How to Build a Porch Deck with a Screen Room

Do you want to build your own porch deck? Would you like to add a screen room to it? If you have some experience as a carpenter and have the right tools this can be a fun and very educational project. The reason for writing this blog is not because I am an expert. It is because I endeavored to do just this on my own and know that there is a lot of information on the various aspects of building the deck but nowhere can you find a comprehensive view of how to do this whole thing from start to finish. 

The scope of this article is  to explain what I did and   also include all my links for the various aspects of the process including piers and foundations, posts, beams, ledgers, joists, decking, rafters, roofing, fascia, soffit and every aspect of the building process. Also going to include the detail of the  planning including all the steps taken to draw up the plans and get them to the building inspector. 

I tried to add some distinctive features to the deck. It uses both pressure treated decking and composite decking so we will talk about both. It also adds some curved features to it to try to give it a signature feel. This added considerable challenges to the whole design and building process. Here is a rendition of the deck.

Screen Porch and Wood Deck Design

As with any successful project, design is an essential stage that often is overlooked by weekend warriors who just want to run to Home Depot and get right into the project. Depending on the project and its level of complexity this can work. The home that this deck is being added to is a second home that is situated an hour from my house and it is out in the country. A good 40 minutes from the closest Home Depot or Lowes. Not going to be a good idea to just hop in the car and get right into it.

It was important to make sure that we had a set of plans good enough to not only build from but to order from. So the first thing needed to do was to find a solid piece of software that was able to build what  I had imagined. Everyone's experience with this kind of software may vary.  As a result of having been in the construction business for 35 years and a paving and site contractor by trade, I have been around civil plans my whole life. We also use autocad like systems in our business to design parking lots and other exterior surfaces.  We own apartments and in my early years I was involved with rehabing them which is where my teeth were cut on all the other trades such as carpentry, electrical, plumbing, hvac etc. While my experience is diverse, do not consider me an expert in any of the trades outside my core business. Good enough to be dangerous only. 

A few other salient facts. I live in  Apex NC outside of Raleigh. This home  is in Yanceyville, NC which is just south of the Virginia border.

So, for me, Autocad was too expensive, Google Sketch up was not aware enough of what I was trying to build and the cheap $100-$200 construction software was only good for renderings  and could not produce an actual plan to build from. Chief Architect's top level residential version turned out to have everything needed to do the job. I do use Sketch-Up also and think it is a fantastic piece of software but when you want something that helps you build a house or remodel an existing, Chief Architect is the best software on the market. Chief Architect Home Designer Pro series costs $500. That is a lot  and if you are not going to use it again then it may not make monetary sense to you to purchase it for just this project. It is a great tool and along with Sketch Up you will be able to pretty much render in full 3 dimensional form just about anything you can imagine. Are there alternatives? Not really. I tried every other package available on this list and then more. As you can see that Home Designer has a suite version for $99. This link gives you some idea of the differences in the Home Designer packages. As you can see the only HD package that could produce printable layout sheets is HD Pro. That means this is the only version that could produce plans that could be submitted to the building department or produce field ready plans. I did also try Home Depot and Lowes online deck building tools. These are rudimentary at best. If you are going to just build a square deck and nothing else then these may be ok. 

It is not within the scope of this article to go through all the detail of the Chief Architect learning process. Suffice it to say that in about two days I had rendered the existing home using only one dimension that I knew and some pictures of the house that it was possible garner other information from. The software was purchased on December 8 and submitted this plan for initial review to the building department on December 16.

By December 26 the entire order list was put together and finished the final plans and submitted them to the building department for approval. 

Including details...

The point of all this is to show the level of visualization in the renderings..  When you see the finished product you will see that we stayed pretty true to the plans except for two things. When we got to the radius corner we made that radius as big as possible given where we set the  dropped beams for reasons that will be explained later. We also set the deck board on an angle rather than running 90 degrees to the house for better visual effect. I was all about adding touches that  we were capable of handling.

