" Due to flat plain regulations the deck cannot be attached to the existing house. It has to be free floating almost like a giant 12 x 15 foot coffee table if you will, sitting on these little legs that are right onto the old concrete slab. This was after all a carport originally. Let's go to the other side of the area and see how where attaching this to the slab."

" Hi Al, Steve."

" Hi!"

" What you're using aren't really hose brackets----"

" Right."

" which are made out of galvanized metal"

" Uh huh, to keep your foot taking back [unk]."

" exactly and you can just fasten them right into the concrete with---- What are you using?"

" We're using a cut nail "

" A stub cut nail "

" A stub cut nail, and when you really hammer these into the cement to the old concrete they really expand the grip."

" Alright, with hose post bracket attached to the concrete, we're not ready to position our posts and they really are short stubby little legs for this deck, and Al, you've already got started over here with the---- with your joist hanger right."

" which are really the way to go when you're building a deck rather than you're nailing all the pieces together if you can hang one piece off of the other. Here we got a band joist and these metal joist hangers just to place the----"

" How far apart?"

" 16 on the center."

" 16 inches on the center."

" Alright, with the joist hangers all in place we really ready to assemble all the pieces, and we'll nail them afterwards right?"

" Right,"

" Okay. Now what we've got is in the middle here you called this a girth wouldn't you?"

" Right."

" And this is just doubled up and raised so that all of these long joists that are going all the way across the whole 15 feet."

" This will take the spring out of them."

" Get the spring out of the exact deck. And these are all pressure-treated joists, and of course, the important thing to keep in mind is that when you go to a lumber yard, you pick the best ones that you can and you make sure that they're nice and straight. All dimensional lumber has a little bit of a what we call a crown to it so that it's not perfectly straight, it might sag in one direction or the other, and when you put it in place, you wanna make sure that the fact faces down and the crown faces up. That way, when the load on the floor is adjusting it, it'll flatten out even, and these all go, well, they go 16 inches on center. Well, looks like you measured twice and you only cut once----"

" Right."

" because they all fit."

" Good fit."

" Alright, and then to bond it, and are we ready to nail? "

" Yup."

" It's ready to nail after we put this last one in here."

" It's only take it from the outside in."

" Here you go."

" Great."

" Good."

" Okay, now we're ready to start nailing. We're gonna be using 12-penny nails right through the edges like that and the joist hanger nails were also galvanized, 2 on each side of the joints hanger. And the interesting thing to do when you got a team of carpenters like these guys is to nail off against this joist because that way the whole deck won't be wobbling all over the place. Polish is looking good. You know, usually when you're building a deck you use a decking material and you space at about a quarter inch an 1/8 of inch apart so that rainwater can drift right through. But, we're not doing that, we're putting down a tongues in groove floor, which will mean that it'll be totally solid and bonded together, and the reason for that is that it's a screen porch and we're in Florida, and a lot of bugs could come in right through the cracks of your decking material if you did it otherwise. You might also ask why are we orienting the boards in this direction and that's so that all of these joints where the tongues meet the groove are going in the same direction as the pitch of the floor. We've got a 2-inch pitch from that wall to the outside edge, so the rainwater can run right off; it won't get that much rainwater in here unless it's a hurricane. Are you guys almost ready to take a close look at this? I think we need to call it."

" We're pretty close to call on that now. I see real bad one here."

" Yeah."

" If you take this one here [unk]."

" This is southern yellow pine, but you do tend to get problems like that. It's a very hard wood."

" Here you go."

" Yeah, here's the bad one."

" Right there."

" Here's the bad one."

" The tongue is damaged. So, we wanna get rid of that."

" And I think the rest looked pretty decent."

" Yeah."

" But as we go we can get [unk]."

" Yes, we go along we can find the rest of [unk]."

" It's got a little bit of a chip out of it."

" Okay."

" Alright, so let's get started."

" Okay."

" How do you get started?"

" Well, as you notice the tongue and groove, and we have to trim this edge off of this groove."

" Get rid of the groove."

" Right, so then we let this overhang 1/2 inch with a nice surface."

" So this, you can just rip off correct?"

" We have to rip that right off there."

" Okay."

" Right."

" Okay, now that has been ripped in plane, we're ready to put this one down right Steve?"

" Right."

" How much of an overhang would you leave?"

" We're gonna overhang about a half an inch."

" Alright, measure these both ends."

" And what kind of a nail that we use?"

" We're gonna use a 1 and 1/2 galvanized finished gun nail. "

" We have to face nailed it."

" Right."

" And it's nice to have a power nailer when you use in the southern yellow pine because it's the hard stuff."

" The rest of them, use a different kind of nail don't they?-Yeah, we're gonna use this gun nailer, destroying nail---- "

" Yeah."

" we rented."

" This is the same Kind of tool that's been around forever for putting down hardwood floors inside the house----"

" Right."

" and----"

" [unk] nice and tight."

" It puts in a cut nail right----"

" [unk]."

" over in here?"

" Yeah that's----"

" Here you go."

" It puts in a nail that has a flat profile and really will grip----"

" [unk]."

" and go right through the tongue."

" [unk]."

" Let's see how it works."

" Okay."

" Now the beauty of this tool is that as you hit it each time, not only you're driving the nails through, you're also making sure that the 2 boards get real close together as close as you can get the tongue into the groove. Ready for another one?"

" Yup."

" The same thing right over again."

" Looks good fellows. Now, what about all the butt ends over here that have to be trimmed?"

" Well, as you see this is the end of the deck where Steve got a line struck already."

" The blue chalk line."

" The blue chalk line. We got straight edge here, so when he puts the saw down, it makes a nice perfect straight cut."

" Great, let's watch him doing."

" Okay."