Alastair Knows All the Angles

When you have two boards that meet to form a 90° angle, you can cut each one at 45° to make a miter. Likewise, if the boards form a 45° angle, you cut each at 22.5° and there's your miter. The circular saw has an angle guide that goes up to 45 and has 22.5 specially marked.

So, when the plans call for a 33° and a 21° angle on the "prow," and you're cutting the rim joists on either end, we just split the angle, right? I cut one at 16.5° and the other at 10.5° and I was horribly wrong.

I still don't quite get it. If the prow was 45° on both sides, wouldn't we miter at 22.5°? If not, when do you use 22.5? (Answer: When you're cutting baseboard facets around rounded-corner drywall.)

So, I went back to the drawing board. I simply drafted the 33° corner at large scale. The non-rim joists that hit the prow would be cut at 33°--that much was clear, at least. And that means setting the circular saw to 33°.

But the miter not so much. On my drawing, I confirmed that the angle of the two rim joists was 123° on the inside and 237° on the outside (which makes 360°). So, just split 123 and set the circular saw to 61.5°, right?

First of all, no, because the circular saw only goes to 45. I need a Spinal Tap circular saw. I drew the "perfect" miter on my large scale drawing and I could see that neither board required more than a 45° cut. So, we're looking at the right angle inverse of 61.5, which is 28.5°. Just to be clear: When you're mitering a 33° break like this, just cut both boards at 28.5° and you're good. What the hell?

Furthermore, while that might work, I drew the perfect miter--the line that bisects the intersection of two 1.5" boards at 33°--and the angles were not equal. It measured out at 33° for the straight rim joist and 24° for the angled prow rim joist. They add up to 57°, which is the right angle inverse of...wait for it...33°.

I unscrewed the rim joist and recut the end that had been 16.5° and made it 33°. Then I recut my first attempt at the prow rim joist because I had measured to the cantilevered joist, not the tip of the prow that wasn't there yet. But when I put it together, it worked. Yay for drawings at large scale. Not so much for my conceptual math skills.

Framing as of Monday evening

Sunday Night Status

Wow, another week slipped by. A couple of days lost to rain, paying taxes and working at my day job, and here we are.

I finished the stairs for the upper deck--black stain, joist protection tape and the treads. Mostly figuring out what the lower two treads do at the free end. Gave up on the sweeping curve idea.

We have backyard access once again.

Time to start on the lower deck. That means striking a level line at the house and setting the main girder, then setting two more girders at the exact same level and square with the ends of the first girder. Lots of chin stroking, but we got there.

Girder propped up so we can measure posts

I built the three girders first--they are made of pieces of 2x8, some reclaimed and some new. Once we cut the 4x4 supports to the right height--several had to be cut and trimmed three times--the ends get wood preservative.

The second girder is propped up, but now we have to check height relative to the first girder.

Status as of Sunday night. The cantilevered board is just laying there.

By Sunday night, all three girders are set parallel to each other and at the same height. They rest on 4x4s to piers that are resting on level, relatively undisturbed earth. Two rim joists have been installed and squared (good old Pythagoras) so that we know the secondary girder aligns with the first girder on the east.

The cantilevered joist in the photo above was used for checking level--it's not attached. It is where a similar joist will go, but that depends on the precise angle of the rim joist, which is meant to match the existing concrete steps. The two rim joists that are installed have miter cuts anticipating the two different angles of the "prow."

We musn't forget the third girder, at the top of the stairs

Joist and deck are just resting there, showing how the deck meets the threshold

Can't you just imagine the stairs?

Stair tread design

Help me, Peggy Dallas Architect. You're my only hope!--Paraphrasing Princess Leia.

The basic step configuration

48" wide treads all the way down. Gap under deck...hmm.

Flared design asks the question--how do we support the treads?

Saturday night status

Friday was a good day, deckwise. I more or less wrapped up the Fiberon on the upper deck. All that's left is using the table saw to rip down the board at the house. I'll need to do this for the stair treads, as well, so might as well wait and do it at once.

Missing a few surface-mount screws, but the hidden fasteners are easy.