Planning and Procurement

The building permit took me about 2 weeks to get. Since Caswell County is a very rural county things did not happen in an instant but they were all nice and personal.

A good set of plans helps both in the planning and the procurement process. I ordered all the materials from Amazon, Home Depot and Lowes. Looking back we should have just did the whole thing through Home Depot's Pro Department. If you are doing a deck of this magnitude it is definitely worth it to set up a pro account. You can get your spreadsheet together and then email it to a human in the pro department and they will help you get your order together. I spent a lot of time trying to use their websites and other than Amazons website, these companies have a long way to go when it comes to online ordering.

Amazon, of course, is great for certain things but, in general, the HD Pro Department will save you a lot of time (and some discounts) . Especially when it comes to returns and changing things around.

Here is the link to my Google Sheet which has everything that was purchased broken out by phase.
Material LIst Spreadsheet

As you can see some time was spent trying to break out materials by phase. This really helped even if everything did not get sorted out that way when it was delivered. We missed on a few things here and there but that was more often than not because we made a few field changes. It is in the scope of this article to try and outline all that when we get to each phase.

At this point it is probably worth it to say something about the lumber. There has been a debate online over the years about big box lumber. My personal feeling is that they have sorted most of the issues out and the quality of their lumber is roughly the equivalent of lumber yards now. I could be wrong and my information is anecdotal. On the other hand I could not find any information that was not also anecdotal that proved otherwise. At the end of the day it is your call. Choose the lumber you are most comfortable with but remember if you short order you are going to have to chase it and Big Box hours are much more convenient for the weekend warrior than any lumber yard I have ever been to.

Tools

To build a deck, you need tools and if you are like me you love tools. This was my opportunity however to start building myself a wood shop out at my place in the country. In the Google sheet there is a listing of all the tools purchased over and above the ones that I already have.

Tools that I have that will make this job a lot easier. 

Cordless Impact drill: This is a must have tool. You will not understand it until you use it. There is a lot of hardware to attach on a deck and without an impact drill it would be a pain. I have been investing in the Makita line of cordless tools. However when I go to HD or Lowe's the other lines look just as good. Except for the Ryobi. Those tools just look very cheap to me. 

Hammer drill: When it comes to these drills I am not a fan of cordless. You want some power and torque in a drill when drilling through 6x6 posts to install carriage bolts. This drill and a good ship bit really makes a difference. Or for setting anchors in concrete, you need a good masonary bit with the hammer function of the drill.

Jigsaw: We used Jim's jigsaw through out this project. After seeing how much we used it I went out and bought my own. A good Dewalt for $129 on sale. There is also a good Skil one that is not as beefy as the Dewalt for $49. I was leaning toward the Skil but they were out of stock at the time and really the Dewalt is a pro tool just like the Bosch's.

Sawzall (Reciprocal Saw): You just need one. Get it. Cordless is fine. 

Circular Saw: The venerable tool will never be replaced. Mine is over 30 years old. In my opinion don't bother with the cordless. This tool needs some ass to really get what you need out of it.

Table Saw: We used my son in laws. He keeps it at my place out in the country. It is an older Porter Cable. Big 10" with a great fence. I still like it better than any I saw in the HD Tool corral. The fence is absolutely important. There should be no play in it whatsoever. The beefier it is the better. You need a table saw. If I was to get a table saw after doing this project I would want a 12" blade. The reason for that is because a 12" blade will rip a 2x4 on the 3.5" side. 

Compound Miter: You need this tool. So what is the best way to go on this one? We have a Ridgid 12" double bevel sliding compound mitre on a Ridgid stand. I love this tool. We could cut the 6x6 posts with it and up to 2x12 if necessary. The only saw that I have seen that is better in this price range is the Bosch Glide. Again this is just opinion. You can get away with a 10" compound miter without the slide feature and without the stand. You just won't love it as much. By the way the laser does not work on mine anymore. Didn't really care. It was nice to have the laser but it is in no way a show stopper. Once you get used to following a line and making sure you are always wearing safety glasses, you can cut just as exact without it. 

