Steven Mann Family Project

February, 2005

Day 7:
A day off to swim!! One concerned neighbor commented that she thought it looked like the kids could fall off the deck. We assured her that railings were in the plans and would be erected soon. Since this ended my week of vacation, the remainder of the deck was assembled on nights and weekends.

Railings:
We cut 24 posts of identical length and bolted them onto the deck with 4 lag screws. Then, we assembled the top rail and the side rail all around the deck. We measured and marked the center of each section, then leveled and screwed in a precut spindle at the center mark. We then used a 2x4 as a spacer to place the next spindle. This was a big time saver. We simply placed the 2x4 butted the next spindle against it, screwed in the bottom, leveled the spindle and then screwed in the top. My wife and son even did some of the sections while I was at work.

Anchoring the Piers: Our city required us to anchor every outside pier to prevent shifting. We found the pictured anchors at our local home improvement center. They worked slick. There was a 24” cable that I would pound into the ground using a long iron rod. Then when it was all the way in, a sharp tug caused an anchor at the bottom of the cable to shift 90 degrees, thus setting the cable. I then attached the top of the cable to the 4x4 post.