Saturday, the Fourth of July, I started by cleaning up the jobsite. Sawdust and wood pieces everywhere, not to mention the plywood and other lumber leaning against the house. I did this for one outstanding reason: I was a little frightened of the stair stringer project.

Here's the deal: the existing concrete slopes away from the house in both dimensions. The bottom of the stringer slopes up, not level. The height of the bottom step is different on each of five stringers. I cut the first stringer and used it to layout all five against the deck framing, then to figure out how to cut for the two slopes. I went to install the Simpson connectors and learned that they need 8 specialty nails each into the deck framing. Simpson screws are okay, but they have stubby heads that would interfere with the stringer geometry. Road trip! A box of the special nails was just $5.

Five LSCZs, only the right-most installed flipped

LSCZs are the "good" kind of Simpson, just $2 apiece. But eight 10d nails each into the deck framing. Peace of mind for $10--I love adding the strength of cleverly-designed steel. Also, I used five, not four, stringers because I want these stairs to be heavy-duty. I expect I'll use the more-expensive screws into the side flaps--8 each there, as well.

Turns out I've practically forgotten how to nail. The ones on the ends were hardest.

I was finally ready to cut the other four stringers at 7:15 in the evening. I marked a 2x12 and made the first cut. The saw makes a huge racket, followed by the sound of wood falling on concrete. With that din echoing away, I could hear my neighbors--on four sides!--having outdoor parties. I could almost hear what they were saying. Well, I figured, if I don't cut tonight, I'll cut early Sunday morning, and they won't like that much, either. I made another cut. In the silence that followed, the parties resumed. I couldn't go on. It was time to clean up for the night. Happy Fourth, my non-social-distancing neighbors.

Just placed there--the bottom bends up to meet the wood.

The stringers need Copper Green wood preservative on the cut edges, followed by Valspar black stain.

2x12 x 12' (left) are not easy to carry. Once cut, paper doll-style, into stringers, they're much lighter.

Cable rail options

I'm not an expert, but I have watched a lot of YouTube videos.—This quote from yesterday's post still applies. I have seen a bunch of different ways to approach cable rail.

It's been exactly a month since I wrote about cable rail. Let's consider various aspects.

• What kind of cable and what spacing?
• Continuous cable or three panels?
• How to anchor one end of the cable, and
• How to tension the other end?
• Do I need specialized tools (cutter, crimper)?
• Do I need caps to cover the attachments?

Cable and spacing

Basic 1/8" stainless steel 1x19, 316 marine grade, high corrosion-resistant cable. One YouTuber installed galvanized steel and regretted it--it rusted out in a year. I live within a half-mile of the Puget Sound. Amazon sells Ingpro 7x7 (not 1x19) for around .23¢/foot and BestEquip 1x19 for .24¢/foot (if you buy 500').

Update: I've now seen a video all about the difference between 7x7 and 1x19. 7x7 isn't bad, but it's a bundle of bundles, so it looks more braided. It also reflects less light, unexpectedly, so it doesn't look as shiny. So, 7x7 okay, but 1x19 preferred.

The railing design calls for 8 cables at 3.5" spacing.

I'm pretty sure the cables will go through the two 2x4 center supports, but it's not clear that we have to drill the 4x4s. Muzata sells left and right threaded lag screws that I was sure I didn't want the first time I saw them in a video, but the idea is growing on me. They're just $2.75/pair. Continuous cable: 8 pairs ($22). Three panels: 24 pairs ($66).

Continuous cable or three panels?

We went with two 4x4 posts at the corners, thinking that we would use continuous cables, but we spaced the posts 4" apart so that we don't have to.

Mockup at Dunn Lumber

Wrapping a single cable around would, in theory, add strength to the railings. You could hit the west railing hard enough to make it fail, but the cable would hold it in place.

Using a single cable reduces the anchor and tension fittings needed to one per cable. We would need 4 grommets per cable to protect the 4x4s from wear.

Despite these two positives, I don't like the look--it's like a trussed up turkey ready for roasting.

Depending on the anchor and tension hardware, however, doing three panels might look cool, or it might look really ugly. If we use turnbuckles, for example, now we have three times as many to look at. No doubt, three panels means three anchors and three tensioners per cable.

