Is it really necessary to move the electric meter? There may be a rule about the height of the meter from the nearest horizontal imposed by your utility however if it is just a question of the conduit then simply break your ledger board at the conduit and continue it past the conduit. You are likely using a to by ten with joist hangers anyway.
You could attach a 2 by 6 immediately above the basement wall to fur out the brick and then attach your 2 by 10 to or through that. With that additional thickness you may be able to bridge the electrical conduit and not even have to stagger a joist spacing. Rather than flushing out the pointing in the brick work why not cut a little out just above the ledger and insert flashing or just a drip cap to shed water away? Another possibility would be to insert a couple of thick washers between the ledger board and the masonry so as to maintain a bit of spacing from the bricks since some of the structure will be sitting on the shoulder of the basement concrete. There are many ways to achieve what you want without busting up the concrete. That is a long and dirty and miserable job. If ever the deck is no longer wanted, removing the deck it will leave an unsightly mess. As for your steps, they remain within the parameters of comfort. If I recall, the magic number is about 17, that is, the combined rise and run should be around 17 inches. If the tread is too small a foot doesn't stay on it well. Depending on the design it can be useful to make the tread out of a couple of pieces of lumber like 2 by 4 separated by spacers one at each end and one in the middle so as to leave a crack to speed drainage and thereby reduce slippery surfaces including ice, just a thought. Just now I am on vacation and having trouble sending from this wireless connection for some reason. I don't know when this and other messages will get out. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Rossi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 7:42 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] The deck. >I have been dragging my feet on the deck project but here is the latest. > > I called a 1-800 number to have my property marked for utilities. It is a > free service and all the utility companies inform you if there is a > conflict on where you want to dig. Well, they are idiots and marked the > utilities coming into the courtyard but not those actually on my property. > Doesn't make a difference though as my neighbor explained where all the > utilities are anyway. they all come up through the center of the > courtyard and then branch out to the left and right to connect up with the > front of the homes. Since I am building on the side of my house, none of > the utilities run under that part of the property. > > Yesterday we went down town and visited with the building inspectors > office. It went a lot smoother than I expected. I thought there would be > all kinds of questions about my design but the only comment, and it was > just a note on the plan, was that I used a 10 inch run and 7.5 inch rise > on my steps and he pointed out that 9.25 by 8.25 was typical. > > It did cost a lot more than I was expecting though. About 260 bucks. > Part of that is because I over estimated the cost of building the deck and > part of the registration fee is based on cost. had I known that, I would > have claimed to build the thing for 20 bucks. *GRIN* > > I had planned on digging the post holes by hand since I figured a power > auger would be too heavy to haul up the stairs. I checked out power > augers at Home Depot and the two-man jobby weighs about 80 pounds and the > 12 inch auger weighs another 50 pounds. That is doable for two people to > carry up the steps in two trips without killing ourselves. So I guess > I'll give the power auger a try. > > There are a couple of issues I have to deal with before hanging the ledger > board though. The electric meter is mounted right where I want to hang > the ledger, so I have to get an electrician to move the damn thing. > > I need to flush the mortar joints where the ledger board will go. Right > now the mortar between the bricks is inset and I would rather not have > cavities behind the ledger where water might collect. > > the big problem is that my foundation wall sticks out slightly from the > brickwork above it. In order for me to have a step down from the house to > the deck, I need to move the ledger board so that part of it is on the > brickwork and part of it is on the foundation wall. The foundation wall > is pretty lumpy and so my options appear to be: > > Make the deck level with the floor of the house. Problem there is snow > and water issues at the door. > > Build the deck free standing two inches away from the house and four > inches lower and then just run the deck boards right up to the brick. > Problem there is I would then have to set up another beam and footer set > right up against the house which is just a lot more work. Not to mention > that would be a deviation from the cities basic deck plan and I would have > to get an architect to sign off on the design which could cost some > serious cash. > > The last option, which is also a lot of work, is to borrow my neighbors > air chisel and level off the top four inches of the foundation wall to be > flush with the brickwork. Then the ledger would sit on that ledge as well > as be bolted to the house. > > The first or third are probably the way to go but I will have Teresa's > brother, who is a contractor, take a look at the situation and give me his > view. He is really against the making the deck level with the floor of > the house. > > My neighbor has an air chisel and has used it to do exactly what I need to > do. > > anyway, that's where it all stands at the moment. I have permission to > build so I just have to get started. > > Later. > > -- > Blue skies. > Dan Rossi > Carnegie Mellon University. > E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Tel: (412) 268-9081 > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From > Various List Members At The Following Address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.1/389 - Release Date: 14/07/2006 > > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following Address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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