Cedar Deck

a real ‘home run’
on this andrew

nice calm space
great work

-- david - only thru kindness can this world be whole . If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle

Very nice looking

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

that is a work of art, wish it was on the east side of my house

Beautiful. This is something I want to do in the future. Is this local cedar for you or purchased from local store?

-- Tom Godfrey Landrum South Carolina (tom@thcww.com) 864-384-4938

Nice added value to your property.
Had to be a pain working in the tight spaces around your fence. Well done!

-- Directions are just the Manufacturer's opinion on how something should be assembled. ----Mike, Waukesha, WI

Very nice. Not sure what it’s called, but I like how you finished the edges. Very polished.

-- No, I don't want to buy the pink hammer.

You did an excellent job with this one. What was your source for the lumber?

-- I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. -John Muir

Thanks for all the comments. Working around the fence was definitely challenging, but it also meant that there were two fewer sides to trim out/finish. I had really hoped to bring the roofed part all the way out to the fence. In addition to the extra protection from our Western Washington rains, it would have made it so that I didn’t have a post right in the middle of the deck. However, because of zoning restrictions…well you know the rest of that story. The cedar all came from Sound Cedar in Mt. Vernon, but they got it from British Columbia. I didn’t realize this until I went to pick it up, but the BC lumber is full dimension (actually 6×6, instead of 5.5×5.5). I was pleasantly please with the little extra girth, and the cost was about half that of any lumber yard here in town.

-- Andrew, Bellingham, WA

Gotta love beautiful BC hey? Haha. It can still get expensive for us though. Nice looking deck, very nice!

Great job, that’s some solid looking joinery. Why did you decide to not use nosing on the steps?

-- - Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. -

Awesome work! I’m going to look around here for yards with BC suppliers! haha

Vakman- I actually went back and forth on whether or not to put nosing on the steps. I finally decided against it, because the steps are actually extensions of concrete steps on the existing porch. Since the concrete steps didn’t have nosing, I thought it might look weird to transition to nosing on the new steps. I switched out one of the photos to show what I mean.

Also, I have to add that this was the first time I used a computer modeling program for one of my projects. I may have spent more time drawing this up then I actually spent building it. I loved playing around with different ideas on Sketchup. As you can see, with the exception of the 45 degree angle on the corner, this Sketchup gave me a pretty good idea how it was going to look in the end.

-- Andrew, Bellingham, WA

Great job a wonderful deck.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

How do you like that finish? How long is it supposed to last between recoats? Do they make a slightly darker version?

Sorry for the quick questions. I saw it and I’m finishing a fence soon. Thanks for any help.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Doss- It’s hard to say how long this stain will hold up. The stain seemed to penetrate the rough cedar really well, but not as well on the smooth stuff. I did do an oxalic acid wash (wood brightener) on the smooth cedar before staining, and I think that helped a little with the penetration. If your fence is mostly rough cedar, I’m sure it will do fine. I’m not sure about the available colors.
As a side note, the dark brown stain on the fence in the pictures is a solid stain by Sikkens (Cetol srd). It has held up wonderfully for about 5 years on the rough and vertical surfaces. However, it did start peeling on the smooth and horizontal pieces (along the top) after about two years.

-- Andrew, Bellingham, WA