How to Start a Wood Deck

Preparation

• 1

  Locate and mark the height and width for a ledger board on your house, using a measuring tape and pencil.

• 2

  Draw a complete outline for the ledger board with the pencil, connecting the pencil marks on the wall. Make sure that the outline is level, using a standard level.

• 3

  Construct four batter boards by securing a short wood board across two longer vertical boards, using a power drill and drill bit. Choose boards that are long enough to extend 8 inches below ground and up to the bottom edge of your ledger. Space the vertical boards 2 feet apart and align the cross-pieces with their top edges.

Construction

• 4

  Measure in from the side edges of the ledger outline, and make pencil marks on the wall to serve as a reference for the center of each corner post. Tap a nail into the wall at these positions along the bottom edge of the ledger outline.

• 5

  Hold the end of a measuring tape against the wall, aligned with the outside edge of the ledger outline. Square the tape with the house, using a carpenter's square, and extend it out 2 feet beyond the corner post position. Place the uprights of a batter board on either side of the measuring tape at this position and pound them into the ground with a hammer. Position the cross-pieces at the same level as the bottom edge of the ledger outline. Repeat this step for the opposite side of the layout.

• 6

  Attach mason's string to the nail on the house and pull it taut as you run the line to the top of the batter board cross-piece. Repeat for the opposite side.

• 7

  Use an assistant to square the string with the house, using the "3-4-5" triangulation method. Mark the string 4 feet away from the house with masking tape. Make a pencil mark 3 feet away from the string, along the bottom ledger line on the house. Establish a 5-foot distance between the tape and pencil mark with the measuring tape by moving the string back and forth along the cross-piece. Repeat for the opposite side.

• 8

  Insert a wood screw into each cross-piece where the string crosses it, using a power drill and bit. Tie the string around the screw, keeping it taut.

• 9

  Attach a line level to the string and level it by lowering and raising the batter board to make adjustments. Repeat for the opposite layout line.

• 10

  Measure along each layout string, and place masking tape where the center of each corner post will be located.

• 11

  Install a batter board 2 feet across from the masking tape on the outside of each layout line.

• 12

  Run mason's string taut between the two new batter boards, crossing over the masking tape on each existing layout line. Insert screws into the cross-pieces and secure the string around each one.

• 13

  Make sure your layout is square by measuring diagonally between the outside edges of the ledger outline to the points where the string lines intersect, using the measuring tape. Your layout is square when the diagonal measurements are equal.