How To Build A Floating Deck - Start To Finish (On A Sloping Yard) Using TuffBlock Deck Blocks

Hey , I'm Chris .

And today we're going to be building a deck using a floating foundation system .

Seriously increasing the outdoor living space for our friends .

Here is the 200 square foot deck situated on a slight slope .

We're going to be using eight joists at 16 inch centers with 24 posts sat in tough blocks to adjust for the slope to tie it all together .

We're using MBA decking boards , adding steps to the back and building a fireplace to create a wonderful outdoor oasis .

We're going to take you through step by step in this video on how easy it is to do yourself .

The first step is to mark out the dimensions of our deck using a straight edge and spray paint .

Now , we know our tough blocks will sit just inside these lines and that's the ground we want to level and compact .

There was a slight change of plans on the stairs and you'll see that later in this video .

So as you can see one of the challenges with building on a site like this is as the ground drops away , we're going to have to make sure we keep our deck level starting on this side , it will be nice .

And , but as we end up down on this end of the deck , we're going to be a good 2.5 ft off the ground .

And we're going to show you how we come through that challenge today in this video .

Ok .

Today we're using this sod cutter here .

It's gonna make your life a lot easier .

You can do this by shovel if you don't own one of these there , you can rent them most places here for this job .

We're just setting it to three quarters inch depth and then let it roll .

We're gonna get this grass out real quick this way here .

We're loosening the top sail so we can easily scoop it up with a shovel .

All right , we've used our side cutter .

We've cut up all the grass .

Now , we're just gonna dig it out , get our space later .

You could set this aside and if the , uh , homeowner wants to use it again , that's , that's perfectly good turf .

Now that we've dug up all the top soil , we can move on to the next step , which is compacting the ground .

So at this point , we're just going to dig a trench wide enough for the compactor and the tough block to sit in compact the soil fill that with a bit of paper base .

We're going to be just one ft in from the edge for our first tough block measure that out dig our trench , but we just need each individual to block to sit level .

So now that we've dug our trench , we've just leveled off one terrace here .

We're just checking that we want to be leveled in this direction .

You're pretty much there here .

We're just going to put a bit of a paper base down next compact that a tough block .

Right on top of that , we're creating four terraces along the slope the first one ft in and then we've marked every five ft after that , we're laying down our paver base , which we're compacting down with our compactor .

Now that we've got our terraces tampered down with our paper base , we're ready to get a really nice level surface which a tough block can sit on for that .

We're going to be scooping out a bit of our road based gravel , just make a small area , tamp that down .

And then we're going to worry about getting each individual tough block nice and level .

Now , they don't need to be level relative to each other .

Just it will sit level and we'll show you how that's done .

Yeah .

Are scooping just enough gravel to cover the area of the base of the tough block as you practice , this process becomes extremely quick and you can level a single block in about 30 seconds , lightly , tamp it down and then we're gonna check our level .

We've got it .

Now , this tough block is sitting beautifully level However , it's not necessarily in the same plate as our first block that we've laid back there .

And that's not important .

You're going to see how we account for that when we put our posts into these .

Now , the alternative to this would be digging holes and filling them with concrete , which typically requires a minimum of 24 to 48 hours to cure by using tough block .

You can get a deck like this done in a single day while it's also reducing the number of tools and materials required .

We're placing down the first four tough blocks in the corner so we can get started on the outer frame .

At this point , we're ready to cut our joists , just get a cut to whatever length you need for your deck .

In our case , we're cutting to 16 ft , measure your joy .

You've got eight cuts to make mark it and get cut even though we're using treated lumber .

It's a good idea to seal the exposed ends where you've made your cuts at this point , we're going to stick in our first choice to help us get a measurement for how high of a rise we have down on that end .

We've already marked off one ft in for our first tough block base .

Just going to keep it tucked back a bit from the edge of the deck .

So you can't see it when the deck is finished .

So here we are just going to slot it into our tough block .

And then on this end , we're going to rise it up and clamp it until the board is level .

And that's going to give us some measurement for our first post and we'll show you how that's done now .

Oh , mate , you , you are right on it , dude .

Good .

Down a hair .

Yeah , perfect .

That's it .

Here .

We're going to measure from the base of the tough block where our post is going to sit right to the bottom of the joist here , about 18 inches and 78 .

