The technology of decks has changed so much of the last 10 years. Dr Decks is an icon of the deck building industry and is known worldwide for his design, skill, and innovative ideas. He sits down with us and gives us a master class on deck building using the best tips and tricks he uses to build decks that last for decades.

Since 1991, Dr. Decks has satisfied hundreds of customers with high quality custom decks. He gives us the best materials, the best hardware, railing and best practices for your next deck building project. Take a listen to one of the most awarded deck builders in the country and his ideas for your next project.

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[00:00:09] Dr Decks: But basically what these heat blankets do is they're designed to repair carbon fiber on Boeing Jets. Okay? So we took this technology and we had the company make us a specific size that we could take a deck board and put it in a, basically a, a silicone heating blanket sandwich, that there's an outside layer of.

[00:00:53] Dr Decks: And then that becomes the, the new shape of that board when it comes to remodeling and renovating [00:01:00] your home. There is a lot to know though. We've got you covered. This is around the house.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: We have a special guest in the studio. I've been trying to get this guy on the radio and podcast now for a couple years, and we've finally done it. Dr. Dax, welcome to Around the House, brother. Thanks for having me, Eric. This is great man. Finally, you and I got to connect at that keen utility event and I know my listeners are like another person that you've talked to at Keen Utility, but yes, you and I finally got to sit down and connect a little bit and uh, that was a great time.

[00:01:44] Dr Decks: awesome.

[00:02:04] Eric Goranson: And, uh, what got you into this?

[00:02:26] Dr Decks: And I started, uh, working for a management company that was responsible for several hundred apartment complexes, and they put me on a carpentry team. And I was basically, you know, pretty well built in a lot in better shape when I was younger. And, uh, they're like, Hey, you know, you can rip these decks out for us and then, uh, go from there.

[00:03:10] Dr Decks: They were , they were so rotten. Like we, they would have 'em blocked off so people couldn't access 'em. And then I'm outstanding on it, tearing it apart. And I swear I almost killed myself a couple times cuz the decks as the deck is falling, I'm backing up into the breezeway, so I don't, I don't die, you know?

[00:03:53] Dr Decks: Um, and we started Dr. Dax in 1991. Man.

[00:04:18] Dr Decks: who would've thought that outdoor living was gonna become such a powerful.

[00:04:45] Dr Decks: But then as Covid went on, people, uh, realized, hey, we're staying in this house. I mean, I'm in this house for 26 hours a day, and I need a place I can get outside [00:05:00] and do whatever I want to do outside. You know, I , I felt, I felt bad for these, some of these people. And, and, and, and so the creativity, um, that has, has come forth through the years.

[00:05:33] Dr Decks: Yep. And then as synthetic decking came about, I was like, Whoa, what's this? Well, mm-hmm. , you know, anytime you're an early adopter of anything, you're gonna have issues. Uh, dude, that first,

[00:05:52] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Backwards. That stuff didn't hold

[00:06:14] Dr Decks: You know, I might, I don't know everything about building decks. Um, I just take a different stance or an approach to how I build, and I have a specific style that I've developed over the last 32 years. And, um, I think a lot of people like the way I do a build, but there's other companies that do just as you know, a lot of amazing work, uh, and they add their flare to it as well.

[00:06:57] Eric Goranson: And what you've done with, with [00:07:00] curves and half circles and inlays, uh, is what blew the

[00:07:06] Dr Decks: Yeah. Automation, which kind of took a break from, because we actually filmed a pilot television show around deck automation. And what deck automation is, is when you take electronics and you actually make parts of decks move. Mm-hmm. And I was like the only guy doing that to my knowledge. Yeah. Um, I was making hatches and panels and then I was like, Oh, let's make a barbecue up here, uh, with a remote control, you know, and let's, um, let's make a set of tables and benches pop up out of the deck.

[00:07:54] Eric Goranson: I'm refreshing. I caught it. I saw it, so it was good.

