Deck Framing Material Choices

for a deck project. The next thing that we're going to talk about is the actual material you use for framing the deck. So over the last decade or so, more and more options have become available over your standard pressuret treated option that has been the standard in years past. Now we have options like steel, composite framing, even lvl framing, and then you have pressuretreated. A lot of different options out there. There's pros and cons to all of them. We still frame all of our decks out of pressuretreated. We use prow wood. And I'll give you a few reasons for that. I'll give you the pros and cons. Number one, it's tried and true. We know that it's going to hold up for the expected lifespan of the project. And the other thing is it's very cost effective. So some of the other options like steel or composite are going to be five to even 10 times the price of pressuret treated lumber. And with some of those, especially like composite, you're not going to get the same spans that you would with pressuretreated. Now, there is an option of steel. Some builders prefer to build with steel. We've never built with steel. It is a much more expensive option, but you can get longer spans with that material. But there's going to be a much bigger learning curve using a new material. You have to use different types of fasteners, different types of hardware. So, especially if this is your first time, you know, going with pressuret treated. It's very accessible. It's cost effective, and you know that it's going to last for the expected lifespan of the deck. Now, here we'll start with the beams. So, the beams are going to be one of the main supports of your deck. It's going to connect all your footings together, and it's going to be the support for your joist when you go to install them. To determine what size you need, you only need to think about a couple things. You need to think about the clearance that you have. So, it's a very low deck. You might not have the clearance to go with say a 2 by12 beam because you don't have the height there. The other thing is how many footings do you want to do and how much lumber and how heavy do you want to make the beams and the joist for the project. All of these charts can be easily found online. You can look up beam and joist span calculator. It'll have span tables and easy reference to figure out what you need for your project. For us, most of our decks are built out of 2x10s, and we prefer to do 2x10 joist and 2x10 beams. It…