Building a Hardwood Screen for Lower Deck

The lower portion of the deck was pretty ugly and probably the last thing the owners previous worried about when completing the deck. The gaps between the posts were covered with some plywood that had certainly seen better days. With all of the work on the top deck I felt that I could adopt a similar approach. But rather than having gaps of around 1.6cm, I would make it much smaller to hide the views underneath the deck. Here is a shot of the deck before the plywood was removed. You can see that on the left hand gap was the piece of plywood housed in a frame that could be opened up. This is where the tap for the back yard was located and was a pain to get to each time I wanted to water the garden. So the decision was made to move the tape to the outside of the deck and then full enclose the bottom section that you see below. Access to underneath the deck can still be achieved from the right hand side of the deck.

After removing the plywood, it was just a matter of adding the 90mmx45mm supports. I started with the fixed posts but wasn't sure how I was going to put in the middle support.

This was easily solved by putting a bottom piece and using a number of hinges to hold it all together. I wasn't worried about the wood sagging because as soon as the hardwood was attached greater stability was going to be achieved. The sloping block made it a bit of a challenge but I'm glad I put in the bottom supports where I did as it provided me with greater options when I was attaching the hardwood timber.

Now I thought that the top deck with the 2 sections on the right hand side was going to be tricky getting it all lined up and level. It's not until you go to stick a piece of wood to it that you realise how uneven it is. It took me a while to figure out the best place to start, but I finally settled on the middle of the deck. This was the lowest part of the deck with the left and right hand sides sloping upwards ever so slightly. The three sections were put together on three separate days. As you can see from the screen shot below I was in full sunlight when I was completing the bottom of the middle section. It was too hot to complete in one go.

At this point I am onto the last panel and certainly on the home stretch. Thank god the end is in sight. 6 weeks after starting I can begin to get my life back.

Here is a shot of the completed deck.