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Need advice: Deck/patio construction

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jcroach:
I need some advice.  My concrete patio is falling apart.  Not good for a 5 year old house.  :badmood:

My back door is only about 3 inches off of the top of the patio. At first my wife and I were considering ripping out the patio and installing a new brick patio on a sand base.  I've never worked with brick/sand/gravel and it seems daunting to me.

Now we're considering doing a floating low-profile deck.  It'll involve a little more excavation work, but a lot less of the base work.  Has anyone ever built a deck like this? I can't find much info on the web about them.

A few questions:

* Can I support the entire deck on a gravel base? How thick? I was thinking 4-6 inches.
* Or do I need to pour concrete piers?
* Can I support the deck off the ground on some "dek block"? Those pre-cast concrete forms that have the slot for a 2x? in them?
* Anyone ever work with composite materials? What are good brands?
* Do you recommend screws of some sort of hidden anchor for composite decking?
* Any special saw blades needed to cut composite?
* Is decking usually run parallel with the house or perpendicular?
This is kind of what I'm going for: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doorsixteen/3475548003/

CCM:
I don't know about the floating deck... I dug down 36" to get below the frost line and poured concrete...

Anyway,  I built my deck 6 years ago and used VekaDeck (www.vekadeck.com), I think all of the big name composite deck materials are about the same quality wise.  I couldn't be happier with Veka, the only maintenance I've done is to power wash it every spring.

I used stainless steel screws,  and used the regular blade I had in my miter saw, no issues at all.

The deck boards should run parallel to the house.

Hope this helps a bit...

JMB:
FWIW doing a brick/paver patio is very simple.  I did one a few years ago and it is holding up well.  Check with area mason supply stores or even Home Depot/Lowes.  They will often offer free instruction classes a couple times a year to help sell product.

shardian:
The brick on sand patio will be your easiest project. You can make it as simple or complicated as you feel comfortable with. A family friend did a sunburst design patio on their own with no previous experience that looked bad ass.

ChadTower:

Just don't try to do a Mario.  You will have a ---smurfette--- of a time finding the right color blocks.   :laugh2:

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