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Build Better Stairs
Simple notched stair jacks are fine for interior stairs. They get nailed to wall studs for stability and are hidden once the house is finished. Not so with deck stairs. Naked, notched treated-wood stair jacks are unattractive and wobbly. And because there isn’t much meat to attach posts or pickets to, you’ll have wobbly handrails, too.
But it’s easy to strengthen them and spruce them up. Adding sturdy, solid 2×12 skirts to the outside jacks and stair risers does it all. If your deck railings are also causing you stress, here’s how to fix them.
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Seam a Deck
The traditional way most builders go about building a deck is to randomly stagger joints. The result is that end-to-end deck boards share the 1-1/2-in. thickness of each joist. That can cause problems, especially with wood decks. With only 3/4-in. of nailing surface, fasteners will cause ends to split. And since the board ends have to be tight, untreated wood will rot.
We use a faster, more material-efficient method we call seaming. It’s simply strategically placing a seam (or seams, on bigger decks) and using the same length boards for each section. Each seam is a sandwich made of an elevated vertical decking board with joists on both sides.
The advantages are many. It’s faster than random seaming; all decking ends have a full 1-1/2-in. of framing, so it cuts down on fastener splits; and you can leave 1/4-in. gaps at the ends so end grain can dry out after it gets wet.
The vertical deck board is for looks only. It makes everything look planned and polished. And there’s virtually no waste. If we need to build a 20-ft.-wide deck, we’ll make it about 19-ft. 6-in. and use all 10-ft. decking on both halves. That allows for one-inch overhangs and cutting off some bad ends.
Seaming also works well for solid composite decking, which comes in fewer lengths. If, for example, I’m building a composite deck, 12- and 20-ft. lengths might be the only options. For a 16-ft.-wide deck, I might seam it to have a four foot “sidewalk” down the middle for zero waste. Of course, everything depends on the design and the homeowner. But think about it next time to figure out the best approach. Here’s our guide for all things treated lumber.
Close-up of deck seam. All deck board joints fall at the seam.
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