We're now ready to cut our upright post .

So I've measured out 18 78 inches .

But on top of that , I want to cut an additional length for the height of your joy in my case , another 5.5 inches on top of that .

So this is where I'm gonna make my cut .

The rest will be used for notching in which I'll show you in just a moment .

Ok ?

So I've got my post cut to the height of my deck and then we're just going to make these additional cuts to adjust for the height of the joist as well .

What you want to do is you want to measure the width of your joist and set your circular saw to that width to make that depth of a cut into your post , make a series of close cuts , grab your hammer .

We're just going to level that surface with a chisel , you got the , the post cut out , it's going to allow your joy to sit right on top of there .

Therefore , all the weight bearing portion of the deck is going to be coming directly down into the major axis of the post rather than having it stuck to the side and all of that weight being held just by your hardware , your screws or whatever you've got in there .

So that's why we take this extra step now because we have made a fresh cut in what is treated timber again .

We're just going to take an extra few moments and just treat that again again .

We're just going to extend the life in our deck in any way , we can prevent rot .

Something that takes just a few moments .

It is well worth it .

There you go .

So here we're placing that post , we just checked in and connecting it to the joy we leveled earlier .

The post fits snug into the four inch post lot and it's checked out .

So it will create a strong base for the joy .

Here .

We're marking out our joist on the opposite side and going through the same process as before by leveling and then measuring the height for the post .

We've gone and attached our joy hangers to our end joist at 16 inch centers , which is recommended for a rigid base .

Ok .

So to this point , you can see we've got the outer joists of our deck set it's really important at this point .

We're checking that the deck is both level and square to check for level .

It's simple .

You just set your level on either of the four sides and you can even run a long runner across and set your level on that as well .

We've done that for level right across next .

Before you start setting in those center joists , we want to make sure our structure is square .

There are two good ways of doing this .

One is a 345 method .

With the 345 method , you're going to choose any unit .

You would like whether it's five inches or one ft .

And you want to measure three units down one leg of your corner , four units down the other leg , mark them .

And when you connect those two points via the hypotenuse , you should have five units systems .

Now , if you do that in all four of your corners , you know , you've got a square the other and possibly the most simple way is just to measure the hypotenuse of your square , just measure the diagonals .

If they're the same distance , then your square .

At this stage , we're measuring the distance from the joist to our tough blocks and then cutting posts to that height .

Remember to add additional length for the portion of the post that will be checked out .

We're fixing our joist to the joist hangers using galvanized nails and repeating the process you've seen earlier .

Which is to level the tough block using a tamp to compact our road base measure the height required for our post , check the post in and then connect that to the tough block in joist .

We'll essentially repeat this sequence of events until we've built out the majority of our frame .

We just have our final post to connect before our frame is complete .

One thing to note as we end on day one is that due to covering each step on camera , it's extended our build time .

But with a professional or an extra set of hands , you could easily cover this build in a day .

Hey , we're back on site for day two of our deck build .

I've done most of the structure here behind me today is just laying on those top decking boards , finishing up the siding .

We're gonna put a couple of nice steps around that high side .

We'll plant a nice small garden around and make it look beautiful .

All right , we just wanted to take a moment to show you one of the benefits of why we've chosen to use tough block for this deck build .

It's really nice that it's been machined to fit standard two inch lumber .

The slot right in there give you a nice steady base .

Those are for your cross choice .

It'll fit a second size lumber .

If you've got a different size cut , it will also fit our upright four by four post and snug straight down giving you a firm footing or if you twist it onto the 45 it will accommodate slightly larger lumber .

Ok .

So at this point , we are running these braces down this side of the last bit of joist .

It's because the joist itself is not supported from underneath by one of our upright posts .

The reason for that is that we have our tough block sat back one ft by one ft in from the edge and that will just hide its footprint .

That is the maximum allowed overhang .

But then this outer joist isn't quite as strong .

So we're , we're just going to put in a number of these cross supports .

And once we lay the decking on top of that , it will be plenty strong to support the weight .

As you'll see later on this overhang along with our garden allows us to use facial boards that make the tough blocks more discreet .

All right .

So with this phase , just before we get the decking down on top of our frame , we're laying down this protective barrier .