[00:07:58] hey,

[00:08:17] Dr Decks: Mm-hmm. . And it didn't happen. And that was unfortunate. It took me about a year to get over that. But in the mean, I think

[00:08:46] Eric Goranson: Right, But the stuff now, Uhuh, that's like 500 bucks a week and, uh, yeah,

[00:09:06] Dr Decks: Most don't. And when, when I did this show, it was 2016. Mm-hmm. and flip shows were the thing, the hottest thing. There was 30, uh, shows vying for two slots on the, um, On Scripts network. Yeah. On the DIY network. Which script zones, H C D V, DIY Food Channel Travel, all that stuff at that time. Yeah. That's who owned it.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Totally agree. But at the same time, man, you know, that would've been really good for you, but I think it would've also been such a boat anchor for you as well that would've held you back.

[00:09:53] Dr Decks: Yeah, man. I mean, uh, after that I kind of delved really into, I mean, I've always been into deck board bending, [00:10:00] and that's probably my, still my passion. I love doing it. I don't, I don't do it every weekend. Like I'm not that dedicated to it.

[00:10:27] Dr Decks: It's just a matter of when I, I don't know when, cuz I'm just trying to keep my business afloat and keep things going right now, you know? And, and that can be a total time suck in itself.

[00:10:45] Eric Goranson: Ds talking about right now? Sure. Let's, let's describe that a little bit so they understand what that

[00:11:03] Dr Decks: Mm-hmm. now heat con makes $25,000 hot bonders for Boeing airplane jets. They repair carbon fiber on Lamborghini cockpits on their cars. Uh, some of the team goes over to Italy and they, they, they do some testing on some of the newer, uh, hot cars that, that Lamborghini's making. But basically what these heat blankets do is they're designed to repair carbon fiber on Boeing Jets.

[00:11:50] Dr Decks: and we heat that boarda for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature, and it becomes pliable. And then when we take it, we take it when it's still hot [00:12:00] and we put it into a sh a shape or a form that we create on the floor of our shop. And then that becomes the, the new shape of that board. So basically we take a firm straight deck board, we heat it up and turn it into a spaghetti noodle, and then we turn it into the shape we want.

[00:12:38] Dr Decks: Um, we don't really do a lot of cap composites anymore. PVC is where I'm at. Like, that's my love. I love Aza decking. Um, I bleed azac, you know, so that's the stuff I use and, and it's a great product to do what I do with

[00:13:01] Eric Goranson: You're not dealing with the six different brands that are out there and Right. This company's house brand that maybe made it this way one year, makes it that way the next or whatever.

[00:13:19] Dr Decks: Um, I'm kind of sticking to us made, uh, products that I really, uh, enjoy working with and, um, hey. Okay, so 15 years ago mm-hmm. , when I was doing this and I was getting it on the cover of Professional Deck Builder Magazine, ASIC's. Or it was Timber Tech back then. Yeah. Timber Tech and Azac were actually separate companies and Timber Tech had xlm, which was a pvc.

[00:14:06] Dr Decks: Right. They're not gonna do this properly. They're not gonna do it the way you do it. And then we're gonna have warranty issues. And I said, I don't give a crap about your warranty. Yeah. I said, Not problem. I know. Not a problem. My, my, all my clients understand that we're totally voiding the warranty. They love a rebel.

[00:14:41] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's cool. I mean, I remember the first time seeing your stuff. I was like, All right, this cat's got something different going here. And I thought it was stunning just with the stuff you do with that and the railings and everything else, and Yeah. And one of the things that I really appreciated out of it, [00:15:00] That's the pretty stuff, but man, when it comes down to the framing of that deck and the protecting of that framing, Yeah, dude, you are as brutal as anybody on doing that.

[00:15:13] Dr Decks: for a bit. We, we both live in the Pacific Northwest and you get just as much, if not more rain than we do. Mm-hmm. and I've torn out hundreds of decks. Yeah. So I got some guy in the East that's commenting on my P post and saying, Why are you using so much waterproof membrane tape on your framing?

[00:15:52] Dr Decks: right? Yeah. So

[00:15:59] Dr Decks: [00:16:00] 18? Yeah. Yeah. So anytime I started doing, I, Okay, so I started using, uh, back before G tape was a thing, there's a stuff called vor. Mm-hmm. , um, back, I would say as early as 2000, I started taking VOR and cutting it into strips and putting it on top of flat blocking to protect it from getting moisture.