Dremel Multi Max: There are now a lot of versions of this tool out there. I don't know which is better or why one may be better than the others. It seems like Dremel replacement bits are a bit more expensive. This tool will do a lot of things such as cut, sand, and grind.  Some cuts near walls are just impossible without it.

Belt Sander: If you are doing radius stuff or any kinds of curves a belt sander makes short work of tough sanding jobs.

Now for the tools I had to get... (All these tools are listed on the Google Sheet document along with prices and where they came from).

Palm Nailer: This tool was a hit. Put it in your palm, hook up to compressor, put a nail in the head and just push nails into wood. 16 d no problem.

Grinder: I bought a Makita grinder set to add to my other tools. It has a cordless grinder and a cord grinder. Nice. Put cutting head on one and grinding head on the other. Cutting head will cut metal roofing no problem. You need a grinder for all sorts of stuff on a deck.

Framing nailer: Pretty obvious what this is for.

Finish Brad nailer: Probably gets used the most of all the nailers.

Air Stapler: You could get along without this. We used it to tack down tar paper. Not much else.

Planer: Again you could get away without this. We used it alot when building the curved rail.

Quick Grips: These are the handiest clamps I have ever bought. Home Depot has a deal of 2 12" grips and 2 6" Dewalt grips for $29. Irwin sells the same thing. They are almost the same I think. We needed a ton of these when we did the curved rail. You can never have too many clamps. I may after this project but the kids are already asking me for my extras.

Senco DS332-AC 3" Corded 2500 RPM Auto-feed Screwdriver by Senco: If you want to screw your deck down this is the way to do it. Works great and made a really tedious job easy. We put the deck boards down initially with the brad nailer and then screwed them in with this handy tool.

Cepco Tool BW-2 BoWrench Decking Tool: If you are going to put your deck in using pressure treated deck board then in my opinion you must have this tool.

Article Structure

Just a few notes about how the rest of this article is laid out. At the beginning of each section under the deck sections there is a finehomebuilding.com link. The folks at finehomebuilding put together a 7 part deck building video. Everyone that I know that has watched this video has loved it. The deck portion of this article is built around it because so much of what it covers is so well explained in the video. To make sense of what I am talking about in each of the sections you need to watch the video because what I say assumes that you have watched it.

In each section I also provide links to my google plus posts that provide pictures of that phase of construction.

If there is anything you want from me including the plans from Home Designer Pro let me know and I will get them to you.

Screen Porch and Wood Deck Layout:

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2015/01/06/ultimate-deck-build-2015

Layout is important especially for the piers that support your porch roof. Those piers have to directly centered underneath where the posts will be for the screen room. Thus the posts from the deck and the posts from the screen room must be vertically aligned. You cannot use drop beam construction with a cantilever when you have a porch roof going over a deck. Here is picture that shows the difference between a deck with a cantilever on the right and the screen porch where the posts support the beam at the rim joist.

Thus your layout for the screen porch posts must be very precise so the anchor bolt that holds the post base is pretty much dead on. These posts support the deck and the porch roof. As such those piers that hold up the deck and the screen room must be rated to handle the live and the dead load weights of the tributary areas that include both structures. You need to first look at your local code and determine what are the rates that are acceptable in your area. If you have a lot of snow then you may have to increase your dead load rate.


Here is my first email to the building inspector during the planning phase of the project.

The building inspector pretty much confirmed all my questions. With the live and dead load requirements confirmed, it was possible figure out the how big the foundations had to be in order to properly support the structure. How do you do that? Well you need to know how long the spans of your beams and joists should be because your pier will support the weight of the deck above it half way in every direction towards another pier or towards the ledger board. This is called the tributary area. So just how far can your spans be? Well that depends on the weight support that you are building to and the type of lumber that you are using. We were using 2x10 joists at 12' long and my beam spans (2@2x10) were about 6.5' long. Everything was done at 16" centers. How did we know that was good? A lot of research but at the end of it I managed to find an article that pulled it altogether that seems to be using all good information.

