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I’m designing a home with a second floor deck over a garage. Homeowner wants to build a 24’x16′ great room over their 24’x24′ garage with a covered deck on the last 8 feet. The deck will be open on the sides. What roofing material would you recommend placing over this area. I’m planning on dropping the floor joists down one size and sloping them forward slightly to help drainage and then place some wood decking on top of the flat roof. Good or bad idea?
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Skip the wood decking & install Duradek. It looks similar to a vinyl floor but is code approved over finished living space. It has to be installed by a trained dealer. There is a link to an article in JLC at the web site. http://WWW.Duradek.com They can also help you find a dealer in your area.
*Paul,I don't particularly like the deck-over-interior design, but here's a new construction project which I am building right now, and how *I'm* doing it (so, caveat emptor and all that !)Interior floor joists run paralell to the wall outside of which is going to be the deck. We used TJI Pro350's 16" deep, at 12" centers. Span 24', just like yours.Last joist was doubled TJI's, blocking in between (sandwiched) where the deck joists are to be hung.2 x 12's hung in joist hangers perpendicular to the TJIs, nailed to blocks on the face (in the web) of the TJI. (and these blocks nailed through into the "sandwich" blocking w/ 5 10d commons each one). The other end of course sits on your wall plate (doubler) of the garage below. You want all your bottom edges (interior floor AND deck joisting) to line up on the same plane 'cause that's your ceiling. Rip the top edge of your 2 x 12's 1/4" per foot - in your case from 11-1/2 on the one end down to 9-1/2 on the other - in a nice, even slope. Block between joists - yadda yadda yadda standard stuff standard stuff.Over deck joists we used 5/8" CDX rated sheathing. 6x3 metal flashing at all inside corners. Dex-o-Tex 5 or 6 step coating.That's where we're at today. Next comes 2x4 Trex sleepers at 16" w/ Trex decking laid over that. I'm not real crazy about that detail - I know I'm certainly not going to fasten the sleepers by penetrating the deck! I'll toe it in against the wall, and at the outside edge I've extended a short deck beyond the lower wall on 2x12 joists to posts on footings and I'll run the sleepers beyond outside wall, onto this extended deck framing - and attach other end of sleepers there.The Roof: What I did was stand 10x10 posts on the 5/8 deck ply (I had added an extra joist below each location already for support and fastening). 10x10 beams, steel beam saddles atop each post, tie it back to the 2x4 framed wall and span the outer edge. Framed a hip roof out over that beam, using it like a wall plate, and that covers the deck with the same roof as the rest of the place.Whew! Hope that made *some* sense.Geo.
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Mr. Sheldon:
Wood decking will rot much faster than you might imagine in that application...even the "naturally decay and insect resistant" stuff. Try Choicedeck, Trex, how 'bout lightweight concrete? I just saw a sample of the Duradek product the other day. It's different...and expensive, and it's 100% maintenance free.
The Machine
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I'm designing a home with a second floor deck over a garage. Homeowner wants to build a 24'x16' great room over their 24'x24' garage with a covered deck on the last 8 feet. The deck will be open on the sides. What roofing material would you recommend placing over this area. I'm planning on dropping the floor joists down one size and sloping them forward slightly to help drainage and then place some wood decking on top of the flat roof. Good or bad idea?