[00:16:43] Dr Decks: You know, that their product, and this is like 2016, they didn't, that's when GTA came out to the states. Yeah. It'd been out in Japan for many, many years. Cuz they use it in the automotive industry and all these other places. Mm-hmm. . But it's actually owned by Mitsubishi. And um, it's funny how you can make a footprint [00:17:00] and not even realize what you're doing with it until somebody says, Yeah, these guys in Japan were really digging what you're doing with their product.

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: just doing what you gotta do to get this right. This client that paid you good money to do the project and you're like, I'm gonna do all I can to protect their investment on

[00:17:21] Dr Decks: But, you know, I protect the beam tops and everything else. It's anything that water's gonna sit on and fester or if, if, uh, pine needles and we have a lot of that kind of stuff here to, That's stuff's the worst. It is. And it, it's stuck in between the deck boards and that's the first place you're framing rods.

[00:17:55] Dr Decks: ports.

[00:18:11] Eric Goranson: all I do. And I, that's all that thing ever does is just cleaning off the deck with that just to keep it good cuz Yeah, you're right.

[00:18:25] Dr Decks: It'll still rot, man. If it's in the wrong environment, does not matter. Um, I don't care what people say, how long it's gonna last, it's, you gotta, you gotta protect

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and you have been doing recently, and I see more and more of it, and I don't know if it's just that I'm catching it more and more on your channel, but. Man, year two at almost three story decks that you've got going out there are pretty spectacular.

[00:18:59] Dr Decks: But there's a lot [00:19:00] of conservative clientele that really, you know, that's, that's beautiful. They think I'm gonna really ding 'em for it or something. Mm-hmm. So they just stay, We'll keep a rectangle. Well, if I'm gonna build a rectangle, I'm gonna build a really nice one, you know? Yeah. And those double deckers are really cool, cuz what we're doing is we're waterproofing the upper deck with, uh, waterproof membrane.

[00:19:37] Eric Goranson: heater out there, all those

[00:19:39] Dr Decks: Right? Absolutely. So, uh, that's kind of a cool, uh, feature and we're doing more and more of that. Instead of doing a patio cover, we're actually just building another deck above it and waterproofing it, and then they get that balcony. Now, this last one we're doing is pretty big. It's like a 16 by 20 upper mm-hmm.

[00:20:09] Eric Goranson: Here, So are you, so you're using that bladder system where basically you're putting that sheet rubber over the top of, I'm gonna oversimplify this, but mm-hmm.

[00:20:30] Dr Decks: direct it away, you cut the, you cut e p d and pond liner into wedges, and then it's tight at the house and it, it, it has more taper towards the outside of the deck.

[00:21:04] Dr Decks: Yeah, it's perfect.

[00:21:07] Dr Decks: Yeah. So you're protecting your frame and you're getting a nice dry space below that. And in this case, you're getting a dry space below that and on the ground. Yeah. You

[00:21:22] Eric Goranson: You can almost see where the deck boards are sometimes on houses in the Pacific Northwest where it drops down and it almost cuts holes in the strips in the ground below. Good graphic.

[00:21:36] Eric Goranson: It's just what it is, you know, and it's, it's funny,

[00:21:42] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And so it's crazy. And what I like about this whole thing too, It does, it doesn't, you get enough angle that when the rain and the water goes, it doesn't collect up so much of that. It's not like it's super flat. So any right pine needles and stuff that get in there, it's just gonna get washed out into that gutter system.

[00:22:18] Dr Decks: Mm-hmm. and there was hardly any sediment after years. Yeah. And, and so people, that's one of the things people always challenge me on is, hey, uh, what aren't things gonna build up? So I've physically done videos of, I put crap down in the Joyce Bay and then we've ran water in it and it floods it out. Yeah.

[00:22:46] Eric Goranson: No, and Mike Eton, by the way, if you guys aren't following him out there, he's kind of the old godfather of decking out there as far as the, how you connected.

[00:23:17] Eric Goranson: So

[00:23:33] Dr Decks: As a matter of fact, I have him on speed dial because I often consult him when I come up against something that I'm not a hundred on. Because it happens to all of us, right? I'm a professional deck builder. That's what I do for a living. I've done it for a long time. But to have, have a vote of confidence from somebody that you could really trust.

[00:23:55] Eric Goranson: He's just a good guy that way. And that's, uh, but that's what I love about this industry of the, [00:24:00] of the experts that we have out there, is that, and, and I've talked this with other people here, is that the good people get along right And everybody's there to help each other.

