Azek Deck Board Width – Majorly new and outdated homes a deck off the side or rear of the house. In designing a new house, an owner usually just installs a deck of ‘X’ level of space and extremely doesn’t think much regarding how the deck will probably be used. As an Architect, the deck design is equally as important as the rest of the house design. In real terms, a deck may be used as additional floor space and storage, at the significantly less expensive compared to rest of the house. The deck needs to be used just as one extension of the living area, and the spaces below the deck used as storage. Here are some tips to make your deck work more to suit your needs. Use a big glass doors to open up to the deck. You can use sliding glass doors or swing doors. Glass doors enable you to see the deck after they area closed. Have the opening no less than 4 feet wide (minimum) or wider. On my real estate I have a very 12′ siding glass door, which opens in the middle for a 6 foot wide opening. It allows free flow of people involving the Great Room and the deck and provides a sense Great Room and Deck being a similar room.
Will not skimp around the size of your deck–make it even bigger than your Great Room or Living Room. Think of the deck just as one additional Living Room, with couches, chairs, dining tables, TV’s, stereos. In other words, Think of it as living area to be utilized inside the milder temperatures of the year. My Great Room is 22’x34′. The deck is 20’x38′, with 20’x28′ covered which has a roof. Don’t have a very step between the deck and the house 1st floor. Instead have the deck flush with all the house. This gives sense the deck is an extension of the home. Put a roof over the deck. The roof may be a canopy, metal roof, or perhaps an extension of the house roof (wood framing, asphalt shingles). Having a roof over the deck area makes it more “livable” once the sun is out. It also provides “human” scale to deck. A roof overhead makes it feel psychologically more comfortable, placing ceiling above in places you lay on the deck, instead of open sky. A roof also makes the deck usable if it rains.
Utilize drywall and carpet instead of siding and decking.. If you put a roof over the deck, install moisture resistant drywall or “flat” siding around the home exterior wall and indoor/outdoor carpet on pressure treated plywood instead of expensive floor decking. It is cheaper, and provides the deck the appearance of being inside the house rather being outside. The deck area and the furniture needs to be flexible. You shouldn’t cram plenty of furniture on it, but allow for individuals to filter of the house onto the deck, or alter the arrangement of furniture for big gatherings. My favorite using the deck is good for birthday parties. My son could have 30 guests arrive, and then we rearrange the piece of furniture as well as set up 4 long tables with chairs around. It keeps the Great Room open for guests to change position, and set dining on the deck. Use plants, and wall hangings on the deck, exactly like you would inside the house. Just be sure these are more “weatherproof” than normal. It will give the deck the illusion the of being part of the house
The deck will surely have shaded areas and sunny areas. Not all the deck must covered. Keep a small area uncovered for a lot of of the in-between times of the year. In Indiana, it’s warm-sunny inside the summer and cold-snowy inside the winter. But in Spring and Fall, it’s in-between these 2 extremes. Sitting inside the sun on the deck in March at 55 degrees is wonderful. The warm sun shine makes it think that summer. Also if you have a very grille, you wouldn’t like it beneath the roof. Letting the smoke lift in to the sky is a bit more preferable for most of us instead of letting filter in to the house. Change the function of the deck as seasons change. How the deck is used in spring, summer, and fall needs to be considered in your design. For our house, inside the summer, The swimming pool is to establish inside the sunny area of the deck, while seating and dining is inside the shaded area of the deck. In fall and spring, the pool is removed, and the seating and dining tables have been in the sunny areas of the deck. In the winter, the seating and dining are kept under the deck roof to guard it through the harsh winter.
The deck railing and wall under the deck may be solid. Having the railing and space below the deck floor covered in a similar siding because the house (even brick), instead of open fencing has a number of advantages. First, it makes the house look bigger through the street. It visually looks like house is continuing to grow larger ins size. A solid railing (3′-6″ high) allows privacy. If you take a seat, people around the street can’t view you, however, if you stand up, you can converse along with your neighbors. A railing at 3′-6″ can be perfect “leaning” height for most of us, you can rest your elbows around the top of the wall with this height. The area under the deck change be used for storage. Having the space below the deck floor covered in siding enables storage under the deck to become hidden from view. If the 1st floor of the property is 6 feet above grade, the deck effectively turns into a shed and is often a perfect place for your storage of things normally inside a garage. Having a roof above the deck also keeps weather off items under the deck. This is the place for bicycles, lawnmowers, scrap lumber, saw horses, along with other bulky items normally found inside a garage. Most people want a 3 car garage simply to have 1 bay of the garage for storage. Instead of building a third garage bay, put those items under the deck.