For this blog, I decided to turn it over to Dave to give an update on the recent expansion of our deck. So here goes...
Since moving into our home a year and half ago, one of our favorite and most used spaces has been our covered deck. However, at 12 x 14 feet, the covered deck always seemed too small when we had family, friends and neighbors over. So we decided to do a little addition that would be uncovered, but give us a little extra room.
We started by taking measurements, and decided to extend the deck by 8 feet out into our backyard, for a total area of 14 1/2 x 20 feet. We then reviewed the City Codes and submitted a building permit to the City of Ankeny for the low cost of $36. The City provides a good guide detailing minimum standards and I bounced a couple of ideas off of our Johnston Building Inspectors to make sure I would meet all of the Code requirements.
Less than a week after submitting the permit, we were given the green light to proceed. After pricing materials, we used Leachman Lumber to order the materials as they deliver, which was valuable as we had a lot of 16 foot long lumber, and they were also less expensive than Menards. The delivery driver was even kind enough to gently drop off the materials in our backyard, significantly reducing the distance we had to haul all of the lumber. We also requested Iowa One Call to verify we didn't have any buried utilities in the area we were digging, they responded in less than 24 hours from submitting our request.
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| The lumber was delivered to the back yard. The spray paint/flags indicate that we didn't have to worry about any underground utilities. |