[00:24:12] Dr Decks: Yeah. Yeah. All of us.

[00:24:20] Dr Decks: be asking questions. Some, some of these younger builders, I'm looking at some of the stuff they're putting out and I'm just like, Man, they're putting screen rooms and all kinds of accessories and really lighting it upright and they're staging it perfectly.

[00:24:49] Dr Decks: If I finish that in time, I'll probably enter that. But, um, I don't know if it'll even place because there's just so many similar type builds that are just money, you know, [00:25:00] I'm just impressed.

[00:25:10] Eric Goranson: Cuz there's other guys out there that are going, All right, I see how he's doing it. I better do my stuff better. And there's nothing wrong with it. Right.

[00:25:28] Dr Decks: And I'm glad, I'm glad that, uh, I, I've talked to beginners, I talk to attorneys and lawyers, I talk to pizza makers and I talk to carpenters. You know, there's, there's a ton of people that follow and that are constantly asking me for information. nice. It's

[00:25:54] Dr Decks: down?

[00:26:16] Dr Decks: Um, it's a little quirky. Some guys don't like it cuz you know, a clip might slip here and there, but when you use it every day or every week, you kinda get used to those things and, and, and you get through it. But those are usually the only two. I've used other clips before. I'm not gonna mention any brands, but I've actually had some issues with the screw snapping and I've had to go back and then I had to cortex a bunch of decks anyways.

[00:27:07] Dr Decks: I'm sorry. Yeah. I can't use these. So some

[00:27:13] Dr Decks: You know, they're just ,

[00:27:27] Dr Decks: Yeah. Those top lock screws though, that's an absolute best way to fasten down a deck. Uh, even with the cortex, with the, with the aza, um, vintage product. Mm-hmm. , Um, you can barely see the quirks, but yeah, if you look hard enough, you can see 'em like, you know, it depends on particular your clients are,

[00:27:45] Eric Goranson: And yeah, well, there's, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. I, the client, depending on how they are, they can go out there and get on their hands and knee a blue tape if they want to. But yeah, there's always that guy, but really it's a deck and, uh, you know, that's so much better. I mean, think about where it [00:28:00] used to be with, with ring shaken cedar, You didn't care,

[00:28:05] Dr Decks: Yeah. If you chalked your lines off, you're lucky. , you know, . Now there's a, I, I swear I was on, I was, uh, with a friend and he was a deck builder, and he, he subbed everything out. He didn't do any of the work himself. I don't do that. I actually am on every job, every day with my team building. And he had this guy that was just air nailing the, this deck, and he was trying to do it as fast as he could, and he was missing the Jos, He was missing, he was hitting the cracks with the, with the nail gun and splintering the sides of the decking.

[00:29:07] Dr Decks: I mean, I wanna put out when everything I touch, I want people to look at it and go, Dang, that is, that's nice. That's better than average. That's above average. You know? That's, Dude, dude,

[00:29:29] Eric Goranson: It's just, Well, it's beautiful stuff and you could tell the care that's been put into

[00:29:52] Dr Decks: Exactly. So somebody's gotta be

[00:29:58] Dr Decks: That's, And I can't tell [00:30:00] you even the little stuff. I have to go back in the evenings and weekends and fix, cuz none of my guys are gonna get up at, you know, six in the morning on a Saturday and go do it.

[00:30:16] Eric Goranson: question. That's why you only get one reputation out there and that's why you've been owning it, man. Thank you. Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about heli piles a little bit because Okay. Those are something that I think is really important depending on the, on the land and the grade and all that other stuff, but it's not something I'm seeing a lot of deck builders deal with, but I've dealt with 'em a lot.

[00:30:50] Dr Decks: Well, I, I started looking at helical piles as a viable solution to foundation or to footings when the state of Washington mandated a [00:31:00] 60 pound per square foot live load, instead of a 40 pound per square foot live load. What that did is it almost tripled the amount of concrete we had to pour just by adding that extra 20 pounds per square foot.

[00:31:26] Dr Decks: And when I was realizing, you know, hey man, I am pouring yards of concrete and I'm not used to, I don't short load a, a truck for three yards of concrete. We hand mix that. Yeah. So I'm, I'm bringing pallets of concrete to the job site and we're hand mixing pallets of concrete. And I was like, there's gotta be a better solution than this.

