DIY How to build a Deck - Step by Step Guide to Composite decks pt2 of our "Idiot proof" series

good morning that even good afternoon wherever you may be guys thank you for tuning in today I hope you're having an awesome day but get ready because this is part 2 of our deck building series in the first part of the deck building series we demolished and remove the old deck then we dug the footings then we framed up the deck and today we're gonna actually put the skin on to the framing we're also gonna cover stair options and more important than any of that we're going to take you step-by-step through the process so that you guys can do it on your own at your own jobsites we're also gonna be sharing with you the things that we learn as we go including the mistakes that we make my one who do this because I made this extra-long jacket yeah everybody makes mistakes man even freaky if we can make the mistakes here hopefully it'll stop help you guys for making the same mistakes out there on your own job sites oh and hey before we get into it I got to give a big shout out and a big THANK YOU to moisture shield technologies because without their help this video would not be possible please do me a favor and go check them out at moisture shield comm I chose this product specifically because it is the only material I discovered that can be built on the ground under the ground and under water permanently when I learned these things it blew me away and I wanted to make sure that I brought this to you guys so when you're out working on job sites you can bring this technology to your customers it's gonna put you ahead of the game knowing these facts so now what are we waiting for let's get into it now if you're just tuning in make sure you go back to video 1 because we've already showed you guys how to frame this up how to do the demolition excavation put in your footings and put your posts in place today we're gonna put the skin on to this framework when you're building your deck setting the right frame height is critical and here's why so make sure you're very careful when you're framing your deck that when you set your deck height it allows you to compensate for the actual width or thickness I should say of the deck planking itself and this type of planking is 1 inch thick so make sure you take that in consideration when you're framing your deck because you've got to get it exactly right you set your framing too high then your deck planking a bar will become a crib hazard when your door when you open your door right yep so this is our first time ever using moisture shield material and we're gonna attempt to cut it and see how it handles in comparison to wood or other composite materials you've set in the detent at 45 on your cut yeah and then is this plank upside down or right side right side up where my next flip okay so we're gonna see how well this saw will cut composite wood okay let's think that yeah that is really clean man that stuff cuts nice yep yeah look at that and this is clean can grease wars that's the first cut we've made yeah I mean that's so the old-school way you'd flip them upside down to cuddle yep right if you're building a wood deck here's why you flip it upside down to cranky you gotta use when you're using this composite decking D happies the special blade on the side whoa whoa whoa no I contacted the guys at moisture shield to find out what is the perfect saw blade for this project and he said any blade that has anywhere from a 24 280 tooth count now to help you guys out I'm going to list all of the tools I used when building this deck down below this video also make sure you go to moisture shield comm for any other technical questions or details that you may need to help you complete your own job now let's get back into it so this deck is gonna be picture framed meaning that the outside of the deck the boards will follow the framing of the deck material and the inside field will run differently and when you go to cut your own material this moisture shield just handles like a dream absolutely was so impressed with how well this cuts so now your picture framing this deck in yep so tell me a little bit about that if you don't mind well I guess we got face nailed our face screw these with your finishing nails the Trib males they call them but I'm gonna start at one end and I'm gonna work my way right around so I keep my joints tight then to keep my insert and I'm doing an inch and a half over inch and a half overhang why is that Frankie that face board will go on and that'll be they'll take up three quarters of an inch but we'll till when we're finally done we'll have only like a three or three quarters of an inch overhang which is always good okay so without tightness take stuff like that if you need to so what do you some about is this overhang right here the picture framing starts out at an inch and a half over but by the time you put your fascia board on that shrinks that up so that is a nice tight cut you made there how many times that take you Frankie and use and makitas impact right yep but you could use this drill drill a drill but that's way better yeah it just day that is going easier you'll have to force it in so push too hard yeah so if you guys watch it watch it as it goes down and in popular great work for you that ratchet sound is the impact doing the work for you and when you've got as much to do as we do you don't want to be screwing around just get one you'll slip off your screw and then you just get one just get one get one like seriously that thing is a lifesaver I mean if there was anything I would say that you've got to get to do this deck what would you say an impact yep that would be the one tool yep to get to make your life easier like night and day easier so much faster I just want to keep my scoot parallel you know I mean okay but hey jogging all over you're gonna countersink fellas right yeah and after you're done countersinking them we're gonna take a heat gun to that and you should be able to tell that even existed and if you're wondering what happened to Frankie's finger well that's another story all together that's why we call it one finger Frankie now this is let's get something straight this is a hidden fastener system but you still have some that you can't hide but now this right here you won't see it supposedly when you're done when we're done we've got a super