Virginia Beach's Best Pool Deck Contractors
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If you are a homeowner or know someone who is, the chances are pretty likely that a conversation regarding the building of a pool deck has come up, at least once.
Whether it will be attached to a home or built up around a pool, a deck is an extension of your home and is a great space to entertain guests or enjoy a quiet evening outdoors when the weather is nice. As with any other home project, there are choices that need to be decided on and precautions to take before getting knee deep into building a deck, for instance, what will the deck be constructed with? Where will it be located? How big do you want it to be? One of the first things you need to do is plan out where you want your deck to be constructed. From there, you can make decisions on how large the deck can be made. Sometimes, you will be surprised at just much (or how little) space you have to work with that often varies from what you envision. Before drilling a hole for the first support beam, make sure you have your local city utility companies come out and strike paint lines of where the utility lines run in and around your property. Doing this can save you headaches and prevent injury or death, if you strike a power line. |
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Pool Deck How To's
When you have done your site survey, taken measurements and called out your utility companies, you are now ready to start buying your materials. There are a variety of materials you can use to construct a deck: Regular Lumber - in both natural and stained finish, Pressure Treated Lumber or even Composite Decking. Each has its Pros and Cons and depending upon where the deck will be built, you will need to weigh those out for your needs.
Regular Lumber is very easy to find. One of the biggest pros to it is that it is affordable! When you purchase lumber in its most natural form, you are basically beginning with a clean slate and can do anything you wish with it. You can also, in some cases, purchase regular lumber that is pre-stained, but usually needs to be ordered as most places do no carry it on-hand. A con of this type of wood is that it is prone to wear and tear of the environment and will tend to rot much easier than treated lumber, if you do not take additional steps to protect the wood.
Pre-Treated Lumber is a good choice when you are looking for material to build a deck that is near your home or will be around a lot of water. A big pro for this type of lumber is that it has been pressure treated and stained with a solvent. This solvent locks out moisture from penetrating the wood and is also a deterrent for insects and bugs. Carpenter Bees and Termites typically will not interfere with any deck that is made with this material. A con for this type of material is that it runs a little more expensive than regular lumber, but the likelihood is that you won’t have to repair too many boards down the road!
Regular Lumber is very easy to find. One of the biggest pros to it is that it is affordable! When you purchase lumber in its most natural form, you are basically beginning with a clean slate and can do anything you wish with it. You can also, in some cases, purchase regular lumber that is pre-stained, but usually needs to be ordered as most places do no carry it on-hand. A con of this type of wood is that it is prone to wear and tear of the environment and will tend to rot much easier than treated lumber, if you do not take additional steps to protect the wood.
Pre-Treated Lumber is a good choice when you are looking for material to build a deck that is near your home or will be around a lot of water. A big pro for this type of lumber is that it has been pressure treated and stained with a solvent. This solvent locks out moisture from penetrating the wood and is also a deterrent for insects and bugs. Carpenter Bees and Termites typically will not interfere with any deck that is made with this material. A con for this type of material is that it runs a little more expensive than regular lumber, but the likelihood is that you won’t have to repair too many boards down the road!
Composite Decking is fantastic for building any sort of deck, no matter where you decide to construct it, for a few reasons. Some of the biggest pros with this type of material are that the material is easy on your feet, especially after a long day of the sun beating down on the deck. It stays cool. Composite Decking comes in many colors. Once you lay it out and secure it, you are pretty much done and it should not require any attention for quite some time. Bugs and insects do not mess with this type of material and you shouldn’t have a breakdown of the material from any sort of weathering. One of the biggest and most common cons of this material is simply the cost. Composite Decking runs the most expensive of all the materials available for a deck but over time, the money spent well exceeds the cost of the install. Nonetheless, only you can decide what your family’s budget is for the project and what you are willing to give up, for the sake of saving a few dollars.
If you opt to use regular wood, after you construct your deck, you will need to stain it and apply several coats until you reach your desired look. BUT – you should not do this until after the 1st season that you build your deck. This gives the wood time to ‘set’ and allows for it to settle. When you go back to stain it and seal it the following season, you will be able to visibly see in some cases the areas of the deck where the wood has ‘shifted’ or settled into its final resting spot. You can then seal your deck that next season and enjoy it for many years.
In almost all cases, except the Composite Decking, there will come a day when you need to re-sand the wood due to normal wear and tear. You might also need to replace some boards that have shifted or worn themselves away in the weathering over the years. As with all wood, the materials of a deck will be exposed to heat and cold and the wood will expand and retract over the years. This will cause some of the boards to have to be repaired. It is a good idea to keep some of the stain you used, if you do this yourself, handy for the day that you need to do this project. If you don’t, you may have issue in finding a match to the stain used, and if you can’t find it at all, you could end up having to re-stain the entire deck and retreat it again.
Additional precautions need to be considered when building a deck. When you build your deck around a pool, be sure you still leave access to areas where you need to get an arm beneath the lip of the pool, for example, replacing a liner. Nothing would be worse than building up your deck and not being able to pull the rim of the pool off because the deck has been built either up to it, or covers it entirely, leaving you no access. When you build your deck up to a home, be sure to leave yourself access to the siding of the home, in case you need to ever make changes. In both cases, you also need to consider that the expansion of the wood will need at least a ½” of space to breathe, so if you DO decide to build your deck up to wherever it will sit, keep this measurement in mind.
If you opt to use regular wood, after you construct your deck, you will need to stain it and apply several coats until you reach your desired look. BUT – you should not do this until after the 1st season that you build your deck. This gives the wood time to ‘set’ and allows for it to settle. When you go back to stain it and seal it the following season, you will be able to visibly see in some cases the areas of the deck where the wood has ‘shifted’ or settled into its final resting spot. You can then seal your deck that next season and enjoy it for many years.
In almost all cases, except the Composite Decking, there will come a day when you need to re-sand the wood due to normal wear and tear. You might also need to replace some boards that have shifted or worn themselves away in the weathering over the years. As with all wood, the materials of a deck will be exposed to heat and cold and the wood will expand and retract over the years. This will cause some of the boards to have to be repaired. It is a good idea to keep some of the stain you used, if you do this yourself, handy for the day that you need to do this project. If you don’t, you may have issue in finding a match to the stain used, and if you can’t find it at all, you could end up having to re-stain the entire deck and retreat it again.
Additional precautions need to be considered when building a deck. When you build your deck around a pool, be sure you still leave access to areas where you need to get an arm beneath the lip of the pool, for example, replacing a liner. Nothing would be worse than building up your deck and not being able to pull the rim of the pool off because the deck has been built either up to it, or covers it entirely, leaving you no access. When you build your deck up to a home, be sure to leave yourself access to the siding of the home, in case you need to ever make changes. In both cases, you also need to consider that the expansion of the wood will need at least a ½” of space to breathe, so if you DO decide to build your deck up to wherever it will sit, keep this measurement in mind.