Better Deck Piers | Professional Deck Builder | Foundation, Codes and Standards, Design

Based on this article it could be  determined that our spans were good and thus calculated our tributary areas and determined that we needed 12" piers for deck only and 18" piers for porch and deck areas.

The scope of this article is not to go into detail about the articles that I link to. Those articles and/or videos stand on their own. If you want to design your own deck then you need to try and understand the concepts in these articles. I try not to throw information out there just to bulk things up. These are important concepts to master.

Foundations (Jan 25)

Foundation Pics

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2015/01/13/ultimate-deck-build-2015-pouring-accurate-concrete-piers

We augered the foundations with an auger attachment for a skidsteer. We used 3 pallets of concrete. Mixed the bags on site and just dropped it in the hole. We wanted the top exposed 6" so we cut pieces of pipe and used those as forms at the top to give it a finished look. The pipe we just had sitting around in the yard. We dropped the anchor bolts in the cement while the foundations were still curing. Everything turned out good when we set the post bases a few days later when we came back. 12" piers for the deck only part of the project were 12" as I said earlier. NC Code wants them at least one foot in the ground. We did 2 feet. Since these piers were going to support drop beams we did not have to be so exact when placing them. Remember that when you are using drop beams your joists will cantilever over the beams. Local codes usually don't want you to go anymore than 2'. If you are using 2x10 you can get away with over 1' more but check your codes. We tried to respect the 2' limit because we did not think the inspector would be that aware of the code to know this and didn't want to have to pull out the charts when we were building. So my advice is just stick to 2' or less on your cantilever and nobody will ever question you.

Ledger Board (Jan 25)

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2015/01/06/ultimate-deck-build-2015-fastening-a-ledger-to-concrete

The ledger board in my opinion requires special attention. Remember the ledger board has to be rated to hold the full load of your deck. How do you figure that out. As you can see from the pictures the ledger board has tar paper and then z flashing at the top to make sure water does not get behind it. It also has screws. Screws on a ledger board are usually a no no but these screws are not just any screws. They are screws especially intended for ledger boards. They are called LedgerLok.

Here is a link to help you figure out how many to place and what pattern. LedgerLok.

When you fasten your board with these properly, I can't imagine how that board would ever come off. Also it is worth noting that as an added safety measure the deck should also be secured to the house in at least 2 places using Simpson Strong-Tie ZMAX 14-Gauge Galvanized 2x Deck Tension Tie (2-Pack) with SDS Screws Model # DTT2Z-R2 or a dtt1z. When you screw the LedgerLoks and the Tension ties in you will instantly know why you bought an impact drill. I fastened the ledger board to the house using the Framing Nailer and then went back and added the LedgerLoks.

Here is some additional info.
Decks.com. Flashing the Ledger Board


Posts (Wed Feb 1)


Post Pics

If I had not researched this deck thoroughly and just used my good old know how and common sense I would have probably poured the pier with the post right in the ground like a fence footing. These days we have the advantage of research. Companies like Simpson Strong Tie have taken advantage of that information to create products that have changed the landscape when it comes to strength in structural engineering. One of those products are post bases. We form the pier now and add an anchor bolt. Onto the anchor bolt we attach a post base. The post base holds the post in place, secures it to the ground but keeps it off the cement where moisture could weep in. The post bases also allow for some adjustment to help in layout. I would never build a deck without them.

Simpson Strong Tie is a great company. They make great effort to communicate what their products do and how to use them. There are a lot of resources on the internet to help to understand them better. Here is some information to help you along.
Simpson Strong Tie Deck Connectors - YouTube
Simpson Strong tie Deck Hardware
Connectors Approved for Use with the Strong-Drive® SD Connector screw | Simpson Strong-Tie
https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/ssttoolbox/ehdzus1yed/DIY-DECKPATIO16.pdf

Nothing against Lowes. In fact we bought all the wood for this project from Lowes. But SST is exclusive to Home Depot and I find the Lowes equivalent (USP connectors) lacking in terms of communicating the intent of the product and how to use it. Save yourself a lot of time and just use the SST products from Home Depot even if you buy everything else from Lowes.

