Keith builds a deck, part 2.

Keith contemplates his achievements.

Nephew Keith and I started the deck project.

At the end of the day, we had the deck frame sitting on deck blocks. It doesn’t look like much was done on day 2 of the project, but that is deceptive.  We started by squaring the deck, then positioning and leveling the blocks.  Those tasks are critical to the quality of the finished project, but don’t look impressive.

Setting the first deck plank is similar.  The first plank establishes the overhang and parallel-ness.  I did most of that, while Keith was patient as I screwed around with a bunch of little details.  When the first plank is down, it goes pretty quick.  The only tricky part is lining up the end of the plank, and maintaining a consistent gap.  It helps to kneel on each plank to press it into the frame when screwing.

Coincidentally, both Keith and I are dopes.  I charged the battery for my DeWalt nut-driver, but forgot to bring the battery.  Keith forgot to fully charge his Ryobi.  That slowed us down on decking.

Also, once the first plank was down, Keith did all of the work.  This is a training project.  Keith was eager to learn and to apply his new knowledge.

I blew the whistle when we got this far.  If it were my deck, I would have kept working under lights to finish, aware that extra attention was needed as the tasks became repetitive.  Keith wanted to keep working.  I was concerned that he might get sloppy, and because of the battery situation, I had no way to help, and nothing to do.  I was bored.

I will return to help with the last plank and to trim the deck.  I won’t be back for a week, so Keith can take his time to get the rest of the planks down.

Keith is good at internet research, so it is left to him to figure out how and when he should seal or stain  the deck.

Sparky did not attend because yesterday was a long day.  He needed some alone time.