[00:31:48] Eric Goranson: though, you know, ironically the state of Washington didn't figure out, and being a, I'm a former Washingtonian, so I, I dealt with this for 25 years. They didn't figure out that maybe that connection from the deck to the house is the [00:32:00] number one failure point versus footings.

[00:32:05] Dr Decks: Uh, yeah. It just, it and that actually made. The deck. It made us use bigger beams. Bigger posts, bigger jo, tighter spans. Mm-hmm. , you know, it's ugly. So get this, I got something for you. I was, uh, the engineer, we speced out pressure treated glue lambs on the build I'm working on right now.

[00:32:52] Dr Decks: I, I said, Is this correct? She goes, Yeah, those haven't gone down at all in price. Um, how proud are these people of this product? Cause [00:33:00] holy smoke, dude,

[00:33:03] Dr Decks: Well, I wonder, , You know what I mean? You get into wonder. Yeah. Well, so, so I decided, I got ahold of this guy Max with, uh, ma core helical piles out of Ontario, Canada.

[00:33:40] Dr Decks: To, to inspect my, my pressure.

[00:33:46] Dr Decks: I'm in, I'm, I'm actually recording all that as we, every pile I'm taking photographs of the pressure. I have a time lapse camera going the whole time. So I sent all that stuff to my engineer cuz he's old and he's, you know, [00:34:00] sick and he couldn't make it for two days cuz it took us two days to drive the piles on that job.

[00:34:26] Dr Decks: But then the ipec, the building inspector comes out and he is like, Yeah, where's your engineer report? I go, Well, it's at the engineer. And he is like, Well, it's not here. And was he present for this? And I'm like, no. He wasn't. And he goes, Well, he was supposed to be here. I, I don't know how I'm gonna approve this deck.

[00:35:01] Dr Decks: Um, but I tell you what, I've done 10 of these, probably 15 decks with 'em now. Mm-hmm. and, um, it saves me time, money, you can build on 'em right away. Yep. As long as you hit the pressure you're looking for, you know, you're not, nothing's gonna settle.

[00:35:27] Dr Decks: concrete there.

[00:35:55] Eric Goranson: too much torque it, knocked

[00:35:56] Dr Decks: And then the battery connection, uh, got hit, arced out on [00:36:00] the, on the frame and then started smoking . It was like, Oh

[00:36:06] Dr Decks: then the oil, you know, uh, it was blowing, uh, was awful. Yeah. So at that point I was like, Okay, if I wanna be serious about this, I gotta get a bigger machine that'll drive the pile.

[00:36:31] Eric Goranson: Man, it's so great. And when you've got like fill soil or anything else like that, or you're on the side of a hill where you're got this real, you do a lot of view homes.

[00:36:53] Dr Decks: we can get a, um, if we can get the machine into the space, we definitely use 'em.

[00:37:07] Eric Goranson: And I think you did that, uh, diamond peer and those are just basically, Posts that are driven in Right. In a kind of a, almost like a TP into the ground. So you've got that blade out footing for that.

[00:37:20] Dr Decks: post basically. Yeah. Using galvanized, um, thick walled, galvanized pipe to go through a footing, a pre-cast footing, uh, to a specific depth. And I think they come up to five feet long, you know? Mm-hmm. for some. And then once you load 'em is where they really start to take, uh, shape and where they don't move so much.

[00:37:40] Eric Goranson: That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. So what do you do in these days for railings, man? Cuz I see you have some beautiful, glowing, well lit railings on a lot of your projects. What's that? What's that material you're using because that's super cool.

[00:37:58] Dr Decks: Mm-hmm. , And they make different [00:38:00] ga uh, varieties of different types of railing. They make a standard aluminum picket aluminum with glass. And then the kicker that they do is this product called Crystal Rail. And Crystal Rail is a really beautiful low iron glass and has these special, uh, pods that are shaped kind of like an egg.

[00:38:44] Dr Decks: Uh, I've never seen anything like it. I actually have it on my own house cuz I liked it so much. Um, there you go. It's beautiful. Every time I drive in at night I'm like, Man, that's sweet. .