It just allows for if there would be any moisture between your decking and your frame , it will stop any mildew or rot from getting a foothold .

Right .

We're ready to go .

We've checked that our frame is square , it's level , we've not protected it against any rot .

We're ready to go and start getting our decking on .

Now , the style of decking that we've chose uses an invisible nail system .

It works by a series of spacers which slot into a groove on the side of our decking boards .

Each one of those will be screwed on the counters Sung crew that sits right into each of the joists on each of the boards for our end spacer .

As we place it onto our last joy , we want to make sure that plastic bit isn't overhanging that last Joice because as we come along and trim our deck boards , we don't want to be cutting into plastic .

Now , it's unlikely that all your lumber will be the same length or even big enough to cover the width of your deck .

For the first few boards , we've used our long cuts and as we progress , we've used some of our shorter cuts which creates a joint in the middle .

Now , I want that joint to be centered and nice and tight .

So I'm just gonna tap it on my ends until I get that joint centered in the middle of the joist .

And with a nice tight fitting , we made sure to space these shorter cuts throughout the length of the deck so that they're not all grouped together at one end , make sure to focus these joints over the joist and alternate which joist to place the cut to create a random and a more visually pleasing pattern periodically through your deck build .

We want to check to make sure that we haven't built out one side farther than the other .

We want to make sure we're coming square right across the deck with each of our deck boards now because we're not running a string line .

The way we're going to check , we're going to periodically measure from the edge of our decking right down to the end of the deck .

The measurement should be the same on either side .

If it is , we're good to go .

If not , we're just going to make small adjustments and I'll talk about that in one second .

Let's just have a look to see how we're going thus far .

110 and a half inches , 1 10 and one half inch .

Now , if one of my measurements were to be off , rather than waiting until the end of the deck and trying to make all of those corrections at the end with our next board , we can just adjust out slightly recheck and we're just going to do that periodically until we reach the end of the deck .

You can see we're about three quarters of the way through putting on our decking and it's got a great feel underfoot .

It's quiet , it feels firm and solid , not shifting anywhere .

And what you can see , one thing that we've done is we've laid these decking boards is we've got them right up to this side as close as we can and left all the extra overhang off this side .

What we'll do eventually is we'll come down and we'll trim all those boards , giving us nice big pieces if we'd like to use around anywhere else on the deck and minimizing wastage off of that end .

So , what we've done is we've just ripped our last decking board because you'd be pretty lucky to have your board just fit perfectly right flush to the end of your deck .

So , all we've done is we've stuck that last board on , we've taken a measurement and then ripped right down the board to get it to length .

We've now got all our decking boards down .

So the job is complete for the finish .

All we need to do now is come down the sides and trim off these extra bits .

We're gonna put some stairs on the end , make it look beautiful with a little garden .

We're maximizing our lumber by using all of the trim pieces to create our stairs and facial boards .

This will be the first step off the back of the deck here .

You can see we've added paver stones leading to the fire pit to help tie in the deck to its surroundings .

Yeah , we've just built the basic outside frame for our stair set , going up to the high end of our deck here .

Again , we're using tough block .

We've just slotted a couple under , using these same joists slotted sideways into our tough block and we're going to have them up here again , using the upright four by four post to stabilize the upper set of stairs here .

We're using a drummer to create grooves on the boards for our stairs to sit flush .

Here , we're using a miter saw to make 45 degree cuts into our facial boards for a seamless finish , which you'll see when we trim the boards here , our straight edge , which we've clamped down provides our circular saw with a guide to create a perfectly straight edge .

Here , we're making sure to stop before our m are cut , which will finish off with a handsaw .

We just finished our deck and we're really happy with how it came out .

We've installed the stairs off the back high side of the deck and then just use two of our decking boards with just to cover down around the joy on the outside , right around the edge of the deck .

And just for a little extra aesthetic , we've installed a small edging garden , a couple paver stones and a beautiful fire pit just to make this look good at the end .

As a little extra , we've thrown on some furniture and added some lights .

Now , let's sit back and enjoy our backyard oasis .

We hope you found this video useful and gave you some ideas for your own projects , showing you tough blocks , multiple applications and how it can save you both time and money .

Thanks for watching and we'll see you on our next build .