Posts went up and Beams went on. Note from the pictures how we mounted the beams to the post. We could have used post caps. I even purchased them expecting to use them. However in the end we opted to inset the beams on the posts and carriage bolt the beams to the post. Mainly because we felt that this had a strong finished look to it.

Beams and Joists (Wed/Thurs Feb 1-2)

Beam and Joist Pics

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/video/ultimate-deck-build/building-and-leveling-a-beam.aspx


http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2015/01/28/ultimate-deck-build-2015-framing-the-deck

Since there are three separate sections to this deck we built the beams and joists separately for each section and then decked the section. Well that was the plan at least.  I had determined that we needed 16" centers on the joists. Well that is true. 16" centers is strong enough to hold up the deck but not necessarily close enough to support the deck boards. If you are using regular pressure treated deck planks from either HD or Lowes and you are going 90 degrees across the joist then fine. But if you are using composite lumber as we were for the outside deck boards, and you are trying to go on a diagonal, then 16" centers is not good. Some recommend 12" centers. I ended up taking the composite  deck board off that we had placed and put 2x6 between the 2x10's to make 8" centers to support the composite board. In my opinion this was just enough and 12" centers would not have worked on a diagonal. We set all the  joists with SST joist hangers on the ledger board and on regular beams and where they crossed dropped beams we attached them to the beams with Hurricane ties. Refer to the brochure for details. Don't forget to get concealed joist hangers for any places where the joists are going to be at an edge and exposed. Lots to attach. We had a lot of Simpson Strong Tie Structural Connectors on hand. You need #9 and #10 in both 1.5 and 2.5 inch size. They go in like a knife into butter with an impact drill. Sometimes however you can't get the drill in and that is when you can fill the holes with 16d and 8d nails with a palm nailer. 

Simpson Strong tie Deck Hardware

Of course anywhere we were doing the curved edges we had to do some unusual framing to ensure that the composite boards would be supported and that the joist were cut to receive a curved rim joist.

Railing Posts (Fri/Tues Feb 3/7)

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/video/ultimate-deck-build-installing-railing-posts-for-cable-rails.aspx

Railing Post Pics

Typically a rail post is secured to a rim joist with 2 carriage bolts and in general that is what we did. We also added the SST tension ties as shown in the Finehomebuilding video above. Where we couldn't get carriage bolts in we used 5" ledger loks and tried to block around the post as much as possible. This only occurred once along the curved radius edge as you can see in the picture below. 

Another feature of this deck is that the rails are inside the rim joist rather than outside. It is said that this adds strength to the post. Many people don't do this because is takes a little more effort to cut the deck board around the posts. Well yes that is true especially when you are on a diagonal. I think the drawback that people miss though is that over time the rails on the outside of the rim joist are a bit of a maintenance headache. I spent alot of time thinking about the posts and the rails because I saw how shabby they started to look on older decks. I wanted to address those issues so I went the extra mile to put the posts on the inside and using the Deckorator balusters along with the rail holders. They not only add a distinctive pop, they will just look better for longer. 

Decking  (Thurs/Fri/Tues/Wed Feb 2-3/7-8)

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/video/ultimate-deck-build-installing-cumaru-hardwood-decking.aspx

Decking Pics

Everyone is going to deck a little different. We did a bunch of different things. The deck that is under the roof is pressure treated deck board. We did that running parallel with the house and no gapping between joints as I have read that pressure treated shrinks as it dries out and forms its own gaps. Hope that is true. This is where the BoWrench was a necessary and this video explains why. BoWrench Video . Typically we just BoWrenched the crown out of the board then put a few brad nails in to hold the deck board in place and then came back with the Senco AutoFeed screwdriver and put the screws in. This is not the exact same screw gun that I used but it is basically the same idea. Senco Screw Gun Video

