Low cost Under Decking Ceiling System
I've got a nice 14' x 36' deck above my walkout basement sliding door. I've always wanted to turn my deck into a nice roof and thereby turn the area below the deck into a great porch to sit out on during a thunderstorm and still keep dry. This "How To" will describe a low cost under deck ceiling system that's easy to install and helps solve wasp problems as well! The design of this ceiling system under deck should help prevent wasps ( paper wasps ), nesting just under your deck surface. This under deck roof is very modular so removing small sections for deck maintenance is easy. In most cases if you drop something through the slots on your deck it will tumble through this under deck ceiling system but, if not, at least this low cost design will give you easy access. A rough estimate of cost is 0.43 cents per square foot, about $217 to do my deck. Continued below ...
12/5/2005 I do have a completely revised design installed in a 12 x 16 area under my deck. I'm checking how well it does in winter conditions and so far it's excellent! I've got a really unique and flexible suspension design, the plans are coming soon. (Sorry I guess I've said that before, but now I'm really close with a design I'm pleased with!)
5/25/2004 Well I have two of 8 panels in place. Please see the photo below. I'm just doing a 16' x 14' area for now. I've made several mistakes and learned a lot, mainly about the quirks of the materials involved. The work pace is accelerating. I've received a lot of mail about this topic, and many more site visits; Thanks! Again sorry for the delays, there's just a lot of things going on. I had one panel up for several days with no rain, you should have heard all the junk that feel down when I took it down.
Read on about an excellent material suggestion, certainly a great choice I overlooked considering;
From John Sevinsky: "Hmm, interesting. I was thinking of using 12" wide solid vinyl soffit. (Not the vented type, obviously.) I have a 12' x 20' deck, and soffit conveniently comes
in 12' sections. First, I would rip some 2x4s into pieces of varying thickness. I would attach them to the underside of the deck running perpendicular to the joists (parallel to the house). The thinnest one would be closest to the house, and the thickest one would be furthest away. They would be
spaced about 2' apart. This is to create a slope away from the house. The soffit pieces would be installed parallel to the joists (perpendicular to the house). The soffit would collect the rain and drain it into a gutter on the low end, away from the house. I figure it might cost between $200 - $300
for my 12'x20' deck. I'm hoping that when things fall through the deck, I should be able to pry the soffit pieces apart to clean out the area above it."
"As for my soffit idea, it is possible to pry the pieces apart and let them "flop down" for cleaning and access to the space above them. I was thinking of attaching them with screws instead of nails to allow them to be completely removed if necessary."
You typically would use solid vinyl soffit for a porch ceiling and vented soffit for the eves of your home so both should be readily available. 12" wide by 12' could be inconvenient but its not that big of a deal, depends upon your goals. Don't forget the the Vinyl Siding institute: http://www.vinylsiding.org/, they have an excellent PDF document providing many details about vinyl siding installation: Vinyl Siding Installation.
I still want to be able to retrofit a "wasp abatement" system so I'll be sticking to this removable panel design. John's ideas might help some of you jump start your projects! Thanks, Bob
5/7/2004 My deck ceiling is under construction and looking good so far. I'll ultimately publish two designs, one for aesthetics, and one purely functional for low clearance locations. Both are low cost. The functional design should meet the 43
cents per square foot, and it looks like the aesthetic design will come in at 75 cents per square foot. I'll be publishing the aesthetic design first. The wasp abatement will be implemented in the functional design and I'll probably publish a separate document independent of the deck
ceiling design. When published I'll probably call these prototype designs because they will not have been tested over the long run or with winter weather. Bob.
Most of the manufactured systems below tend to be expensive and tie up the useful space between your deck joists. Also one of the big problems of installation with some of these systems is the mandatory stabilizers that must be put between your deck joists prevent easy installation of the manufactured system. Also if you drop something through your deck slots it may be lost in the manufactured under deck drainage system.
I apologize if you have reached this page before I have completed the "How To". With the internet ( if you want to keep things economical ) there is always a large lead time before published information like this "How To" is accessible to you through search engines. This time can be several months so I try to anticipate my completion times and have the "How To" ready when the search engines are ready.
Thanks,
Bob
Some useful links:
Under Deck Ceiling System Manufacturers:
- STAY DRY UNDER YOUR DECK with the premier watertight waterproofing ceiling system from AMERICAN DRY DECK!
- Northern Crossarms, Inc. Underdeck System s
- Home Page www.under cover system s.com
- Make it dry below your deck with the DRY-B-LO Designer Deck Drain System ®!
- Roof Below Typically $7 per square foot custom cut, flat, below joists system, look at their Gorilla Decking very expensive water tight deck planking system.
- DrySpace - The under deck drainage solution for a dry space My local building supplier carried Dry Space kits starting at $400 for a 16 x 16 area if I remember correctly. The joist stabilizers between my joists would have made this product difficult to use.
All of the above systems look great but are also far more expensive than my Do It Yourself solution.