How to Build steps for Floating Deck

hey what's going on guys Alex mukin here from Mr build it in today's video I'm going to show you how you can build these wraparound s side steps for your floating deck as well so without wasting time let's get into the video let's go one of the first things we did was to lay down a weed tarp or a weed barrier most of the reason for this is to ensure that none of the weeds touch the pressure treated wood and at the same time don't end up growing through the steps themselves and revealing themselves a few years later down the road now one of the most important pieces of information to know when it comes to building a deck or the steps for a deck basically anything that will be touching the ground is to ensure that the joists are made out of a pressure treated material th that will kind of basically prolong the life of your deck and not rot away in one to two years like our previous deck that the previous owners have built so in this situation uh because my deck has these concrete blocks completely around it I'm going to need to create I believe five or six different box frames that will surround that area sitting between those deck blocks nice and tight and so what I'm doing is basically Mass cutting all the pieces that will assemble it together so the deck is going to be 16 in deep and I'm basically cutting up all the pieces that I'll need to create the deck blocks and the reinforcing pieces down the middle and so finally for the assembling of all these five or six box frame joint they'll be going completely around I'm using 3in framing nails to secure it all in place later on I went and rescur them also with screws as well just because the material is moist and wet inside and I didn't want the the the joints to come Come [Music] Undone once all the boxes were laid out I then reinforced and secured these little mini joist uh 16 in on Center uh to make sure that it would give adequate support for uh as many people as wanted to step on this I used both the framing gun and screws to secure this but you can always just get away with using screws just make sure that they are outdoor screws so they don't corrode now to ensure that the steps have adequate support and are leveled you can always either a pour the actual concrete which I think takes a lot of time and effort and an added step or you can simply get away with using pavers now the one thing you'll have to do when it comes to using pavers is to ensure that the ground is level and it's not moving so what I recommend is pick up a couple of bags of gravel mix establish a flat area level it out and then use a handheld tamper to push all the gravel down that way you know that when the season changes and the ground moisture changes that your deck's not going to start you know leaning one way or the other all right once you get all the steps leveled out you can just secure them to your deck using 3-in long lag screws or lag bolts you know the thicker they are the more coarse they are the better you'll be sometimes you can get away with even a a bolt and nut with washers to it I mean the more the better and usually setting them every 16 to 18 in does a really good job to make sure that these things aren't going to go anywhere so for the actual decking top I'm using a Douglas fur material Douglas fur tends to be a little more dense than Pine and so so therefore it kind of works out really well for outdoor projects now when it comes to installing the decking I'll give you kind of three pieces of advice that really help me number one stagger your pattern whether you buy the 10 12 or the 16t boards make sure you kind of start one pattern uh and then follow it so one board will be longer the next board will be shorter and then that way nobody can catch on exactly what's going on there it kind of Blends in uh and then when you do make that cut make sure you make that cut that every end sits right in the middle of a joist uh that way it's a continual supported pattern uh number two is to pre-drill your holes uh on the on the ends uh that will prevent the boards from actually splitting when securing them that will help help you a lot and the last piece of the device I'll give you is uh the actual kind of rules and regulations when installing the decking is using a spacer anything between an eth to a/4 of an inch uh I'm just using this little speed square that I can just jab right in there um and it's roughly about an eighth of an inch uh and just kind of set it in the beginning and the end of the board and the rest will do I know some of these boards are not absolutely perfect so it'll be difficult to get the same spacing completely across but just do your best and what this does is over the years it'll ensure that it gives it some room to kind of uh Bend and flex as the weather contracts or expands the wood if your deck ends up kind of wrapping around like mine with these steps uh make sure you reinforce some of the corner pieces and it you're going to have to play with it a little bit to make sure that every board that like I have here the corners are kind of that Herring bone kind of pattern to make sure that every H Herring bone Edge has a securing piece underneath that way I can drive two screws to make sure that the board doesn't Bend Flex bow curve or stick out now so because we're building steps around a deck that has deck blocks that stick out uh the best way I figured out how to conceal them is having like a faux piece of pressure treat of joist to cover them up kind of like a a curtain if you will and so I measured it out usually that's like 10 and 3/4 of an inch Set uh pocket holes and then secured it with pocket screws from the inside side before setting the last two rows of the top decking this makes it flow really well nobody can tell the difference it's not a structural thing so it's just like a cover up thing and later on you can always get back to it and if there's a sprinkler head there that needs to be get to or something's crawled underneath you can always undo this and for the last step go through and secure all the decking pieces to all the joists that are underneath it the ones that are 16 in on Center the best method I found that works to speed up the process is to get a speed square or a right angle like this and walk through and find out exactly where the joist run that way you can just kind of go through with a drill and screws and set all the remainder of screws remember two screws per board per joist overall everything turned out extremely well I'm very happy with how everything turned out now all I have to do is strip the old decking sealer and finish and reeal everything together that way everything matches well and ready for the summer to be enjoyed hey well thanks so much for watching this video it means the world to me if you enjoyed it give me a thumbs up write any questions you have in the comment section down below below if you're brand new to the channel I encourage you guys to hit that 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