Lattice Lattice Everywhere, none left to cut or stain
on 06/03/2008 at 01:37 PM
looks good from here drew, and the gate at the foot of the steps in the pool area helps it comply with safety code req.
There’s another one at the top of the stairs. You can’t see it in these pics because it’s open. It has a blocked area around the latch so that you have to be well over 5 feet tall to reach over and open it.
Personally I think this pool safety stuff has gone too far. Fence around the whole yard witha locked gate. Bars around the pool, locked gates around the decks, ladders pulled up. If you sneak into somebody’s yard and jump in their pool it’s your own damn fault if you drown. With the sidewall of the pools 48” or higher, no way even an NBA star is going to accidently trip and fall in.
Damn! That’s some fine work! Live anywhere near Eastern New Mexico?
Pool safety? When I was a kid, no one had fences around the pools, in-ground or free-standing. How are the children going to learn that the world is a dangerous place if you don’t let a few of them drown once in a while?
Well, they’ll find a way. Darwin will NOT be denied.
Impressive job, Drew. You earn an A+ on your shop project. AND you are excused for not posting enough lately.
/sarcasm
I am in Laredo now and it is 104 degrees. Looks cool!
Looks good Drew. I always enjoy a good wood project, but not usually that big of one!
My hands are raw from wielding a paintbrush. IF I EVER have one of these projects again, the first thing I’m doing is buying a compound miter saw. Then a HVLP sprayer. That would have cut days of hard work and sunburn off this project. And SCREW HOME DEPOT. I’m never buying wood there again. Utter garbage. Got to find a real lumberyard that carries good product.
But I really do want to say, to all you good folks considering a deck: DO NOT GO CHEAP and use pressure treated pine as the deck and railing surface. It does not hold up: you are wasting your money. Use teak, redwood, or the TREX plastic wood, and for God’s sake, spend the extra $200 to get the Tiger Claw edge fasteners. Nothing looks worse, but nothing, than a billion semi-rusted galvanized 10 penny nails popping up all over the place. Screw the damn boards down the right way. It will cost you more up front, but you will be THRILLED a few years down the road. And remember, PLEASE: surface boards are always mounted so the grain runs like an umbrella: the curve is down, not up like a cup. Mount them curved up and they will warp, rot, pop nails, and utterly suck up your deck in 2 years or less.
Next tip: Buy your wood in the late winter, and air stack it in your garage or basement. Let it sit around for 2 months, then stain everything on all sides weeks before your project. Not only will the colors come out more even, you’ll save yourself tremendous pain-in-the-arse labor compared to trying to get a brush into some dinky little inaccessable spot. I can’t emphasize this enough: STAIN FIRST, THEN BUILD, THEN STAIN THE CUT ENDS ONLY. Or just cough up the big bucks to buy Trex and to hell with stain altogether.
Actually peiper, I would like to see where you live.
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.
(that really sounds sick, doesn’t it?)
I second Drew, if you got the $$$ do the Trex. I cleaned the ramp, deck and gazebo and then we entered the ‘April showers’ phase in late May. . .So I wait and wait. Last week, every day forcast was rain, possible thunderstorms - but no rain ever. Sooooo on Monday I started on the ramp and since I was a mess, po’d, and the temp wasn’t too bad, I moved to the deck. Ran out of stain at about 3/4 way. Decided to not go and buy, nor start the gazebo (different color) - and then the very next morning - the monsoon season started.
I hate it (the staining over and over again and again), and when I went to get the second coat (plus to finish the 1/4th left) - out of the color (imagine that).
And after the tiller weekend - I also have my second thoughts about HD. . .I use to hate Lowes - as I knew their stores better than the people who worked there - but HD is going downhill fast.
On the actual wood work - I have a new in - my daughter-in-law’s mom is a real artist with wood - when she was finished with her pool - you didn’t even realize it was an above the ground - and her home looks like the inside of a lodge - gorgous. She has promised to come work for us (once our money tree blooms).
Good job Drew
