Decking

Do you have to have a ledger?

Im starting my decking tomorrow, and have noticed on a lot of posts, people are using a ledger? I guess it attatches the deck to the house and aides stability but is it a neccessity?

Cheers

Arthur

no you dont, but you get a firm fixing and you dont need posts along its length

Thankyou.

I wasn't going to run posts, I was just going to put the joists directly onto the weed controller.

As my ground is very clay-e im guessing there will be a substantial sink in it when the weight of all the wood goes on it therefor making it stable.

Also my garden has a slight incline where I want the deck, I understand it would be wise to level the ground up to its height but if i do that then the deck will not only be above my damp-proof (which I guess doesnt matter so much as im not fixing it to the house) but more importantly above my patio doors.

and if I level down I will have a lot of excess soil in which I have no where really to put.

If I were to dig out channels for the joists to go( where needed) would this be a solution to levelling the deck as long as there was membrane between the joists and the soil?

Or if I were to use slabs between the joists and the soil and dig out underneath the slab where the ground is more raised to effectively level the joist underneath the slabs. would that be better?

There is so much information on decking on here but I am unable to find any specific to this particular problem. if you or anyone could help you will make my life easier tomorrow.

Thanks

imo the timber will rot eventually if you just sink it into the earth.

put it directly on clay and it will rot. Put it directly on the ground and it will rock and move all the time. In short you will be wasting your time. do it once and do it properly. use post foundations

ok fair one.

I am in the process of levelling and putting slabs down so the joists can go on top of them. this seems to be the best solution.

Thanks for all the help I have received on this topic. And yes your right. do job right first time. understood.

Kind regards.

Arthur

I'd very much like to hear your plans for the rest of the project.

Good luck, my friend.