# Forum Home Renovation Decking  Gibbos Low Ironbark Deck

## Gibbo

Hello All, 
Ive been building a deck very slowly over the last couple of months now.  Ive never done any sort of large construction before, so just about all the ideas, inspiration and know-how for my deck have come from this forum and the highly recommended Allen Staines book.  I have learned a heap from the WIP threads, experienced deck builders and particularly photos, so I thought Id throw one together as well, with some pics.  A huge thanks to contributors on this forum who have all indirectly and directly helped me  UteMad, Bloss, jba, oohsam, Raff and many others.  *Deck Details:*
Area: about 3m x 6m
Low level deck with clearance from the ground to bottom of bearers ranging from about 70mm to 240mm
Bearers:  90x90 F7 H4 treated pine bearers bolted straight into Pryda post anchors
Joists:  90x45 MGP10 H3 treated pine
Decking:  85x19 ironbark
Post anchor spacing along bearer:  1300mm
Post anchor spacing between bearers:  1200mm => 3 rows of bearers
Joist spacing:  445mm => 14 joists
Pryda post anchors set into concrete footings  *Footings:*
First up I needed to dig 15 footing holes which were mostly 300x300x450mm.  I hand dug the holes with a shovel and pry bar, and as others have mentioned, solid clay sucks.  *Attaching the stirrups to bearers:*
I laid the bearers out over the holes, marked the stirrup locations, drilled and bolted them on. (Pic 1) 
After free-hand drilling a couple of wayward holes that werent exactly at 90 degrees and meant I couldnt get the bolt through the stirrup and bearer, I drilled a hole in a thick piece of hardwood nice and square at the drill press and then clamped this to the bearer to guide the drill for each hole.  No problems after that. 
I spent a while agonising over whether to have the bearers sit right down in the base of the stirrup, or to have them elevated with all the weight shear on the bolts.  I figured either would probably be fine, but ended up sitting them down in the base with a couple of 3mm packers underneath to let water drain away and avoid the annoying rivet in the base of the Pryda stirrups which stopped it from seating properly. 
The 90x90 for the bearers came in 3m lengths so I made the middle hole in each row wider to allow for 2 post anchors to be set in the hole to join the bearers (great idea from elsewhere on the forum).  (Pic 2) 
I used both 300mm and 450mm Pryda post anchors to make sure I had the minimum 150mm of concrete under the foot of the stirrup and max extension above the concrete of less than 300mm as per the Pyrda tech specs.  My max extension from the concrete was 240mm, and I was a little worried about the stirrup post flexing, but its quite solid, particularly when the joists tie it all together.  *Levelling & bracing the bearers:*
Pic 3 shows an idea stolen from jbas post  using a car jack to level up each bearer section.  This method made it very easy to fine tune the height and find enough stuff to pack them up with.  Those horseshoe packers are fantastic for fine tuning everything.  I used the water level shown in pic2 to get the whole structure level.  Getting something this big level was quite daunting at the start, but the water level made it really easy, proved to be super accurate, and best of all was really cheap!
I then braced the bearers with some joists to keep them in place while shovelling concrete into the holes. (Pic 4)  *Concrete:*
I needed about 0.7 cubic meters of concrete.  I first considered getting a minicrete truck delivery to make it easy, but found out they only allow you 20mins to unload and then charge waiting time.  Given that I was doing this solo, I didnt like my chances of getting all the concrete from the front to the back of the house and properly packed into 15 holes in 20mins.  So I got materials delivered, hired a concrete mixer and mixed it all.  That was a big day!  Im glad I didnt get the truck now because it took me quite a while to pack each hole properly  I was being pretty careful compacting it to get the air bubbles out as theres not a huge foot on the base of those stirrups for load bearing.  I read in a few concrete guides that for footings a mix of 5:3:1 was adequate, but because of the small load bearing foot I used the next step up of 4:2.5:1.  Overkill or underkill  still dont know.  *Drainage:*
As the deck is pretty low and at a low point in our back yard, I wanted to make sure there was some reasonable drainage.  I dug a drainage channel the length of the deck, sloped the ground around towards it, put down 50mm blue metal, ag line & filled with more blue metal.  I have an existing stormwater point at the corner of the house, so will get the ag line connected here.  (Pics 5 & 6) 
I then threw down some weed mat and covered the whole area with more blue metal.  *Joists:*
Next I rolled out some of that Protect-a-deck stuff from bunnings on the top of the bearers.  The joists were attached with Pyrda triple grips.  I checked for any high spots with a spirit level and hit them with an electric planer.   
I managed to pick up very cheaply some Joistrip to cover the joists, which is a black rubber flashing similar to the protectadeck stuff, but way better.  Its 2mm thick, has legs that fold over the top of the joist, seals itself around the screws and has a line running down the middle to help you keep your screws straight.  Normally very expensive though.  (Pic 7 & 8)  *Step:*
A box step is needed off one end of the deck, and I wasnt sure of the easiest method of building the structure, so I ended up building it like a miniature deck with stirrups, bearers & joists.  Probably complete overkill!

