Protect and decorate the deck beam
It’s too cold outside to play on skis, and our kitchen project is delayed due to a freight company snafu, so I am thinking through some of the details we’ll face when we begin our next full-house job after snowmelt.
The issues are those that involve the structure of the elevated deck on the walkout end. Three bark-on white cedar log posts support a beam of PT 2x12s that are tripled-up. The deck frame of PT 2x8s bears on top, and a small 16-inch cantilever projects out. It is all under roof, but the gable end is open, so it’s gonna get rain and snow, at least on its outboard part.
Here is what it looks like.
Not wanting an ugly butt joint showing at the center of the beam, I thought, “where can I get the 26-footer we’ll need for the face piece?” then thought, “why not do a deco joint instead?” and came up with this:
That solved, I am wondering whether the Vycor is worth it? Any comments?
And how about avoidance of all those nailheads. Plain ugly! What about sistering the whole thing with SS screws from the backside, laying out a nice geometric pattern. They won’t look too bad from the inside, being up in the shadows. Whaddya think?
Furthermore, out on the face side, the outboard one, of the 2×8 deck band, what to do about hiding fastening there? There is hardly anything structural happening at this condition, so I’m thinking of doing a careful job of “toe-screwing” from the back side, 4 SS screws per joint, length carefully selected so as to not poke through. Comments?
Replies
Hope your homebuilding is as skilled as your drawings. :-) What's the learning curve like on that drawing software you use? It's freeware, if I remember correctly?
Anyway....
IMO, once the wood starts drying out, that fancy joint will open up, so that regardless of how nicely you mate the 2 pieces, 1 or 2 years down the line it will look bad, and to make matters worse, I think the wood may shrink unevenly in a manner where it will look like the joint was not nicely done.
If it were me, and I really wanted the beam to look nice, I'd think about covering the beam with some kind of painted fascia like maybe Hardie Soffit. You would still have the butt joints to deal with though. OTOH, I know the look of that stuff you build and my idea may not fit in with that. Again, having an vague idea of the look of your region's architecture, how about some T&G cedar 1x4 or 1x6 applied to the beam face? Just throwing out ideas here...
Regardless of what you do, I'd stagger the 2x12 butt joints maybe 1 1/2" (min) between the different plys of the beam.