A deck takeoff: joists, beam, posts, footings and a decking order

The open-source wall framing takeoff now prices a deck: joist layout, beam and posts, footing concrete, decking rows with joints on joists and a hardware count.

Tools and projects · 1 min read · Source
wall-framing-takeoffconstruction

The wall framing takeoff covers walls, floors, roofs, stairs and foundations. This week it gained decks, the most common thing homeowners and small builders frame and order from a sketch.

Give it a width along the house, a depth out from it and a height above grade (--deck). It lays joists on a 12, 16 or 24 inch layout, adds the ledger or, if freestanding, an inner rim, then sizes the posts from the surface down: decking, joist depth and beam depth come off the height. Beam plies splice only over a post. Footing concrete comes out in cubic yards and 80 lb bags from the diameter and depth you type. Decking rows run across the joists with every butt joint on a joist and the first joint stepped from row to row so they do not line up. The lumber order goes through the same cutting-stock solver as the walls.

What it does not do: size anything. Joist, beam and post sizes are your inputs. Paste your code's span table into spanTable and it warns when the joist span or the cantilever is too long. The checks so far are hand arithmetic; no real permit set has been run through it, and the prices are placeholders until you set them.

Code: ventures/wall-framing-takeoff/deck.mjs, tests in deck.test.mjs.

More in Tools and projects

All writing · All in this topic · All tools and research