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Radius?

3443 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Mike Finley, 
K
Just wondering what you guys do when building a deck that has a radius in it?

The first (only) one I've done was for myself, so I experimented a little.

Picture this:

Deck is 16' wide, 10' deep at the corners, 12' deep in the middle. Not a very big bend. I've attached 2 really quick drawings to give you a visual idea of what I'm talking about below.

I drew it all out with AutoCAD first, cut my joists to length. Solid blocking at the ends of the joists (2x8).
Screwed 2 2x6-16' per side to the center joist/blocking, bent them around the curve and screwed them on. Then cut off excess. (16' was necessary because they were a real ***** to bend. I used the excess for solid blocking between the joists at the half-span point.) This gave me an 11" high skirting to hide the end of the joists/blocking. It bent pretty nicely, but with a tighter bend I think it'd crack. You'd pretty much have to use thinner material.


Has anyone else done anything similar? Do you have any ideas for making this easier? Make it look better?

There are SO many square/rectangle decks around here it's disgusting. None of the local builders seem to have any creativity. I'd really like to start "specializing" in this kind of thing to distinguish myself from everyone else.

Thoughts?

Kevin

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M
For what you had to do I think it worked out fine. If you had to contine the radius on both sides, say to form a 1/2 circle you might have gotten into trouble.

In a case where it won't work as you did it, such as when the radius is too tight, you can make a facia board by getting the facia board re-sawed. You take say each 2"x12"x10' and get it resawed into (3) 1/4" x 12"x10's. Do the framing like you did, then buy some 1/4 luan plywood and rip it into 1/4"x12"x8's and nail this to the end of the framing like you did with your 2x6s. Then glue, clamp and sparingly nail the re-sawed facia over the plywood. It will look perfect, you can sand any but seams so it looks really nice.
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K
Thanks for the reply. I know that the way I did it wouldn't work for anything with a serious radius to it, but it was quick and easy, and it looks nice. I think it would be an easy upsell to most customers, and doesn't take a lot of extra time or material.

Whereabouts would you get the lumber resawn? I don't know if we've got anyone around here with that kind of equipment. Also, what is luan plywood?

Thanks for the tips Mike.


Anyone else have any input?
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B
We use 3 plys of 1/2 inch p.t. plywood to form structural curves.This is very ridgid good for bolting posts to.We wrap the p.t. box on all our decks with 1x12 skirtboards.
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T
I do as bergen but form and let dry first. There is only one epoxy that I know of that will stick to wet PT. It is expensive and smells like dead fish.
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B
We just use pl400 for these things as the nails are realy holding it together.Rescorcinol is my glue of choice for exterior glueing.Epoxys is better if need a faster drying time.
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W
cuts

Start with relief cuts on the back side of the band board. Soak in warter then start bending(lay wood up against wall).I soak all material in warter before trying to bend, like with ply for radius stairs.
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T
Bergen, time to bone up on your epoxies. There are hard set and soft set in any speed that you want, from a few seconds to days to UV exposure which will stay wet almost indefinitly until exposed to UV rays.
I use E-Bond http://www.ebondepoxies.com/ they can formulate for any needs, some is downright scary.
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M
Do you have any wood working clubs around? Anybody with a good sized bandsaw can do it. We have several around, I have just taken the wood to the club and for about $40.00 they have resawn it for me. They love it because they get to talk to and help out a guy doing it for real instead of doing it as a hobby. I have used these clubs to do other stuff like planing really wide pieces of wood and such. Some of these guys there are super talented.

I find that plywood in Home Depot or Lowes, I think it is luan, it is pretty much the cheapest plywood they carry it seems, you will recognize it because it is so flexible. I have had no needs for expoxys for these circumstances. Tightbond III is waterproof and idiot proof and has worked excellently.

You will need to buy a bunch of clamps! :Thumbs:
kevin k said:
Thanks for the reply. I know that the way I did it wouldn't work for anything with a serious radius to it, but it was quick and easy, and it looks nice. I think it would be an easy upsell to most customers, and doesn't take a lot of extra time or material.

Whereabouts would you get the lumber resawn? I don't know if we've got anyone around here with that kind of equipment. Also, what is luan plywood?

Thanks for the tips Mike.


Anyone else have any input?
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