A weekend warrior builds a beautiful deck with a high end appearance
You don’t have to be an expert contractor with ten or twenty years of experience and know every trick in the book to blow away your expectations of what is possible to build these days.
And with the Titan family of deck connectors and footings Ken Bacchus was proud to show us just exactly what he pulled off over the course of a couple weekends.
He used the Deck Foot Anchor for floating decks (not connected to the house or ledger), the Titan Post Anchor for his railing posts and the new Shadow Rail connectors for a virtually invisible rail to post connection
A Floating Deck Avoids Ledger Connection Hassles
Ken knew there was no way he was going to start chipping away courses of masonry, locate the band board, insert double layers of metal flashing into the mortar line, bolt this all perfectly and according to code – and be sure it was air tight.
This just wasn’t needed for a deck that was only 24” above the ground. But he also wanted a footing that could offer the strength, security and stability that a poured concrete footing could but without all the labor and cost.
The Deck Foot Anchor fit the bill and he used an electric impact wrench and drove down 9 footings in less than an hour. He prepared the surface by removing sod, leveling it and laying down a good 3”-4” of ½” gravel.
Beautiful Composite Decking Picture Framed
Ken installed two courses of darker colored boards to create a picture frame around lighter infield decking. This is a great way to hide cross cut ends of composite boards. He also used side mounted deck fasteners. The look is fantastic.
A Fast, Easy And Long Lasting Post Connection Solution
And rather than setting the posts into the joists and then having to notch each deck board around each post individually, he used a surface mounted solution.
The Titan Post Anchor made that easy for him and with maximum 6’ post spacing was backed up by residential engineering reports for compliance. Decorative post skirts really made the final look clean. And even with snow in the winter time everything shines up like new in the spring with a light spray down.
Railing Connectors That Are Virtually Invisible
Ken was on a roll and wasn’t about to miss anything. He used the new Shadow Rail connectors, the first hidden fastener rail connectors that are fitted to closely match the cross sectional shape of a 2×4. All the screws fit inside the connectors. The screws are driven into the 2x4s and posts straight on – no toe nailing and they grip the wood.
There is no chance of them moving and causing misalignment problems when the connectors are slid and locked together. When Ken stained the railing and the connectors they were almost impossible to detect.
Imagine, all of this done by a complete amateur and some intuitive building products to remove much of the skill and complications for a great looking and long lasting structure.