It was mentioned earlier in this article about the composite deck going in diagonal on 16" centers. That did not work at all. Way too much flex. Would 12" have worked? I don't know because we went straight to 8" centers on the joists after we took off the deck that we had already laid down. I should say that we still felt a little flex on the 8" centers though. Another thing about composite that should be mentioned is that you have to space composite. We spaced with 16d nails and this seemed to work and looked ok. We would have rather used 8d nails for spacing but I kept reading articles of how much expansion and contraction composite goes through. Also you must not only space between boards on the longs side but also space on the short side as well. In other words between boards longitudinally. 

If you are using pine or composite you do not have to pre drill for screws as the finehomebuilding video shows. Generally you have to do that when you use the exotic hardwoods like they were using in the video. If you are using cedar this may be true also. The cedar that we have in our area would not require predrilling. Your probably just going to have to experiment with your wood in order to find out what works best. 

Curved Rim Joist (Tues Feb 7)

Curved Rim Joist Pics

The curved rim joist was done with Plytanium from Lowes. This was 15/32. Bent perfectly. We screwed and glued. 3 layers. It ended up being just about 1.5". Also note from the pictures that we oversized these boards to begin with. We cut them 12" wide and then we cut to the 9.5" with the circular saw and cleaned it up with the belt sander. 

Curved Deck Edge (Wed Feb 8)

Curved Deck Edge Pics

Probably could have done this a number of ways. We could have cut the curved piece from a composite deck plank with a jigsaw but that would have required sanding and we didn't feel that composite does well with sanding. So instead we stuck 2' pieces in the oven and heated them until they were soft and then molded them into place.

This worked ok. If we did it again wecould make it come out better. They stuck to the pan a little and when I was pulling them off they got thumb marks on them. It is better to use a spatula to detach them from the pan. Then when bending them in place try and use some boards to spread out the impact of your fingers pressing on the soft hot board. There are no Youtube videos of anyone using an oven. I did 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Did 4 2' pieces at a time. 

Screen Room 

There are hundreds of articles and Youtube videos on building a deck. On the other hand, there are no comprehensive articles on building a deck with a screen room. This is the reason that  this article was written. Weeks were spent  researching this along with learning the Chief Architect HD Pro software. I am blessed to  own a business and thus am the author of how I choose to use my time. This article is taking a lot of my time but it was clear to me the obligation to put this puzzle together for others in order to repay my debt to all the wonderful people who put together the videos that are referenced in this article.  I really enjoy Youtube and I enjoy watching people who get joy out of producing their own videos to demonstrate something that they learned and want to share. My hat is off to all of them. 

Here is the only article I could really find on the subject of building a screen room that I felt gave some idea of what to do./div>

http://www.decks.com/how-to/511/building-a-shed-roof-over-a-deck

The article only really covers the building of a roof. There is a lot missing that I would like to cover in this article such as how to turn this into a room and how to screen it in. 

Lucky for me, Jim, my employee who was helping me had a deck and screen room built off of the back of his house. Jim is the type that watched every single aspect of what his contractor did. For every detail that I was trying to address that seemed to be hidden away in these articles I was able to look at Jim's deck and consult with him. Just so you know, Jim and I are two old school guys. We have worked together since 1993. He worked for me in Buffalo until 2003. In 2003 my company bought the business down here and I transplanted. When I came down Jim came down. We attend the same church together. We both know the price of sweat equity. Not that any of this matters for this article but maybe it helps you to fill in a few more of the blanks. Here are pictures of Jim's deck and screen room. 

Jim's Deck Pics

Instead of a shed roof, Jim's porch had a gable roof. Clearly that made a nice difference to how open it feels inside the screen room. 

Adding a gable vs a shed roof is not so much a matter of preference. It is more a decision based on the circumstances. Configuration comes into play and what you are building to also is a consideration. In my case a shed roof was my only option. Jim says that his rafters are 2x4. I used 2x6. My spans were longer than his. 