[00:39:04] Eric Goranson: I saw that and I'm like, okay, that's uh, that might have to go into my house one of these days. Yeah. Cause that's cool

[00:39:19] Dr Decks: Uh, they have the homeowner and they do it yourself or in mind when and everything they've designed, uh, that they sell so nice. Sometimes it's hard to find depending on where you are geographically. So, uh, you can always contact Regal ideas directly and they'll get you in touch with somebody that can get you the product.

[00:39:51] Dr Decks: Yeah, I think, um, you know, the, the stuff we use daily, uh, like.

[00:40:25] Dr Decks: Mm-hmm. , uh, seven a quarter. Super accurate. Really great for trim cheap blades. You know, even a 40 tooth blade is like 15 bucks, you know? Dude, that's awesome. It cuts like a diamond, man. I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's an expensive saw. Sure. But we have both, we have both of those mounted to the cut hub and then we have a separate cut hub station for our DeWalt table Saw.

[00:41:00] Eric Goranson: Yeah, no, that stuff doesn't work. I got a funny story about that. Uh, DeWalt saw though, uh, my buddy skipped Bidell.

[00:41:25] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, Okay, this is cool stuff. Yeah. So that was the first time I'd seen that, that whole package of theirs with that. And, uh, man, I was, I impressive. I was

[00:41:44] Dr Decks: We run both of our saws cordless. Yep. Our table saws corded. And then as far as impact drivers, we're mostly using Metabol, h pt, Triple Hammers. Uh, we really like those. And then as far as our finish guns, um, we're running dew. Metabo. And then [00:42:00] PA had just sent us a really cool cordless gun and I was shooting some YouTube videos with it today, and I was shooting into some steel and I broke the driver on it,

[00:42:24] Eric Goranson: driver. Oops. Oops. Yeah, I, I got a gun that I think is, I, I've done that too here.

[00:42:34] Dr Decks: send it back. They, they told me, Hey, we got two year warranty on it. Send it back and we'll send you a new one. I'm like, Okay, do, I'll do a video on it. You know, that's what they want. They want me to do a video about it and then, then we're gonna do a giveaway.

[00:43:01] Eric Goranson: or something like that. Oh, wow.

[00:43:13] Dr Decks: Um, we have some cordless framers, but when we, when, especially when we're framing in glue lambs, we always run a pneumatic because you just get a better punch with a pneumatic.

[00:43:28] Eric Goranson: But that makes no

[00:43:37] Eric Goranson: That stuff's so soft. Especially with, you know, in the Pacific Northwest here we have that, uh, pressure treated wood.

[00:43:57] Dr Decks: right. Exactly. [00:44:00] Yeah. You can always get good penetration on a, on a nail gun with it.

[00:44:04] Eric Goranson: Just like bta, just like bta . So what do you see going, uh, what are some of the next, uh, things that you see out there with Daks and, and the future with these composites? Cause I know you, you talk to the manufacturers a lot out there. I'm so impressed where we've come over the last five or six years.

[00:44:49] Dr Decks: Yeah, it's unfortunate. Um, there was a few different brands that tried to come out with fence boards and I don't think any of 'em are still around. Like timber techs [00:45:00] went out, uh, tracks went out. There was a couple others. I don't even remember their names. I, I would actually take a few of those. I still have some stock cuz I cut it down and use it for thin shims when I'm building low decks to the ground.

[00:45:35] Dr Decks: Um, I used to use cedar shims, but they deteriorate. Yeah. So plastic shims don't, Yeah. The cedar ones kinda apart pretty quick. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I crawled under a deck once that I'd built like 10 years later and the plastic sh the, uh, cedar shms had rotten and the post was sagging. I like, well there we go.

[00:46:01] Eric Goranson: I like that we're starting to see out there too is, um, and I wanna give a shout out to like Simpson strong-tie. Mm-hmm. , they've come out with some brackets and some stuff that are.

[00:46:22] Dr Decks: Outdoor, outdoor accents. It's, it's a thing. Uh, we're using more and more of it on our builds and it is, it beautifies things and the clients really like it.

[00:46:41] Eric Goranson: well. I think for you guys too, like if you're putting together some glue lambs and stuff, I mean, those big tee brackets they have are, are solid and they look like they're supposed to be there.

