The "outside view"

This is what all your neighbors will see of your new deck and the details here will have the most impact on the relationship between the new deck and the architecture of the home and landscape.

The "outside view" of your new dream deck breaks down into -

   Three parts:                      

        

1) Support posts,

2) Fascia/Rim,
3) Railings


I want to focus on 1) Support posts, and 2) Fascia/Rim.
 I will look at 3) railings next time.

Number one: support posts

 I have heard many complaints from homeowners about the support posts on their neighbors decks looking to small and that they looked like tooth picks in comparison to a wide deck. So here are few ideas to add some depth, design, and maintenance friendly options to your new deck.

Upgrade options to the standard 6x6 treated posts:

   

Probably the easiest method of covering the standard 6x6 support posts is to box out or fir out the 6x6 posts to a larger size and cap with them synthetic fascia. 2x4 blocking is installed to add width to the 6x6 posts so that a full 12" synthetic fascia can be used to cover all four sides of the posts.

Here is the "outside view" on this deck where the main support posts are covered and there is a triple stack fascia detail that we will get into later.

Another easy option to cover a support posts is by using pre-fab columns. In the picture: we used pre-fab composite or poly columns that mimic the look of stack stones.

The next picture is of a deck and pergola where we used pre-fab poly stone columns

along with round poly columns to cover to the treated 4x6 support posts. We built blocking boxes for the railing attachment. The stone and round columns are just basically covers to enhance the design.

Here is another picture of this project in progress - as we are building the pergola, even though it is not under the deck it still is the same principal where the 4x6 wood supporting post for the pergola run right through the columns.

The top of the line option is real masonry columns to cover the main support posts. We have lost all of our masonry brick and stone deck picture's when our last computer crashed.  These picture were borrowed from the Internet. With the brick and stone the options the only change will be larger footing sizes to support the brick or stone veneer.
  

2) Fascia details

This is one of our favorite details and one that really can add beauty and depth to your new deck. This fascia is what covers the joists and or the beams of a new deck.

Here in the "outside view" picture below you can see the deck building in progress. We are just about to finish the railings and move onto the fascia, you can see the little plywood blocks that are applied to the deck rim joists, and we are about add another rim joist below the upper rim joist that is at the joist level to support the triple stack.

In the picture below you can see the progress, the lower platform deck for the stairs is complete and the upper deck level has the bottom 12" fascia course applied only. We then rip a 12" down to 8" 1/2" and we use the 3" 1/2" rip for the top tier, so they just stack on top of each other which not only covers the joists but the beams also. 

Here is what the final detail looks like.



Here is some other deck projects where we have done triple stack fascia details.

Our standard fascia detail is a two tiered fascia that just covers the rim joist.

Notice how you can still see the beam, this a more budget option, or what you would use on decks that are closer to the ground level.

Here is a couple picture of fascia details on wood decks.

A cedar deck with triple stack fascia with solid skirting

Double stack cedar deck

Thank you for reading !

Michigan deck builders