The deck construction is almost finished. Almost… a slippery word, that can often mean “never”. Since the last posting on this topic, here is what has been completed:
- roof framing assembly (structural steel trusses) constructed
- aluminum framing and acrylite / polycarbonate roofing panels installed
- electrical roughed in
- exposed steel clad in cedar
- deck stairs constructed
- second “quick connect” natural gas fitting installed
It looks pretty good, actually, and is “done enough” that the things remaining feel rather minor. The roof has turned out really nicely: Solariumsplus did the work, and I’m really pleased with what Pete, Curtis and Randy put together for us. Some pictures…
Looking South- Steel framing up, and some of the cedar
Looking East- Steel framing up, and some of the cedar
Looking South- As it is today; roof installed, cedar cladding in place
Looking East- Today
The final “finish” work (still to be done) includes:
- lighting and electrical outlets, including some cedar “mountings” for same
- gutters to direct the runoff from the roof a bit more constructively
- “clear” (cedar coloured) stain to protect the cedar and prevent it from fading/turning grey
I have been spending a lot of time under the clear roof- I read out there, and drink my morning coffee when I can. Irene and I have been using the spa two or three times a week: we’d be using it more consistently, but for some of the time during the roof construction it was “inaccessible”.
I expect the final finishing work will get done within the next two weeks or so: my general contractor won’t accept final payment until the finishing is complete, so he’s likely to push to get that done 😉 I’m pretty happy with the result thus far, despite some schedule delays and cost over-runs. It looks and feels pretty much like I imagined it, and that is rather satisfying…
Seems odd they would make it out of steel rather than lumber, custom fabricating the Steel takes forever and can’t be cheap… You would need more vertical supports though.
You *need* some hanging baskets of flowers … it looks a bit empty in the pictures. Nice clean lines though … looks a bit like a japanese tea house. Maybe you should get some silk screens, a few rice paper panels, then convince Irene to wear a kimono 😉
I’ve been building out my porch to extend the enclosed space. Unfortunately I decided to test how strong my doorway was by hanging from it and trying to to do a pull up… and all I did was pull my back *DUH!*
Well, the steel is sort of my fault. I wanted close to zero maintenance, minimal vertical supports, and I wanted it substantially over-engineered. Note I say “engineered”, as opposed to “by guess and by golly”. Originally it was going to be aluminum, but to achieve the minimum level of over-engineering I wanted would have required another pair of supports and another truss. The company doing the roof proposed a steel design built by a local steel engineer at the same price, so I went with that. The structure is strong enough now that we could have made the roof out of concrete and it would still have been fine.
We can’t really hang anything on it yet as the staining needs to be done, but we’ll probably have a few flower baskets next year. Funny you mention silk screens- at one point when I was lazing on the deck I had this thought of getting some oriental folding panel screens 😉
Sorry about your back… but doing a pull up? You are crazy 😉
It looks _gorgeous_! And you and that artistic friend of yours, Chris [Hi, Chris! :-D!!] sure are right about the Japanese screens and the kimono! :-D!
You say the structure could hold a roof of concrete, but we know why you really had it made so strong. You knew that sooner or later, all your cats would get up there at once and put it to a serious test, right? !
If the guys ever show up, we’ll be putting up new eavestroughs very soon that have tested out as being pretty much leaf-and-debris proof. Finally!! We’ll let you know if they’re worth the money once those huge poplars by our house have put them to the test. :-)!
Hello, Janet, and welcome to my blog! Sorry about the delay in your comment appearing…moderation is more or less mandatory these days 🙁
I actually hadn’t thought about the cats 🙂 These days, though, the only cat who gets outside is Tux, and that isn’t “intentional”: we try to keep him inside, but he’s sneaky! I fully expect to find him up on the roof one day, though.
Let us know how your new gutters work. We are a few years away from having our roof redone and, when we do, I think we’ll see if we can do something to keep debris from our cedar trees from getting into the works. Right now it is a couple hundred dollar expense twice a year to have the gutters cleaned… that’s bad enough, but there is the worry even after that expense that the gutters will still block up and cause overflows and floods into the house itself.