[00:47:00] Dr Decks: That or you're, or you're putting a massive $200 steel monsters on there. . Um, which really, that's more for commercial use than I've done it.

[00:47:28] Eric Goranson: the, that's the best of both worlds with that, which is awesome.

[00:47:32] Dr Decks: I'm gonna be promoting those at Deck Expo, I think.

[00:47:45] Dr Decks: I told 'em, Hey man, you should, uh, make your Joyce Hangers this color too, right?

[00:47:58] Eric Goranson: That's a lot of work. Well, what [00:48:00] else are you doing out there, man? I mean, I'm, I'm noticing one thing that I noticed that you really pay attention to and, and I wanna just give you a shout on this. I love your connections from that deck to the house.

[00:48:34] Dr Decks: done.

[00:49:08] Dr Decks: Yeah. It was kind of a, kind of a tricky, sticky situation.

[00:49:28] Eric Goranson: I kinda looked at the window and I was, I knew it was gonna come down anyway, but I stood out on it and I went uhoh. I could see the metal railing starting to pull away as I stepped back in the door and went, Yeah, we're not going back out on that again. Wow. Sure enough, it was. , there was just cedar two by tens.

[00:49:59] Dr Decks: Yeah. I don't think [00:50:00] people realize the difference between a structural screw and just anything you can buy at Home Depot.

[00:50:27] Dr Decks: Yeah. What the type of construction is just, there's no way a pro could have done this because they'd be fired. or the user license?

[00:50:46] Eric Goranson: that the gold, Yeah, the gold ones that you can snap off in a, in a heartbeat. Trying to put 'em into some dry wood and the, none of those guys are structural out there. You need to get into something that's rated. I love using Simpson Fasts [00:51:00] with Simpson Hangers, for instance. Yeah. I try to match those up

[00:51:04] Dr Decks: Those guys in Faster Master are the two that we use, um, mainly cuz they're both structural, they're both rated, they're both accepted by most building code officials and jurisdictions. And, um, I'm, and if something works, you don't really try to change it too much except for keeping up with technology and things like that.

[00:51:35] Eric Goranson: Nice, Nice. Are you using the stiblo levels and stuff? Is that what you're using out there? See, you see a lot of yellow in your videos,

[00:51:43] Dr Decks: I've been to, I've been to the plant in Germany. Uh, stab invited us out to take a look and learn all about their product. And I gotta tell you, man, there is nobody else on the market that's making a level like those guys do. And they showed us the competition and they [00:52:00] dissected every single, Of course they do.

[00:52:25] Dr Decks: Cuz you can pick that thing back up and it'll still be level. If you drop an empire level and I've had one and if you drop it, you're done. Go buy another one.

[00:52:38] Dr Decks: done's. It's just a, a plastic insert that that's like, uh, has a kind of a, a lever inside of it that holds the, the, the vial level.

[00:52:58] Eric Goranson: And that's crazy. I love when you do [00:53:00] your challenge and you're sliding that thing across your, your framing and you see it go 30 feet down there.

[00:53:12] Dr Decks: Yeah. I've gotta like 50 feet. I've thrown those things up to 50 feet, um, on a slide and, and yeah, you don't always get it right on the first one, but, you know, it's a, For me, it's a thing, so I have to do it on every job now.

[00:53:26] Eric Goranson: Dude. And that's, and that's the beauty of that is, and that's, that's care of the construction. Yeah. And for the people out there listening, a two by 12 is not consistent with the one next to it. It's kind of close, but you can be off on those dimensions. Oh, big time. And you have to go in and set each and every one of those things to make it work.

[00:53:51] Dr Decks: Yeah. You need to grade your framing before you install it to thickness so that you know that you're not gonna have a roller coaster surface when you're done. [00:54:00]

[00:54:05] Dr Decks: see that in there.

[00:54:25] Dr Decks: Like you asked me a question earlier, what, what do I see coming in the future? Yeah, it's alternate metals framing, but I kind of skip the steel train and I'm waiting for the aluminums to come. I think, I think aluminum framing is gonna be one of the biggest booms in, in our industry, and it's gonna take another five to 10 years for it to really start to roll out.

[00:55:09] Dr Decks: Really? He stayed with, he stayed with me in my house and he shipped over a complete deck section. For this above like a pedestal system deck. Mm-hmm. that we had to do. And we planned it out like months in advance. And he finally came over here in April and we actually installed it together. And it was a lot of work.