Another point is that the handrail (and the subrail below it) are continuous. They aren't three panels, so why should the cable be?

Muzata, by the way, sells stainless steel grommets (protector sleeves) for .67¢ each (in packs of 80).

How to anchor one end of the cable

There are various ways to attach the fixed end of the cable, but most involve swaging (SWAY-jing). That's a new word to me, but it just means crimping metal to hold our cable. If we drill through the 4x4 at the anchor end, there is hardware available with which you feed the cable through, crimp it to the hardware, then pull it taut, leaving only the hardware visible on the non-cable side of the post.

Muzata CKE system. $5.75 per cable

The cheaper way to do it is a fitting that screws on the cable side of the post. The Muzata system at the right mounts with exposed stainless steel screws, but the design allows the cable to run at an angle, say in a stair railing. In this system, you jam the cable in at the anchor (top of the photo), then crimp it twice.

Muzata also sells a system of lag screws, one side threaded right and the other side threaded left. You add tension by rotating the cable.

How to tension the other end

Affordable Stair Parts has a system where the swage the anchor to the cable for you, more to come.

You can loop the cable end and crimp a connector on it.

Specialized tools

Crimper and cutter by Muzata: $106. Amazon sells a no-name version in a yellow box for $77.

Muzata has lots of stuff on Amazon.

Caps to cover the attachments

Text here.

It's a start

Wednesday was supposed to be very productive. It wasn't supposed to rain. I kept expecting it to stop, but it dripped on until 11am or so. Then I was added to an hour-long meeting at 2pm that bumped into my regular 3pm, which was followed by a 4pm with a guy in Sydney (it was 9am Thursday for him).

Trying to cut the "picture frame," I was reminded of a wrestler stalking his opponent--you need to know where to grab first and to anticipate how you expect the match to go. Strength isn't most of it, I gather. The hard part is visualizing how you'll get your arms around the problem.

I'm not an expert, but I have watched a lot of YouTube videos.—Seen on a t-shirt on a YouTube video.

The boards are slippery under power tools and you can't mark them with a pencil.

The frame overlaps the 2x structure, so the mitered corners meet in mid-air. Where the deck thrusts out at a 14° angle, the miter is 52°, not 45°. So, you just hold the tape measure at a point in mid-air, right? The bigger problem is notching for the 4x4 posts. I'm an amateur with the jigsaw.

Turns out its an orbital up-cut jigsaw, which means that the blade goes forward and back as it goes up and down and it cuts when the blade goes up, which tends to keep the tool on the wood. You can see my amateurish first cuts. I got better, first by watching a lot of YouTube videos and then by buying a longer, finer-toothed plastic blade. The general-purpose blade that came with the tool wasn't...wait for it...cutting it.

I sacrificed the board shown above and just used it as a template. I didn't get much done for the day, but tomorrow should be better.

Just two more frame boards (the longest two, with 3 notches each) to go.

It's been a week

The lumber and decking arrived a week ago. We'd be farther along if it hadn't rained so much, but we're just about ready to install the Fiberon.

Extra blocking; acrylic joist tape and black stain

The first Fiberon board. Note the Gray Screen paint.

Next step involves cutting the picture frame from solid edge boards. The board shown above needs a 45° miter, but the second edge board needs a 52° miter because of the 14° cant. The third, fourth, and fifth boards need to be cut around the railing posts. Then we'll be ready to install the regular deck boards inside the frame.

Wednesday morning...and its raining. The Weather app shows it stopping by 9am and no more rain for a week; I'll believe it only in hindsight.

Two unrelated things:

• The downspout is actually working, which is great. You can hear it dripping on the weed fabric. But that reminds me, we probably want to use an underground pipe to direct it away from the house, as I did on the other side of the breezeway. Digging for the pipe will mean uninstalling the weed fabric. Et cetera, et cetera.
• The sewage ejector plug was only half-connected, I noticed, and when I plugged it all the way in, a distant hum came from the ground! Until that moment, I had never caught the thing working.

The color will be fine (fingers crossed).