Sneaky just a sneakiest thing you guys got to subscribe you got to stay tuned for that because we won't won't won't let you know how we do it to the very end okay we use the heat gun and we just melt it a little bit and just goes away word of the day show you how it's called the pinch and pull method when you have a screw hole you pinch and you push as much material back down into the hole as possible then hammer it over and you'll see that you get a little bit of discoloration from that then you use a heat gun not a torch and the heat gun does is that helps to blend all the colors back together again so if you use a torch to try to do the same thing this is what's gonna happen heat gun does the trick and here's the here's the bill here's the screws right there that's what you need guys screenshot that crap and take that with you to the store that is exactly what you need a t10 had eight bike two and a half inch trim nail so when you go down to Minar it's to get that screw that I was talking about then you tell them the dirt monkey sent you they probably won't even know who I am maybe like one fan boy that's in the stockroom that they don't let out in public might know who I am all right I noticed you scored that a few times Frankie why I guess I'm just used to using wood that's how I do my wood cuts cuts a lot like wood so I'm then cutting it like wood okay just so you've got a 45 all of your corners on a composite deck because the exposed ends don't have the same pattern as the as wood so like wood has the same wood pattern this composite does not you can see that it's there and then let me see them the top side see that pattern is different so you've got a 45 year ends on a composite deck my why you do this because I made this extra long second freaky now because Frankie is picture framing this deck end he's got to actually create nailers right Frankie yep okay keep tell me exactly what you mean by that well because our deck boards are gonna be running with the house I need something for the deck board to stop stop on but if I knew it in ahead of time how to build my end beam like this how to put my first one in then I would around my spaces so my first that would have been my that have been my beam out here and said unless you wanted to make it third a three plate but that's a waste of money you know cuz then that way yes this is how it would sit underneath would sit just like this underneath though okay so the reason you're saying if you knew ahead of time because you thought you didn't know we were gonna be picture framing this in correct until we got the final plans back and you had already had it framed in because you're just like that right yep so it's not not a worry so you've got the whole outside double framed in double plated double plated and now basically your triple plating it basically yeah I'm just giving a enough space here for then the deck board to sit on we shouldn't say triple plating it because this is let's look at the difference between what mean by spacer so this is the spacer it doesn't go all the way down it's just something so when the plank comes this way it can catch on top of it I could sit on I got a small clinic lady doing our pours coming in see otherwise it would just be sitting out in the open now now I've got something to know it's got something to rest on so it's important to make sure that you guys never let it float if you let this float this because this could eventually become a squishy part so this board goes all the way up and it's got something to rest on don't tip typically Frankie the deck so you make just the way you do it you don't normally picture-frame oh no no no this basically wood and I've never done this before but I like the system okay I just mentioned it I think it looks nice yeah okay so one a word of caution the picture framing system looks nice but it takes longer doesn't it Frankie yeah did you guys make sure your your framing is you got you do 292 45 because it all shows up on the end to create the nailer boards Frankie uses just about any scrap wood is here he's cutting down two by eight just to get enough meat to nail the deck planking to [Music] that is really wet wood isn't it yeah you can give Makita a plus on that one why is that well it's wet and the one way through it I mean you can see the wetness in it I mean it this board is soaked it's heavy so I mean give them a plot you know we didn't think it wouldn't do it okay one of the lessons we learned doing this little different was you see these leg bolts they have to be countersunk to get the board to fit flush on the face because if they stick out and then the board sticks out clerks now when we just build a regular deck we don't have to worry about that but we're facing all of this so that's the difference and also you can see where he's got to miter all the corners you can see how he's got that corner mitered you can't have a butt end in there and anything that gets face screwed like this will have the pinch and pull heat gun method done over the screw holes to make those disappear all right so we're using what's called a hidden fastener system and all of the deck boards are actually held in place by clips and you can see right here that the clip goes in connects to the board and the clip actually holds the board in place nothing gets space screwed well here we face screwed it you can see the difference between face screwing and a clip side by each and this face screw will be this this gets melted over so that disappears but the rest of the board does not get face screwed okay so this is Frankie's trick to get his marks just right because you can tell he's gotten pretty tight miter cuts okay so you set your board in place and I see you got a screw this your trick Frank well then I mark my board do the same at the other end so you know work where you're gonna be and I just use that because I'm putting on the deck book by myself okay so those are you holding it but so that I know where to measure it though you know I'll mark this okay boom go do the same thing on the other side I know where my feets are gonna be yeah mark here and that's what I measure okay so that's how you measure across yeah okay and that's how you get those miter to cut so tight I'm gonna do these just to make sure all my sides again and then I get back and put the rest in the moon now one thing about Frankie he's always