[00:55:41] Eric Goranson: Well, you think about that, if you're putting down a, a deck product that's got a long warranty, you've got aluminum in there that's very consistent and is virtually weatherproof that, that's a solid system right there.

[00:56:08] Dr Decks: Less he had, well interlocking, he had an interlocking clip system too that we're able to use.

[00:56:38] Dr Decks: So we pinned all the ends on that deck so it wouldn't move around. Wow. Yeah, dude, That, that is

[00:57:00] Dr Decks: out.

[00:57:13] Eric Goranson: But you're like Port Tacoma . Exactly.

[00:57:28] Dr Decks: I can tell you right now, it's pretty, he's actually developing a framing system for us in the states because we're so into our nominal dimensional two by eight, but we can use a two by eight and span at 14 feet, you know, instead of Yeah. Uh, eight feet or nine feet. Yeah. Had the

[00:57:52] Dr Decks: and it's flat.

[00:58:06] Eric Goranson: How trick in a contemporary house could you imagine doing that? Where it's

[00:58:17] Dr Decks: uh, people have rubber or you know, whatever brains on him. Yeah. Pop mop on 'em, whatever. Yeah. This, this is a cool, That's what, that's why we had to use his system. Cause I couldn't do a traditional, If I would've done a wood frame, it'd probably already be falling apart by now. Yeah. So

[00:58:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah man.

[00:58:36] Eric Goranson: that is cool stuff. You heard to hear first guys. That's the, that's the trend from Dr. Dax. That's,

[00:58:58] Eric Goranson: that off.

[00:59:02] Dr Decks: Aluminum. I mean, it might be silver specs, but it's not gonna rust. Yeah. Um, and then pergolas, uh, like, uh, Timber Tech just acquired structure, which is an aluminum, um, louvered roof. Yeah. So I think louvered roofs and patio covers are gonna be a, a, another hot item, uh, coming up up and coming for the, for the future.

[00:59:26] Eric Goranson: I didn't see that those guys had had grabbed them. That's awesome because I did. I've looked into that stuff. It's cool. I got a buddy, really one of my really good friends that lives down the street. We've been kinda looking at that for his, he wants to do a covered area over his deck has out in his backyard is full son and his bakes out there.

[00:59:47] Dr Decks: only thing. They're, they're not cheap. Um, it's a premium investment. I can do a standard acrylic and aluminum patio cover for half the cost of a, of a, a structure.

[01:00:04] Eric Goranson: you know? Yeah. But

[01:00:16] Dr Decks: Um, when I go on these estimates, people don't realize how expensive that's gonna be. You want a 20 by 20 and closed or covered area with a deck, you know, you're spending a hundred plus thousand dollars and people don't realize they're thinking it's 20 grand and the you're not buying the

[01:00:36] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Materials are twice that. Three times that. So, yeah.

[01:01:00] Dr Decks: You know, I, I didn't expect to, but I wasn't gonna, just cuz it's big doesn't mean I charge less. No,

[01:01:20] Eric Goranson: So it's just one big job. Yep. And it's not like you don't have a waiting list out there either,

[01:01:34] Eric Goranson: They have not got that straight yet. I mean, that's, it's, I don't think they're going to anytime soon. I don't care where you're located.

[01:01:58] Eric Goranson: There's never like a, a [01:02:00] sweet spot there.

[01:02:07] Eric Goranson: I bet. I bet. Well, brother, we are running out of time. We have blasted through an hour so quickly. Jason, what's the best way for people to track you down out there, man? If someone's gonna track you down social media, website, where do they find you?

[01:02:46] Dr Decks: If you want the most up to date, probably gonna go to Instagram, but, um, our YouTube channel is really unique. Uh, my son actually cuts the videos and edits and uploads everything. We spend a lot of money every month trying to promote [01:03:00] that and it's all free to you. Um, alls I ask is that you click

[01:03:04] Eric Goranson: That's simple. That's simple. Yeah. Click subscribe on that one, guys. And that's where you get your masterclass on this stuff. Yes, sir. All right, brother. Thanks for coming on today, man. I really appreciate it, and we're gonna do this

[01:03:18] Eric Goranson: All right. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House