Decking....nearly finished but need advice

[dave_s13]

Question for any joiners or just them in the know.

I've completely re-done my garden over the last few months and the decking is pretty much the last job, trouble is nothing in my house is square and the way I laid the decking has left me with the following gap.




At one end the width is only about 50mm, at the other it's about 400mm (ish).

I laid it horizontally as it seemed to create less cuts but in hindsight maybe it would've been better to do it vertically? I dunno. It looks good from the top end of the garden!!



So the question is, how the feck do I cut the boards to fit, without it looking $hit. I have to scribe them in don't I? I don't know how to do that though. Can some helpful chap(ess) give me an idiots guide on how to do it?

Just as an aside, I haven't had a fekn weekend for 4months. Garden used to slope down from left to right and had 12 conifers down the left side, the garden was all lumpy horrible grass/weeds and generally used as a toilet for the dogs, totally unuseable.

It now looks like this


All new turf, block paving, fencing.

Also laid a new concrete path down the side and built that wall to retain the unadopted road adjacent the house, the cavity is filled with $hitloads of concrete.



Unadopted "road", my new fence on left.


Doesn't look like much I suppose but I've done every single job (apart from the excavating) single handed....feckin hard work it is too.

Can't wait for summer so I can just sit in the garden, doing nowt but bbq and beer!

[Busamav]

I would be tempted to drop the existing wall ,

then cut the joist ends off and maybe build a raised bed square with the joists in its place .

[davido140]

Busamav said:

I would be tempted to drop the existing wall ,

then cut the joist ends off and maybe build a raised bed square with the joists in its place .

+1 that walls a bit st anyway considering all the hard work you've put in everywhere else!

[V12Les]

Piece of piss. Knock down that st looking wall and extend the joists to cover it, cover end of joists with decking, job done plus you get rid of that naff looking wall.

[dave_s13]

Hmm....that would be a nightmare of a job

[dave_s13]

Seems to be the consensus though!

I thought I'd nearly done

[V12Les]

No...it would be a piece of piss.

[dave_s13]

Trouble is there is a drain cover....the edge of it sits almost flush with the wall edge, you can see the cover, bottom of this pic.



That would mean drawing a straight line from that point up, so I'd have to excavate a load of earth.

Easy enough I suppose, I just can't be @rsed.

You want a days work Les?

[Busamav]

Ok , still knopck the " decorative " wall down , finish the deck end with a board (s) then dig a flower bed ,

make a shape out of it , put a fugging great tub on the manhole cover and have plants hanging over the edge of it .

Seriously , you havent an option regarding the wall .

[V12Les]

Thanks for the offer Dave.
Really it is quite simple. Make a frame around the drain cover and cut the decking to allow access if need be. Screw some joists along side your existing ones and allow to cover/overhang wall. Overhang at one end will be the difference that you see now between the deck and wall, hope that makes sence.
Only other option is to take decking up and opening up the joints at one end and slighty close up at the other as need be.

[Steamer]

If the wall is staying - get some big timber planter boxes that back-up to the wall, with a few trailing plants they will mask the lines of the decking.

But I'd get rid of the wall.

[dave_s13]

V12Les said:

Thanks for the offer Dave.
Really it is quite simple. Make a frame around the drain cover and cut the decking to allow access if need be. Screw some joists along side your existing ones and allow to cover/overhang wall. Overhang at one end will be the difference that you see now between the deck and wall, hope that makes sence.
Only other option is to take decking up and opening up the joints at one end and slighty close up at the other as need be.

Sorry Les, I can't get that pictured in my head!

Way I've done at the mo means if you need access to the drain covers it's a matter of unscrewing a few boards, didn't want to cut an access panel as such.

BTW I do agree that wall is w@nk and should really be demolished.

[s,one]

Cut it in as best you can then get sone rectangular planters along the and against the full length of the wall on top of the deck.Obviously you will see it on the walkthrough but anything else is going to look like your waiting for bonfire night, far short of dropping the wall.

[Busamav]

[quote=s,one]Cut it in as best you can then get sone rectangular planters along the and against the full length of the wall on top of the deck.Obviously you will see it on the walkthrough but anything else is going to look like your waiting for bonfire night, far short of dropping the wall.
[/quote]

you will still notice the cock up ,

just that the wayward line will be against the planter rather than the wall he is about to demolish

[wiz 1]

Scribe the boards as best you can then fit a narrow section of decking 3"x2" along the edge over the top. As someone said you could have measured up the difference and set the boards with a larger gap at one end but its quite a big difference.

[dave_s13]

Gotta agree with everyone that the wall should ideally come down. But.

It's not an option, for why:-

a) No money left for a new wall
b) I have neither the time or the inclination to build a new wall/planter
c) Messing about shovelling barrow fulls of earth about will ruin my new turf
d) I can't see me living here for more than another 2 years

Can someone please tell me how you can scribe the boards in, it's not something I've done before?

[dave_s13]

wiz 1 said:

Scribe the boards as best you can then fit a narrow section of decking 3"x2" along the edge over the top. As someone said you could have measured up the difference and set the boards with a larger gap at one end but its quite a big difference.

The difference is huge, I didn't realise how huge it was though

"then fit a narrow section of decking 3"x2" along the edge over the top"

Can you elaborate on this but please mate, don't understand.

Thanks for all the replies fellas, appreciate it.

[wiz 1]

When you have cut the last boards down as close as you can to the wall. Screw or nail another board of smaller section, so it looks tidy, over the top of the board/wall joint. Its not ideal but it is simple.

[tank slapper]

I've just finished an area of decking but I did it with the boards at 45 degrees, so any differences (the house not being completely parallel to the edge of the existing patio) were relatively easy to work around as it was just a matter of cutting the boards to the right length. It was a bit time consuming, but it worked quite well.

[dave_s13]

tank slapper said:

I've just finished an area of decking but I did it with the boards at 45 degrees, so any differences (the house not being completely parallel to the edge of the existing patio) were relatively easy to work around as it was just a matter of cutting the boards to the right length. It was a bit time consuming, but it worked quite well.

That it not a useful piece of information!