Despite best intentions, your floorboards will never line up perfectly. While most people tend to begin the floor against the house and work outwards, Eakes suggests beginning on the outside perimeter of your deck and working towards your house. "You'll always have an ugly board, but if it's tucked against the house it gets hidden," he explains.
Building steps
Awkward or poorly built steps will make your deck the last place anyone wants to be. Eakes outlines a few step-building essentials:
• Avoid having slopes or surfaces that slip when they're wet.
• If you have more than two steps, you need a handrail.
• Ensure all your steps are equal! "Humans are creatures of habit," he says. "Our feet memorize how far each step is. If the bottom or top is different, you stumble!"
• If you build terraced steps, make sure they're at least one or more than two steps wide -- not 1.5 steps. "These look nice but they're so uncomfortable," he says.
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