Thursday, August 8, 2013

Curve Cedar Deck & Bench with Azek PVC trim boards

Curved deck and bech


Entry stairs to the mud room with a slight radius

Curved deck bench built with cedar decking and 3/4" Azek


This was my latest project that I completed, it is a curved deck with a curved bench and curved stairs.  It is constructed out of 2" x 8" pressure treated framing with 5/4" x 6" cedar decking.  The trim on the bench and deck is 3/4" Azek PVC trim, 7 1/4" on the bench & 9 1/4" on the deck, that was bent around the radius without any heating or other special treatment.  For the seat boards I used 5/4" x 6" cedar decking that was cut at about a 6 degree angle on one edge.  I used a keystone in the center that was beveled on both edges to bring both sides of the bench together.  To keep the cuts consistent on the seat boards I set the angle on my Dewalt sliding compound miter saw and placed the butt end of the board against the fence to make the cut.  I left the ends of the boards square and approximately 2" long on either side of  the seat to be able to mark the radius and cut it afterwards.  To cut the outside radius of the bench I used my   7 1/4" Bosch circular saw with a 40 tooth Freud finish blade on it.  The inside radius had to be cut with my Bosch jig saw.  The radius of the deck and bench is 4' 4" which worked fine for bending the Azek around.  For the outside piece of trim I was able to start at one end of the bench and screw the Azek on pushing it into place as I worked my way around.  I worked my way to the other end without any trouble at all.  The inside radius was a little tighter and took a little extra work to get it into place.  I started in the center and got the middle screwed into place then worked my way out to either end of the board and had to clamp some spots to get it tight enough to the boards that created the seat.   It is really difficult to try and get an exact length on the Azek so I left both the inside and outside pieces long and cut the 45 degree angles freehand with my circular saw.  Once the Azek was in place on the deck and the bench I evenly spaced out the 4" x 4" posts and installed them.  With the posts in place I laid out the balusters, 2" x 2" cedar, with an even spacing which worked out to about a 3 5/8" spacing and screwed them to the deck and bench.  Once the posts and balusters were in place I screwed a   3/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Azek along the top edge of the balusters, leaving the post approximately 4" above that for the home owner to put a solar light on top of each post.  The home owner was also going to apply a semi transparent stain to protect the deck.

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