Screen Room Posts, Beams, Headers,  Rafter and Roof Deck (Wed - Thurs, Feb 8-9)

Screen Room Pics

As you can see from the photos associated with this phase all the work for the basic framing of the screen room was done over a 2 day period. I think if we were doing a gable like Jim's we would have had to figure another day. The posts were set so that the beams were directly on top of the beams that supported the deck and that the part of the post holding the beam was directly on top of the part of the post that was holding the beam for the deck. The part of the post that the beam was being attached to was placed facing into the screen room. This was done to achieve a nice finished effect on the inside. If these posts were faced outward like the lower posts they would have been hidden by the fascia and soffit.

The beams were easy. Remember the beams going back to the house are merely header beams. They are not support beams. All the weight of the roof is supported by the ledger and the beams at the front of the deck. So put your two posts for your doors anywhere you want. We put in a 36" door and set the posts 36.5" apart. It worked out well. Since our post was 8' high and our headers were 2 @2x10 we simply cut a 6x6 post for the header above the door and that fit in very nicely. 

The rafters were placed 16" on center. We used ZMAX Galvanized Light Rafter Slopeable U Hanger LRU26Z to attach the rafters to the ledger and Hurricane ties to attach the rafter to the beam. We did a 1' overhang on 3 sides. The only trick here is cutting the rafters. This video explains everything.
Cutting Common Rafters - YouTube

Here is a good calculator to calculate your own.
Rafter Calculator

Even with all this we didn't quite hit the birds mouth in the exact location.Not sure why. We were working with a 2:12 pitch so it didn't matter much. If I ever build a gable style roof I am going to make sure to get it right next time. It did however make our plumb cuts perfectly and they lined up to place a 1x8 fascia on them which we then also covered with the vinyl fascia. 
To create the overhangs on the two sides just block your 2x6 90 degrees to the rafter run on 16" centers and then attach your 1x8. Secure your blocking to the rafter from both sides. You can sort of see this in the pic below. This worked out well and once everything was put together including the roof and the roof decking, it was all very tight with no flex.

We decked the roof with 7/16 CAT PS2-10 OSB Sheathing. This ended up having a little flex to it. It is a roof deck and not a porch deck. Tacked the deck down with the framing nailer and then stapled down the tar paper. Don't forget to turn down the pressure on the regulator of your compressor or the staples will go right through the tar paper. We cut the pressure in about half.  Once the metal roof went on there was very little flex.

Metal Roof, Fascia and Soffit (Fri Feb 10)

Metal Roof, Fascia and Soffit Pics

We got to friday and I was itching to get the labor intensive part of the project done. For most of this week I have 3 people helping me. My goal this friday was to finish all the rail except the curved rail, get the vinyl soffit and fascia up, and get the roof on. This was going to be a challenge since the metal roof was not going to be ready until noon and I had to go all the way to Martinsville, Va to get it which was 45 minutes away. On top of that we kept having trouble with setting the f channel for the soffit so that it matched up level with the j channel on the vinyl fascia. I was also dealing with questions from my guys why I went with the vinyl instead of enclosing it with wood. The reason I did it was because of how this looked on Jimmy's porch after approximately 8 years. I did not think it necessarily looked bad, I just felt that this was another maintenance issue and I wanted to eliminate as many as possible. Anyways we got through it. Just make sure that you put a level across the bottom of the j channel to the bottom of the fascia and make sure they are level. Also make sure you have painted white 2" screws to screw the soffit into the j channel of the fascia to hold everything together. We had to run for these.


To make a long story short, I managed to run to Martinsville and when I got back it was about 2:30. The roof was on by 6pm. It went just about perfect. We had 4 different kinds of pieces to deal with. Decking. Flashing that went on over the decking and beneath the siding. Drip edge. Gable End Piece. They provided us with enough painted screws to do the job. They cut the decking to length. They gave us a little sheet to show the proper screwing pattern and how to lay the roof. This was an awesome video and will help you to understand metal roofing.

