If your decking structure is to be fastened to a building then you will need to fix a ledger. If your deck is free standing then you can skip this section.
The ledger / wall plate should be securely fastened to the house using suitable fixings. The ledger is made from a length of timber that is being used to construct the deck frame and is made from 150mm * 50mm treated timber. Most places only sell this size timber in 3.6 metre lengths and so it may be necessary to join the ledger, but in this case the air vents are in the way and so the ledger will be made from three lengths of timber.
Cut the ledger / ledgers to length and place them roughly where they need fastening.
Mark out and drill holes through the ledgers using a suitable wood drill. The size of the hole will depend on the fixings that you are using. Here we are using a combination of M12 * 180mm through bolts and frame fixings. If you have an assistant this is much easier, if not you can support the ledger on some bricks.
Hold the ledger against the wall and ensure that it is level using a spirit level, now mark through the holes that you have drilled into the ledger using a pencil or marker. Remove the ledger and drill the correct size holes for the fixings that you are using into the masonry.
This is a M12 *180mm long thru bolt. this is now going to be knocked into the hole using a hammer.
Here you can see that all three holes for the ledger have been drilled and the thru bolts have been inserted into the holes.
In order to ensure that the ledger does not touch the wall we are going to use stainless steel washers as spacers. The spacer needs to be 10mm and so we are using 7 stainless steel washers on each bolt.
Now push the ledger back onto the thru bolts and level up the ledger using a spirit level. Once it is level you can put on a washer and then tighten the nut to the specified torque using a torque wrench.
Here we are ensuring that the second ledger is exactly level with the first ledger by using a long spirit level that spans the gap between them. This ledger is being levelled by using a couple of bricks, which will be removed once it is fixed to the wall.
As well as using the thru bolts we are using some frame fixings as well, these are inserted through the holes in the ledger and knocked into the holes in the brickwork, before tightening them with a screwdriver. A 10mm spacing is also achieved here by pushing the fixings through the ledger and adding the washers before offering the ledger to the wall.
This would of been much easier if the air bricks had not been in the way, but the ledger is complete now.
