This is my "Day Job".

If anyone has any questions about Carpentry, Cabinetmaking, Finish Carpentry, Timber Framing or Woodworking (in general), I would be pleased to assist them with find answers. I am not "ticketed", which means I haven't learned any bad habits from schools, but with more than a few years in Construction, and having worked from Concrete to Countertops, I am very experienced.

And that is a fair to middling Teacher...

Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Interior, Exterior, Renovations, whatever it takes to pay the bills...

Try this on for size. Gross as it may sound, we're thinking of planting the melons in their own location down the hill from the garden over the leach field. Melons just take up too much room in the garden. With the deer, though, I'd need to put up a fence that could withstand a 50MPH wind gust and go down no more than 15" or whatever the standard depth is for the PVC piping in a leach field. How would I go about (sorry -aboot) constructing such a thing and what materials would I need? The space shouldn't need to be more than about a 12-15 foot square. Thanks!

I would be tempted to construct 4 'panels' of the desired height and wide, then 'assemble' them where you need to protect the melons or whatever.
Set a diagonal brace from panel to the neighbouring panel for stability.
Anchor them by tying bricks or blocks to the 'panel' of sufficient weight to avoid the wind thing. Not requiring any 'posts' the Septic system is safe.
Spacing the boards far apart will lessen the wind load. Or better yet, use stucco wire instead of boards for the panels.
Less wind profile and the wire could also be stretched across the top since deer and critters can jump/climb 9 ft fences easily enough, but the top stucco wire may be effective in keeping them out.
Use diagonals lower down as well and the whole thing should be wind/critter proof easily enough.
Stucco wire comes in 4 ft wide rolls (I think) so that should be plenty large enough for a melon patch.
Another thought would be to make small 'mounds' for each melon plant and not 'cultivate between them like a garden so these portable protective fences can be placed over individual plants and not the entire 15 x 15 area???
Just a couple of thoughts.

I like the idea of panels that can be easily assembled and taken down for winter. I'm hearing a request for corn now too, but that means many more plants... and higher fence. Is corn worth the trouble? It is getting more and more expensive... I'll have to draw something out on paper and see what it'd take to accomplish it all. I'll detail my results when I've finished the enclosure. It'll probably look like a dog kennel when I'm through with it. Thanks for the ideas...

This post has been edited by Watermonkey: May 12 2008, 12:01 AM

I was wondering how to figure yards of gravel I would need. I am constructing a front porch it is 22.5' ft long by 6'. I was planning on digging about 4" down removing all the grass and weeds. Then filling it in with all gravel on top of a heavy weed stop. I would like to have the gravel about 2" to 3" above the grade. So the question is how do I determine how much gravel I would need ? Thanks.

Volume = Length times Width times Depth

Length is given at 22.5 feet.
Width is given at 6 feet.
Depth is calculated at 4 inches below grade plus 2 inches above grade equals 6 inches ( .5 feet).

Volume = L x W x D

where L = 22.5, W = 6, D = .5.

Substituting:

Volume = 22.5 * 6 * .5
Volume = 67.5 Cubic Feet of Gravel

Convert from CuFt to CuYards : divide by 27 ( 3 * 3 * 3)

Gravel = 67.5 / 27 = 2.5 cubic yards

Quick tip, when you dig out the dirt, try to make certain that the level of the soil is higher next to the house and that there is some slope away from the foundation for loose water to drain away from the basement/foundation. You may need/want to add a perimeter of wood, like a pressure treated 2 x 6, to contain the gravel.

Thank you very much. Ya I was considering sloping it a way from the house. I forgot to add that little detail. Its nice to know that there is some one out there like your self to help with questions. I do alot of house hold remodling jobs around the house. I also have a ton of work to do here so you may get tired of hearing from me lol. Your help is very apeachated thank you very much.

This post has been edited by magic: May 8 2008, 12:54 AM

Ok I have another ? I am attaching the deck to the house, so can I instead of putting the 4x4 posts in the ground next to the house can I mount the posts to the ledger exstending it 10" past the lower part of the ledger for my 2X10 beams to mount? If I can I plan on Lag bolting it to the ledger into the house hopfully finding the house stud. I hope you can understand what I am asking. I am using 2x8 for my joists so the ledger will be a 2x8 and I am spacing my posts 5'6" apart. so the posts I mount to the leger will be 18" long so it will meet the top of the ledger then exstend 10" below it for my 2x10 beam. Will this be ok or do I need to put posts along the foundation of the house also?

I don't understand why you are asking about using posts next to the house in addition to the 'ledger'.

As I understand the issue, you are looking for a method to attach one side of a deck to a Wood frame wall?
Simply lag bolt a 2 by 8 Horizontal Ledger to the wall and then have the Joists rest on top of the Ledger. Depending on the span/loads/etc, you might need to double up the Ledger. And definitely the ledger should be lag bolted to the framing studs, pre-drilling of course. Some jurisdictions require a 3 " bearing point for the joists. Others don't. If you need a Rim Joist on the decking, then a double Ledger would be required to carry the joist ends, too.

I'll see if I can find a drawing to attach and you can see if the concept would work for you,

*edit*

Found a really nice set of drawings in a PDF format that should answer pretty much everything you need to know about this issue. It even calculates spans, beam sizes, post spacings, and many more details are supplied in it. Although it is written for a specific jurisdiction in the States, I'm reasonably certain that at worst, it will be a good place to start from in most parts of the world.