preferred to work alone that way he's got no one to yell at when there's a mistake which you're going to see coming up next but with this hidden fastener system it's much easier to install with two people but one of the things that I really like about moisture shields hidden fastener system is it gives the final product a really clean look Frankie's not happy here's a Frankie butt joint and here's a not Frankie butt joint this is what's ticking them off he's a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff so instead of just letting that that go what are you gonna do Frankie yep they actually do move to it what do you mean they move they're able to slide because I'm back and forth because of the claps the clip system allows me just right no ma they're able to I mean they only have a little way that you put you still get a little playing I'm so it works out pretty well sometimes especially for stuff like that we call it an Elliott but joy let's see Elliott butt joint Elliott butt joint Frankie but joy so because the ants there you're gonna be able to see that they don't want to see that the Greenwood compared to the rest of the deck we put on a fascia board on the end franki showing us how he marks that out and then he cuts it so you're gonna cut it to fit right Frankie which is a little different so this is a little different technique some books some people actually just use the entire fascia board just as it is raw now I think this is gonna the way we're doing it's going to leave a better more finished look but you can do it either way you know I'm talking about Frankie when I say raw yeah I don't like that look it just looks like a hat job [Music] I want to show you guys the stairs so the stair stringers actually come pre-cut right Frankie yep yep yep so you can buy them pre-cut or you can cut them yourself it's not that big of a deal that's up to you here's something to look at you want to make sure that they're level all the way across you know all your stairs Keaney Wampus so yep or skipper you can make them yourself or you can just buy them pre-made turns out what you want to do and if you buy them buying pre-made you at seven in the corner come over here one oh they're not always seven in a quarter know who cut them look at these see seven inches seven that's seven on the dot yeah I mean you get some of these I mean cut that I mean if you're cutting if you if you make you own cut your first one and use that as a as a jig as a jig for all your other ones then you eliminate all of that variance yeah I mean when it boils right down to it Frankie I've seen some of these guys build backs and they're cutting corners and they're doing just sloppy crappie work and I don't know drives me nuts man but the homeowners a lot of homeowners don't see that they don't because they don't don't know what's going on they don't know what's going on and so the getting ripped off well there was like a job we looked at I looked at today where the deck was built 17 years ago and she was swimming in her pool and she looked up and she's like they started the railing on the outside of the stairs and then they shifted it to the inside of the stairs at the top to make room and of course you wouldn't notice it unless you just leisurely laying back and all of a sudden you catch it and now the homeowner every time she looked at those stairs she's bought guys she got to see it in it bugs her yeah because he knows the announcer now is every time you notice yep it is and it sucks it's just like every flaw in my house that when I built this house every flaw that I built into this house drives me nuts now drives me insane Lena it's the only thing I look at all the other good cool stuff doesn't make a difference because I'm like if I would've only gotten that one seam tighter you know who it bugs even more than me my wife but I just tell her well you can fix it then it doesn't work she still complains about it now when you're building steps there's a number of different ways you can do it we opted what do we call this Frankie with this headboard on it you know we Frankie dit what do you call it when you dump tail that end on it like that because this will fit your frame so this is this is a picture framed stare okay built off from a stair stringer bang yeah you got a box in your your corners so you got something for this so it doesn't tilt good point see I still if I still drilled and screwed my Enzian for support but still it still will have that tendency to want to kill tin so what would happen if we didn't do it when we picture frameless this overhang if you went to step on it would flop down so we put the board here to secure this piece and then went through this into this piece of wood right here then that slides into place and then we're done with that stair unit yeah all right guys now I know this has been a long video and I want to say thank you for sticking with me on this one I didn't want to leave any details out I wanted to cover absolutely everything so this when you went out onto a job site you had the information you needed to have an absolutely successful project and that also meant I included all of the mistakes and errors we made during the process hopefully those parts helped you out let me know if you guys like seeing when I screw things up like that also a couple things I learned about this moisture shield is it has this stuff called cool deck technology and that absorbs 35% less heat than typical composite material and the reason these little details are important is when you guys go out onto a job site you can offer this material to your customer and it'll separate you from everybody else that doesn't know about these things another important thing to keep in your memory bank when you're trying to sell a job is that moisture shield can be buried underground it can be installed directly on the ground and it can even go underwater permanently with no ill effects and guys that's huge when you can give those details to your customer it just makes you look like an expert now one question for you guys do you want to see how we install the railing on this job because if you do let me know in the comments down below and I'll make that video for you guys I want nothing but the absolute best for each and every one of you guys god bless go get them and I hope your deck building project is an absolute phenomenal success