The Ledger, Posts, and Beam

I forgot to mention that I put the ledger on the house while I was digging holes for the footings. Having the ledger on the house gave me a reference point to measure from to know exactly where the center of the posts would be. It also gave me a reference point for how high to make the posts. The ledger was simply two PT 2x8 attached to the house using 5" lag bolts with washers. I made sure that the lag bolts where placed so that they either hit the sill of the house or the studs of the wall.

The way that I did my posts was to simply cut them too long and then secure them to the footings using anchors. Then I got out my water level (because I'm low tech still) and marked a mark on each of the post that was 11.5 inch. below the top of the ledger. This is the top of the posts since I want the top of my 2x12 beam to be level with the top of the ledger. This part took some time to mark and get it right - I think I checked about 5 times before I cut the posts with my circular saw.

Then I constructed my 3 wide 2x12 beam by simply slapping two 2x12s together and screwing them together and then adding a third and screwing that together. I put screws every 16 inches in each piece of wood. I did this in place (sitting right on top of the posts) because I did not have anyone to help me pick it up when I was done. I remembered to make the outside 2x12 1.5 inches longer than the rest so that the end joists would fit nicely...

Here is a picture of the ledger, posts and beam finished - now we get to start to see how big this sucker will be...



















Here is a close up of the outside joists and the connection to the beam.



















And here is the joint in the middle on the beam - yes the offsets where planned that way.