Alternate punny post title: Joist to the world. (Brief golf clap appreciated.)
Good news: my dad returned from my grandmother’s house in West Virginia, so we were finally able to double up the girders and bolt them to the posts. I started to explain my plan—“You hold the board in the air while I drill pilot holes…”—and he cut me off with a smarter, simpler idea: lay both girder boards on the ground, nail them together, and then set the assembly into the notched posts so nothing has to be held in the air. I’ll admit it—I picked him for a reason.
We clamped the two girder boards so their top edges lined up exactly (lumber varies, so two boards both labeled 2 x 10 can still be slightly different), then nailed them together to make a single, thicker support.
To refresh the plan for how this deck fits together, imagine the girders sitting on the notched posts with joists running across them and deck boards on top—this double-girder approach gives a sturdier base for the joists to rest on.
With the doubled girder in place on the notches, we moved on to bolting everything together. Our county requires two 1/2″ through bolts on these connections, which meant drilling 1/2″ pilot holes through roughly 4.5″ of stacked wood. My longest drill bit was barely long enough, so it was a bit of a challenge, but we got the holes drilled, hammered the bolts through, and tightened the nuts on the far side.
The whole bolting process was surprisingly straightforward and took about two hours despite the 95-degree heat. It felt fast compared to other parts of the job.
Where two girder assemblies meet on a post—on the long side of the deck—we joined the pieces with through bolts as well, creating a secure connection where multiple boards butt together.
Since the morning went smoothly, I convinced my dad to help measure, cut, and set the diagonal girder and its supporting posts. By noon we had reached most of our goals for the day.
That didn’t mean we stopped entirely—my dad had to leave for other things, but after a short break I returned to work with Sherry on indoor tasks and then went back outside to lay weed block and gravel under the deck. Many readers had recommended weed-preventative measures, and this was my last chance to access the full area before the joists went in and made movement harder.
I temporarily removed the diagonal girder (we hadn’t bolted it permanently yet) so I could spread weed barrier fabric across the whole footprint. Using leftover fabric from Clara’s rock box project plus an extra roll bought from Home Depot, I covered the area and secured it with ground staples. I’m skeptical about weed block—I’ve seen weeds grow on top of it—but it’s a recommended, low-cost method here for preparing ground under a deck, so I gave it a try.
Next came a layer of gravel to discourage weeds and pests and to prevent damp soil from forming under the deck. My original plan was to order bulk gravel from the same stone yard we used for our DIY patio, but I forgot to place the order and didn’t want to wait. Instead I drove a couple of carloads of bargain bagged gravel from Home Depot (on sale), which saved money but meant hauling and spreading 40 bags across the hot yard. It was sweaty work moving the bags from the driveway to the deck area, but the space filled in nicely.
Filling the base took 40 bags total. I expect I’ll need more when I build the stairs, but for the deck footprint this round the gravel was enough. I finished around 7:30 p.m., exhausted but energized by how much progress we’d made. The next step would be joists, and that was exciting because it would start to look like a real deck.
The following day I pushed through soreness and set the joists. The joists were about 7.5 feet long, so I cut a little off of standard 8-foot 2 x 8 boards. Each joist rests on top of the girders, so they don’t need extra vertical support, but they do need lateral stability. I installed metal joist hangers on the brick side of the house to match the hangers I’d already put on the siding side. These hangers require angled nails driven all the way through, and each hanger takes about ten nails. It would have been faster with a nail gun, and I wavered between buying and sticking it out—eventually I kept plugging away with a hammer.
As I installed each joist I checked level and slope to ensure drainage away from the house. That process revealed one board that was too warped to use. If any joist had been severely out of level, I would have used a planer or replaced it, but most went in fine. My daughter Clara called the emerging structure my “pretty pretty deck,” and she enjoyed watching me work, which made the effort worth it.
Toward the end I bolted the diagonal girder into place so the final joists had something to rest on. After about four hours the joists were all installed. I still need to add rim boards along the exposed edge, which will require precise angled cuts, so I left the end joists extra long until I can measure and cut the rim pieces accurately.
Before I packed up I stood on the new framing to test it—and it held up. I celebrated with a small happy jig. Next steps are rim boards and then the deck boards. The project has taken longer than expected—partly our fault, partly due to inspections, heat, and not having a large crew—but it’s moving forward. Soon we’ll be relaxing on the finished deck with lemonade, and the wait will feel worth it.
Psst—if you want the full backstory: we shared our vision for the space, removed plantings and the old balcony, selected materials, documented the first day of building, dug and revised post holes, handled the inspection hiccup, and set the posts. We’re all caught up.