A realistic DIY deck weekend, hour-by-hour for 280 sqft

Carpenter using a circular saw to cut a deck board on a weekend DIY build — Photo via Pexels

Every DIY deck tutorial assumes you have infinite time and a Pinterest-level yard. Mine didn't. I built a 280 sqft ground-level PT deck with my brother over three weekends in May 2020, finishing the day before a Memorial Day cookout. Here's the actual hour-by-hour. Snags, backaches, and Home Depot runs included.

Context: 20 ft by 14 ft rectangle, ground level (18 inches above grade), attached to the house with a ledger, 4 wood stairs, no railing because the deck never went above 30 inches. Central Ohio, end of May, weather cooperated mostly. My brother had framed decks before. I had not.

Weekend 1: layout and footings (15 hours)

Friday evening, 5pm. Home Depot run for materials, permit paperwork confirmation. Bought 10 bags of Quikrete fast-setting, 12 precast concrete footing cones, six 8-foot 4x4 PT posts, a 20-foot 2x10 PT ledger, a dozen 10-foot 2x8 PT joists, joist hangers, post-base brackets (Simpson ABU44Z), galvanized lag screws, GRK structural screws, Ledger-Lok 5-inch screws, flashing tape, and a roll of Z-flashing. Total: $1,240.

Friday 7pm. Unload at the house. Stacked 2x10 and 2x8 on sawhorses with stickers between them so they didn't pick up ground moisture. Concrete bags on the driveway.

Saturday 7am. Call 811 confirmation from three days prior, utilities were marked. Started layout with mason's string, batter boards, and a 3-4-5 triangle to square corners. Square is the single most important step. Off by an inch now means every joist is off by an inch later.

Saturday 9am. Marked footing locations. 12 footings, 6 on the outside edges, 6 on the middle beam line. Every 4 feet for joist span support on 2x8 PT. Spray painted the outlines.

Saturday 10am. Started digging footings. 12 inches of frost depth in central Ohio, so 14-inch deep holes. Post-hole digger for the first four, which is when I realized I was going to die. Rented a 2-man gas auger from Home Depot for $85 for the rest of the day. 30 seconds per hole instead of 15 minutes.

Saturday 12pm. Lunch. Subway. Cooler of Gatorade.

Saturday 1pm. Set precast footing cones in each hole. Dry-fit the post brackets. Adjusted string lines to confirm posts would be square to the house.

Saturday 3pm. Mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow, poured each footing. Used a 4-foot level across the footing cones to get the tops at the same height. One was 3/4 inch high, had to shim everything else with flat rocks under the cones. Annoying.

Saturday 5pm. All 12 footings poured. Covered with plastic because rain was forecast for Sunday morning. Cleaned up. Beer.

Sunday. Concrete cured. Rained. Didn't work on the deck. Read the IRC R507 chapter again to prep for next weekend.

Weekend 2: framing (14 hours)

Saturday 7am. Attached the ledger board first. This is the most important connection on the deck. I flashed the top with Z-flashing tucked under the siding. Used Ledger-Lok 5-inch screws staggered every 16 inches on two rows into the house band joist. Simpson DTT2Z tension ties at each end, screwed into the rim joist plus a blocking piece.

Saturday 9am. Set the six perimeter posts on the post-base brackets. Cut to 16 inches above grade (finished deck height minus 5/4 decking thickness minus rim joist depth). Plumbed with a 4-foot level on two adjacent faces.

Saturday 11am. Ran the outer rim joists, attached to the house ledger at the ends with LUS28 joist hangers. Lag-bolted each rim joist to the perimeter posts.

Saturday 12pm. Lunch. Wife brought tacos. Standing on the half-built frame looking at the footprint made it feel real.

Saturday 1pm. Ran the center beam across the middle posts. Double 2x10 PT, bolted together with 1/2 inch galvanized through-bolts every 16 inches.

Saturday 3pm. Started hanging joists. LUS28 Simpson hangers, 16 inches on center, 14 joists total. Each joist got 10 nails per hanger per code (Ti-N joist hanger nails, not screws). Hand-nailed because the Ridgid framing nailer I had was too powerful for hanger nails. DeWalt impact driver on the occasional structural screw.

Saturday 6pm. All joists hung. Checked level across the field with a 4-ft level on a long straight 2x4. Two joists were crowning 1/8 inch high; flipped them so the crown would settle out under deck load. Called it a night.

