Ground Level Deck Project {before}

And here I go again with my next project, a ground level deck, just outside the sliding doors in my basement. With the amount of money I've spent on the new carpet, and even though its rather dark and would hide most the dirt my dogs or even I would track in; I'd rather avoid it as much as possible.

The reason for this project is because the majority of the location this is being built at, I can't get grass to grow there. Its been 3 years now I've attempted and when it rains it turns into a huge area of mud, and with 2 yellow labs it a pain to clean up as often as it happens. Plus having this deck will look great out there and be a nice spot my dogs to lay in the sun/shade, and I'm thinking about covering at least 1/2 of it for when it rains, I could sit out there with my labs and soak up the soothing sounds.

Or another idea is to cover it entirely and encase it with a bug screening, therefor being a great place anytime during the summer/fall and avoid bugs too. Though, that would cost a great deal more, so we'll see what kind of deals I can find to cut costs.



Anyway, onto the meat of the project, and in order to properly build this deck, the first task is to clear the area and get it as level as possible. You'll see in the images that there is a concrete lip sticking off the foundation of our house, with which I plan to anchor the main supporting boards too; and it'll also become level with doorway once I lay the actual deck boards.

Now the hardest part, and thankfully I got a majority of it complete today, was to dig out masses of dirt to at least 2-3" below that concrete lip. I wanted the 4x4 posts to stick a few inches out of the ground so when I pour the concrete I can build it up around the beam a little so any water that gets under there doesn't eat away at them. All in all, the deck will be about 4" off the ground, so its not technically a ground level deck, but its pretty dern close!


Well, enjoy the images:

















Only went so far today, as there are about 300+ red bricks from my previous attempt at making it look nicer out there from a few years ago. I'll need to remove those, plus there are about 800 more I plan to remove just cause and use them elsewhere or just sell them to help fund this project!

As you can see, I moved tons of dirt today...

Lots more progress today:

Removed those 2 huge roots
Removed at least 150+ bricks

And the I dug out and leveled the ground to the size of the deck I'm wanting, though its possible I may make it a bit larger so there is less waste of material. My rough measurements place the deck only going out to 14'4" and I'll mostly be using 8' boards, thus having to cut off 1'6" for the 2nd half of each board is quite a loss. Shall see though, once I completely decide on a design.

Oh, it also turns out that this will actually be a ground level deck, almost underground really, now that I've got the depth about right.

Anyway, enjoy the images:

So yeah, since Sun night its been pretty much nothing but rain, rain and more rain. The good thing though, is that I dug out the the proper grade, and all the water as you can see migrates to that corner as I had hoped.

Unfortunately, the rain came before I was able to get the drain in, but during a short period the rain stopped on Mon; I got out there and dug into the existing drain from our gutters, added a Y adapter, and bam, its doesn't backup into a pool anymore.

Sad thing though, if it doesn't stop raining, building this deck is going to take quite some weeks, cause it takes a good 2 days of sun to dry the ground enough to get in there and work. Ah well...maybe during all these wet days, I'll start clearing the way and building the walls for the bathroom add-on, which is my next planned project!

Images:

Looks like a very busy summer ahead of you. I thought you were building a very dirty swimming pool!

Want to come build a deck for a pool for me next?

LOL!!!