I’m considering building a concrete deck on the side of the house. Size is about 12′ wide by about 50′ long. The only problem is that I want the deck to be at floor level which is about 4′ feet above grade. I was thinking of building a block wall and then laying some steel deck panels from the house to the new block wall and then filling it with concrete. This way I can still access the space below the deck if need be in the future. Can anyone point me in the right direction for some info on doing this? I’ve been to the litedeck.com site and insul-deck but as far as I can tell fine home building hasn’t done any stories on this. I’m even having trouble finding the panels in any of my local supply stores???
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http://www.miracote.com/index.php?href=productdetail&id=9
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=91581.1
Do yourself a favor and hire a concrete contractor .He will excavate,pour footings,walls and reinforced concrete slab. No panels needed, he will form the walls and floor deck, strip them a week or so later after the pour. You would need lots of help anyhow even if you attempted this yourself. 12x50=600sf too much for rookies to finish.
mike
There are a couple major things to consider with this design.
First is the elevation section. A deck should be 4" to 6" below the finished floor interior of the house. Having it the same invites water inside and causes problems with snow and ice build up, a possible disaster if that egress is the only one available as the house is on fire.
Placing concrete up against the wood framed structure means you willll trap water there and have rot in the near future.
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You will need some type of support at the house and outside ends (block, precast panels or steel), steel joists to span the distance, corrougated metal for the pan, metal angle to act as a form around the perimeter, flashing at the house and concrete.
Alternately, the distance could be spanned with prestressed concrete panels. The top of the assembled panels would need a concrete topcoat for finish.
Either path involves engineering beyond the scope of the typical DIY project and work beyond the typical DIY project.
Either the bar joist suppler or the prestressed panel supplier should be capable of performing the engineering... whether or not they will release the drawings is another matter.
Your project is similar in scope to a commercial building.
Best of luck.