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## Gibbo

*Decking:*
Im using 85x19mm ironbark decking screwed down with Macsim 10g 50mm type 17 stainless screws as recommended by UteMad.  I am lucky enough to already own the 3.5mm Festool drill/countersink bit with depth stop which is a brilliant time saver.   
To get the screws a consistent distance from the edge of the boards (17mm looked right) and in a straight line down the deck I made up this simple jig.  Its just a piece of aluminium angle attached to a piece of decking at 90 degrees with two little notches filed out to fit the point of an awl in.  On the back edge of the decking scrap Ive drawn some marks to be aligned with the line down the centre of the joist.  The offset marks are for butt joins.  (Pics 9 & 10) 
The ends of boards were slightly undercut to give a nice tight butt join.  I went with a 3mm gap between boards using some horseshoe packers as spacers. 
The boards were laid out, cut to length, clamped up tight against the packers with spreader clamps, holes marked, drilled & countersunk and screwed down.  This process is very fiddly and is taking a long time.  But Im happy with the results so far.  I love the variation in tones and figure in the timber.  Pics 11 to 14 show current progress. 
If the weather is kind I might make some more progress this weekend. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## terryB

Hey Gibbo, 
This is a great post and so informative and concise Staines had better watch his back. I love the simple jig I will be stealing it for myself and knocking one up asap!. 
Cheers
Terry

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## Gibbo

Hi Terry, 
Thanks for your kind comments.   :Smilie:   After laying some more boards on the weekend one modification I'd make to the jig is to make the piece of aluminium angle longer.  The reason being that the joistrip stuff I have with the line down the centre moves around a little as I'm moving boards around, and so a longer piece would allow you to also reference off more of the screws already installed in that row (mine only currently reaches across the previously installed board).  I've been using a steel ruler to do this.  Probably wouldn't be such an issue if the centre line was marked directly on the joists. 
I also thought that if you were predrilling for nails (ie not using a combined drill countersink bit for screws), instead of having notches to mark the hole positions you could drill pilot holes in the al and then position the jig and drill straight through it.  This would save a fair bit of time. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## Gibbo

I managed to get a bit more done on the weekend before it rained.  I thought I'd post a pic of the wet deck because it gives an idea of what it will look like when oiled - I love the colour.  Sorry, the photo's not fantastic. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## murray44

Nice work, I was going to suggest a longer guide on your screw jig but you beat me to it. I wish someone had used one on my deck  :Rolleyes:  
Love that ironbark. Sensational. Will be interested to see what it looks like when oiled or whatever you have planned.

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## Gibbo

Thanks Murray, 
I'm planning to use Feast Watson Natural Decking Oil.  Hopefully it won't change the timber from its 'wet' colour too much. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## blak

Looking great mate.
Can I ask what the reason was for having the excess board overhang on both ends of the deck? 
Im about to lay boards this weekend ...

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## cherub65

Cut them of when decks finished, all nice and straight :2thumbsup:

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## blak

Going to be tricky getting a circular saw on those boards closest to the house.
I assume you already cut maybe the first 2 boards to size before nailing them down?

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## Gibbo

Thanks blak.  Yep, exactly as cherub65 said - I left the overhang so that when all the boards are down I can use a straight edge and circular saw to trim it all to finished length in one hit and get it nice and straight.  Saves the hassle of having to get each one exactly the right length as you're laying.   
Good luck with laying your boards.
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## Gibbo

Hah, you beat me posting back.  Yep dead right.  I checked before I started and can get the circular saw up to all but the last board closest to the house, so that one was precut to the right length before laying. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## blak

Good stuff mate.
Also I noticed that you did not offset the decking screws in each board?
Ive heard some purists claim that joist splitting can occur if you don't offset your nails/screws. Did you have any issues with this?

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## Gibbo

Yeah, I'd read that too and was considering offsetting them.  I'd also read (on this forum I think) that others hadn't had any problems with splitting in a treated pine structure, and I liked the neatness of the straight lines so went with it.  Only twice did I hear a crack when driving the screws, and both of these were right at the ends of the joists, which is understandable I guess - probably should have predrilled just the very end screw holes.  I was probably only 10mm from the joist end.  Otherwise no problems at all.  I think the TP is soft enough to cope with it - hopefully it will be ok long term.  If I was using hardwood joists though I might reconsider the offset.

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## BigDog

Gibbo, just wondering how the Feast Watson natural-coloured oil turned out on the ironbark. I have just finished an ironbark deck and deciding between  either natural or walnut (as per UteMads deck). A pic would be great.
Thanks in advance,
BigDog

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## Gibbo

G'day BigDog, 
I've been very slack in posting progress (mainly because I haven't quite finished yet).  I've got two small bits to attach on the step this weekend.  But on the oil front, I haven't applied it yet as I was letting the deck weather and the tannins leach out.  It's starting to look a bit greyish, so I'm probably ready for the oil now.  I was surprised at the amount of tannin that has leached out! 
Are you going to leave yours to weather a while?  If so, I'm hoping to get the oil on mine in the next week or two and will definitely post pics for you to look at when done. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## Bloss

Deck looks great Gibbo!  :2thumbsup:  A bit over-engineered, but hey it's for you right!  :Smilie:   
Splitting from screws in TP hasn't been an issue for me, and with the joist protector strips even less likely. The inline looks much better IMO too.

