Category Archives: Architecture

Two Story Deck: Part 3-Photos

When you build something, particularly a deck where everything is exposed, you want a good builder. We got the best, Jack Murphy, all around carpenter, builder and nice guy. He prefers to work alone and built the entire deck by himself. He did a great job.

The deck has my preferred kind of construction and detailing: chunky wood, big bolts, overlapping beams, few of the ubiquitous sheet metal connectors. I used galvanized wire mesh for the handrails. It has a nice open look and provides plenty of opportunities to hang plants. I came up with the design of the awnings without talking to an awning manufacturer. In some ways this was good, because they don’t recommend loose awnings that can move in the wind. We love the double curve shape, and repeated it on our garden shades (see previous posts). They do move around a little on very windy days.

The first floor feels like a woodsy study, a study with 100’s of plants. The posts, beams and braces create a very warm and intimate, sheltered space.

Photos from the top:

First view of the deck when you walk down our driveway. The  front side was kept flat because it was close to our sycamore trees. The deck cantilevers out on the other 2 sides for a larger second floor.

View from our back door.

View of the first floor room from the back of the deck.

The sun shines through the deck at certain times of the day, creating patterns on the plants.

Various photographs of the different details: stair, corner, footing, beams and braces in center of deck

Two Story Deck, Part 2: CD’s

Construction drawings-from model to building


When you have a design worked out in detail, you need construction drawings (CD’s) to guide the builder. CD’s are a description of how the final building should be: materials, dimensions, connections… They do NOT describe the construction sequence to follow or how to make all the pieces to achieve the final result. That i2  story deck CD details where the skills of the builder come in.

The elevations (north and east) are pretty easy to read. The posts and beams are drawn the size they will actually be. They are thinner than in the model. I couldn’t cut the foam core thin enough to represent the actual size.

The enlarged detail cross section shows how some of the pieces go together. It is drawn larger to show more detail. CD’s use drawings at progressively bigger scales to show larger and larger detail of the critical areas where the different pieces come together.This section shows 2 story deck CD rail detailthe beams at the top of the deck, the deck handrails, the decking and supporting beams.

The railing isometric is similar to the drawings I do for furniture. It shows how the pieces in a critical location, a corner of the handrail in this case, come together in three dimensions.

The framing plan is a little confusing. It shows a plan view (looking down) of
the beams that support the second floor decking. Every beam is shown as a single line, the posts are shown as squares. The sizes of the posts, beams and connectors (nails,
hangers or bolts) are explained with notes.2 story deck CD framing plan

These CD’s are blueline prints.
Although widely associated with architects and buildings, blueprints haven’t been widely used for about 50 years. They were replaced by blueline prints. Where a blueprint turned black lines into white lines on a deep blue background, bluelines have 2 story deck CD end elevationdark blue lines on a light blue background. Both prints were created by shining light through drawings on translucent paper, onto photo-sensitive paper. They have been replaced by inkjet prints of digital drawings, and xeroxes or scans of pencil drawings. These bluelines have aged a little, you can see some yellowing on the detail section and framing plan.

 

 

Two Story Deck, Part 1: Design & Model

One way to take advantage of a view
 
Shortly after we moved into our house, I was up on the roof doing a little
work. I discovered that we had an amazing view. You don’t realize it
when you come to our house, but we are on the top of a hill. The land
behind us drops down to the west, towards the Pacific. Although we are
5 miles from the ocean, we have a view of the Pacific Ocean, Tijuana, the Coronado Islands, San Diego Bay from National City to Coronado to Point Loma, the office buildings in downtown San Diego and Mount Soledad to the
north.

I built a small platform in our backyard olive tree, with the help of my friend Scott. I could lean a ladder against it, climb up and perch in the branches. After a while, we decided to build something larger and more accessible.

It was too expensive and too disruptive to add a second floor to the house. Instead, we decided to build an elevated deck. The natural spot for it was next to our backyard garage, in place of a one story covered patio built by the previous owners. Our backyard plants were pretty large by that point, and we didn’t want to remove any of them. The first floor supports were located at the corners of the existing patio slab. The second floor projects out over the supports to give us more deck area.

In the days before digital modeling software, I made scale models. My favorite materials were scrap foam core boards (usually with drawings
still glued to them) and a hot glue gun. Messy and rough, but fast. Easy to assemble, easy to tear apart and change. The deck model was made at 1/48th size (1/4″=1′ scale). It is small enough to be easy to make and handle, large enough (barely) to get your eye down next to it and see what it would be like. I love digital models, but there is something wonderful about a scale model that you can touch.

The tall vertical shapes next to the deck in the model are abstractions of a pair of large sycamore trees in our yard.

These are photos of the final model. I don’t have any records of the earlier schemes, but I remember that the awnings and overhead beams came late in the process. I also remember that the expression of the structure and connections as the main design theme evolved over time, too. Although next to the garage, the deck is free standing. The very prominent diagonal braces give sideways stiffness to resist shaking from earthquakes.