How To Measure And Install Multi Rib Metal Roofing Part 1 - YouTube

It is easy. Highly recommended and it looks awesome. Next year it will be put on the whole house. We bought a cutting blade for the circular saw to cut this but the best way to cut it is with a cutting blade on a grinder.

Railing (Thurs - Fri Feb 9-10)

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/video/ultimate-deck-build-cutting-and-installing-stair-stringers.aspx

Railing Pics

We had basically one guy on this and and he spent about a day doing it over a two day period. The following video is essentially what I did.  I can't really add much to it. 

Build a Decorative Deck Handrail - YouTube

Bead Board Interior Ceiling (Fri Feb 10) Not Complete

Interior Ceiling Pics

We did not use bead board. It is actually called Premium Tongue and Groove Pattern Whitewood Board.

Bead board looks like this.

Tongue and groove looks like this.

This took two people because you have to get the BoWrench on it to take the crown out of the board. Looks very good when it is up. Remember to get your electrical where you want it to go before you start putting it up.

Screen Tight System (Mon/Fri Feb 13/17)

Screen Tight System Pics

This was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be. After figuring out a few tricks it started going in very easily. Watch this video. It will save you a lot of headaches. 

How to install Screen Tight Porch Screening System - YouTube

The only things that I can add to the video is: 

We did not have to use the sand bags. 

You definitely want to tap the bead in with a hammer first and then follow up with the screen roller. 

It is not necessary to have the screen too tight with the wood strips as it will make the bead impossible to set. 

When you are putting on the caps place a chair leg felt pad like these

Felt Pads on Amazon on the tip of your hammer and knock it home.

We painted ours black just like the video. Do 2 coats and remember to sand before coats. I did satin and it looks nice. 

Curved Railing (Tues/Thurs Feb 14/16)

Curved Railing Pics

This is one of the main features of the deck and took us the most time and effort. We should have started these earlier in the project and build one a day and then we would not have had to buy so many clamps. Oh well you can never have too many clamps and as a father of 5 children and soon to be 5 grandchildren they make good gifts. These trigger clamps simply make the job. For a start to understand what we did you must watch this video. 

How to Make a Curved Railing (No Steam Required) - YouTube

The top rail we jigsawed a 2x12x8  and were able to produce the rail no problem. On the two vertical 2x4 sections of the rail we ripped 1/4" strips and glued and screwed them to the jig as you can see here. In the video he did 1/2" strips. I tried that and it had way to much spring back for my purposes. 1/4" worked much better and is not that much more work. Make sure you have 1" or less drywall nails. 

We took a lot of pictures of the process as we were installing them. Make sure you review them in the link underneath the heading of this section.  As you can see we did not remove the jig before we placed mounted them on the posts. The reason for this is that we were worried that they would kickout too much and we wouldn't be able to get them on. Turns out that we did not have that much spring back. Anyways when you get to that point you can decide for yourself. This is worth doing if you can afford the time. The results are amazing and really help to make the deck a signature piece. 

6x6 Retaining Wall (Thurs Feb 16)

Retaining Wall Pics

We had to add a retaining wall so we used our leftover 2x6. Here are some pics to show how we did it and how we added dead men to keep it in place. It is nice and sturdy. 

Screen Doors (Thurs Feb 16)

Sorry, didn't get many pictures of the screen doors but here is a good video of how to install it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k3fdOv74tg

There are two doors on this deck. Pretty straight forward. Make sure you have lots of shims to shim it exactly into place and then mount the hinges. I wanted it to squeak and slam just like a real screen door from Lassie. And it did!

Trim, Replace Siding, Landscaping (Friday Feb 17)

Final Pics

Just a lot of clean up to end the project. Hope this helps someone and let me know if I can be any help. Here are some pics of the final product. Still have little stuff to do and will update this article as we complete these items.

Paul