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## BigDog

> G'day BigDog, 
> I've been very slack in posting progress (mainly because I haven't quite finished yet).  I've got two small bits to attach on the step this weekend.  But on the oil front, I haven't applied it yet as I was letting the deck weather and the tannins leach out.  It's starting to look a bit greyish, so I'm probably ready for the oil now.  I was surprised at the amount of tannin that has leached out! 
> Are you going to leave yours to weather a while?  If so, I'm hoping to get the oil on mine in the next week or two and will definitely post pics for you to look at when done. 
> Cheers,
> Gibbo.

  
G'day Gibbo, my deck is about 4 weeks old. Plan on following utemads cleaning procedure and then hit it with a solution of 10% oxalic acid. Probaby going to use feast Watson natural. Will probably do it this weekend weather permitting.

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## Gibbo

Thanks Bloss.  Yep, I certainly realise now I over engineered it for what it is, but as you say at least it's for me.  Took me ages to build - hats off to you guys who do them for a living! 
Well, last weekend I followed UteMad's brilliant cleaning directions and then applied two coats of Feast Watson Natural decking oil.  Here's the final pics. 
Pic1 - construction finished.
Pic2 - first coat of oil going on
And the rest are after two coats. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## terryB

Hey Gibbo great job! 
I also took ages and was pretty much over having a DIY tasking hanging over me everytime I had nothing to do. 
But I am now starting to get the itch again and thinking about enclosing the deck with a roof to make it far more usable. 
My question to you is do you have any intention of doing the same or are you going to leave it exposed forever? 
Great job again, love the colour!

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## Gibbo

Thanks heaps Terry!   

> I also took ages and was pretty much over having a DIY tasking hanging over me everytime I had nothing to do.

  I know exactly what you mean - I was getting very sick of it by the end but felt guilty when I wasn't working on it.  But how good does it feel to actually finish it! 
I thought long and hard about the roof option when I started but decided to leave it for a while and see how useable it turned out.  I'm lucky that the deck is on the eastern side of a double storey house so without a roof we get the morning sun on it, but by about 1pm it's in the shade of the house - perfect for lunch and dinner BBQs.  I'm pretty happy to leave it as is at the moment.  The main disadvantage is we can't use it when it rains. 
But, if the house didn't shade it as it does, I reckon I would definitely build the roof over it.  My wife and little daughter love sitting out there almost every evening (when it's not raining). 
Does yours see much of the weather? 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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## Stitch

Hi there, I am thinking of building my own deck after ridiculous quotes from tradies. What was the Allen Staines book called? Can I be rude and ask you approx how much it cost you to do the deck? What did you do for ant capping for termites?
Thanks
Stitch

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## goldie1

The Australian Decks and Pergolas  construction manual by Allan Staines  Pinedale Press

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## gillies01

Hi Gibbo, 
Just a quick note to ask how your Feast Watson lasted on your Red Ironbark. 
I built a deck with the same material and it looked just like yours for a time. The first coating I used was Natures timber oil which lasted only 4 to 5 months before it went really grey. I then tried a new product from feast Watson, but this also failed, so I am curious to know if you were happy with feast watson. My feast watson has only been on for around 8 months and it is already coming off. There are bare patches all over.

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## Bloss

Look at the deck coating stickies, but for fully exposed deck pretty much all will need re-coating under a year. There are plenty who claim otherwise, but IMO two full seasons between re-coats is about average, many need twice a year. Highly variable on timber type and quality, prep and mainly local weather conditions. Australia generally has very high UV levels and long sunlight hours - even in Tassie UV is high and temp range is high too.

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## Gibbo

Hi gillies01, 
Sorry for the delay in responding, I missed the email. 
My experience pretty much lines up with what Bloss said.  My deck is fully exposed and I had to recoat after about 6 months.  When I put the FW on I was expecting to have to recoat twice a year. 
Unfortunately, when I bought another can of Feast Watson to recoat, I discovered when I got it home that they had sneakily changed the formulation (luckily before I used it).  I bought the FW initially because I wanted an oil based finish, not a water based acrylic.  I happened to glance at the back of the can and noticed that it said wash up in water.  Sneaky! 
So I took it back and bought the Intergrain Nature's Timber Oil, which has been ok for me so far.  It needs another coat now, which is probably about 6 months again. 
Was it the intergrain stuff you used first?  And was the Feast Watson water based when you used it?  I'm not sure if using a water based over an oil based would account for the bare patches if the acrylic had trouble bonding to the oiled timber?  Mine just tends to fade pretty evenly all over. 
Cheers,
Gibbo.

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