
the benefit of that is all done
, the cut is all pre-made.
So, here's the result, it was
us putting that together
yesterday, or you can say
relatively quickly we can put
that together in one afternoon,
with minimal adjustment.
We had to cut 50mm of each
stair, they were a bit too wide
for the two posts I had
prepared. Then it's attached by
a simple 65mm square screw
there.
3 in each stairs, then this is
a centrepiece, because the
stairs have been quite wide, it
is required to have a centre
support, you can see in the
middle between the stairs, I
bought that as well, and it is
a screw the same way.
So, mostly the cost of that is
alright, like the two stringers
is maybe 400$ a pair, and each
stair is 80$, so we have 6
stairs, 6 times 8, 480.
Yeah, I'm under 1000$ to have a
stair that's zero pre-made, I
think that's a good value for
me here.
Now we come to the attachment
of the ground, so this is all
concrete here, I did open the
concrete there, and the idea
here was to put two big screws
upside down, they are 60mm into
the stairs.
There is another 90mm outside,
I will pour into concrete most
of this length, and that's how
the stairs are gonna be hooked
to the ground without the wood
to touch the ground, because it
shall not touch the ground to
prevent deterioration.
So today what I do is I prepare
a bit of brickwork here, and I
will fill up those three holes
with concrete, and I bought
some quickset concrete again, I
will tuck it out like that, and
then depending how far I go
with that I can do some real
decking.
And that's it for today. Right,
so this morning I prepared a
bit of a frame with this wood
here, around the three holes,
because I want the concrete to
be a bit higher than the
current level of the ground.
I want to lift only maybe 3mm
of those screws that you will
be able to see, and that's
enough to prevent humidity and
wetness to go into the wood,
but at the same time I don't
want it to be too long, it's
gonna make it more weak I
suppose.
Alright, so it's done, it was a
bit fiddly, but now this is
done, so I'm gonna pour some
concrete into those two holes,
and that's it.
Good morning, so yesterday I
prepared the formwork, as I was
saying, around the concrete,
and I pulled the concrete as
well, so yesterday we set up
the stairs with temporary wood
to hold it in place.
And so I did a brief crafty
formwork, I poured the concrete
, I used quick set concrete here
, and then I removed it just
this morning.
That's a very rough aspect of
experimental again, but I think
it's old enough, so we got
approximately 30mm space
between the wood and the
concrete, that will give me
enough space to prevent any
mold or wetness to go into the
wood.
And so I had a bit more to
catch up here, that's why I
sort of used the old brick, put
it together, and like that.
Constantly checking the
anticipate level just here at
the well.
Well it looks a bit rough, but
I think it's robust enough.
As well yesterday I laid a few
more boards to experiment a bit
, especially the annoying one
that's going around the post.
So today I need to attach the
stairs to the bearer here, so I
got just some 65mm square bit
screws, I'm going to put a
couple of them into that.
And you'll notice a bit of
space here, but not to worry
about it, the screw will
tighten together, will at least
make sure it doesn't go away,
and most importantly the level
was really my focus, the level
of the stairs.
So I attached the stairs today,
and I will lay more decking.
That's it!