Sunday 8am. Framing inspection. The inspector showed up at 8:45, spent 20 minutes, signed off. One correction: he wanted a hurricane tie (Simpson H2.5A) at each joist-to-ledger connection, even though the hangers arguably met code. $25 of ties added, took 40 minutes to install. Inspection passed.

Sunday 11am. Drove to Home Depot for deck boards. 5/4 x 6 x 16 ft PT boards, 35 of them. $18 each, $630. Loaded into the truck.

Sunday 12pm. Home. Grabbed lunch. Laid out first course of deck boards to check the cut pattern. Decided to start at the house edge so the cut board would be against the outside rim.

Sunday 2pm. Started screwing deck boards with GRK RSS structural screws, two per joist, spaced 1/8 inch between boards with a pencil as a gap gauge. DeWalt impact driver through pre-drilled pilot holes.

Sunday 6pm. Half the boards down. Tired. Beer.

Weekend 3: boards, stairs, finish (10 hours)

Saturday 8am. Finished the remaining deck boards. Trimmed all the ends with a circular saw and chalk-line guide. Cut was straight across the whole 20-foot length, which felt ambitious but worked.

Saturday 11am. Stairs. Cut four stringers from 2x12 PT using a framing square with stair gauges. Rise 6.5 inches, run 11 inches, four treads. Screwed stringers to a ledger attached to the rim joist. Concrete pad at the bottom was already poured from weekend 1 when I was ahead of schedule.

Saturday 1pm. Lunch. Checked the cookout headcount.

Saturday 2pm. Stair treads installed, two 5/4 x 6 boards per tread. Stepped on it. Solid. No squeak.

Saturday 3pm. Fascia trim on all four sides with 1x8 PT. Hid the rim joist hangers and gave it a finished look.

Saturday 5pm. Final inspection. Inspector walked the deck, checked stair rise variance (within 3/8 inch, legal), checked fascia, checked joist hanger nails. Signed off. Permit closed.

Sunday. Let the deck dry for 6 weeks before first stain. Started cleaning the yard for Memorial Day weekend.

Actual cost breakdown

Materials (posts, joists, deck boards, hardware): $2,890
Concrete and footings: $240
Permit: $125
Auger rental: $85
Gas for auger: $8
Stain (year 1, applied 6 weeks later): $165
Tool purchases (Ridgid brad nailer, stair gauges, a proper 4-ft level): $265

Total: $3,778 for 280 sqft of PT deck with stairs. The three contractor quotes I\'d collected earlier were $7,400, $9,200, and $11,600 for the same job. So I saved $3,622 to $7,822 and spent 39 labor hours across three weekends plus the occasional evening.

What I\'d do differently

Rent the auger on day one, not after trying the post-hole digger for two hours. I was prideful about not needing it. I was wrong.

Buy the Simpson hurricane ties up front, not on the inspection walkthrough. Saved a trip.

Flash the ledger more carefully. I did it right, but slower than necessary. The Z-flashing tucks under the siding and extends out over the top of the ledger; there's no second chance once the boards go on.

Spend the extra $200 on CAMO hidden fasteners. GRK screws look fine, but CAMO would have made the board face cleaner for 2020 dollars.

Snags that will probably hit you

A footing that pours off-level. Shim during the cure, before the concrete sets.

A joist that crowns upward. Flip it so the crown settles out under load.

A deck board that won't sit flat because it's wet. Wait. Don't force a warped board with extra screws.

An impact driver battery that dies mid-afternoon. Have a second battery. Two drivers is better.

A neighbor who asks when they can use your auger. Polite no.

Tools list

DeWalt 20V impact driver (two batteries)
Makita 10-inch chop saw (for joist cuts, trim cuts, stair treads)
Bosch circular saw with carbide framing blade
Ridgid brad nailer for trim
Framing nailer (for hanger nails, unless hand-nailing)
4-foot level, 2-foot level
Chalk line
Framing square with stair gauges
Mason's line and batter boards
Two-man gas auger (rent, $85-$110/day)
Wheelbarrow for concrete
Post-hole digger (still useful for cleanup of auger holes)

Run your numbers

Plug your deck dimensions, material, and feature list into the DeckCalc estimator with DIY selected for a materials-only estimate. The calculator will tell you what you\'d save vs a contractor. It won\'t tell you whether your back can handle three weekends of framing; only you know that.