Deck and foundation frame

Tools: Torque drive, Compound saw

Skills: Conventional building

The deck and foundation frame are two separate items that are joined together when the Turk is installed. Because their construction uses similar skills and materials I have included them together.

The foundation frame consists of four x 3 metre H4 fence posts butt joined in a square. The assembly is wrapped with steel bracing. The trickiest part of the construction is tensioning the bracing, previously a sash clamp was used as the tensioning mechanism but in future construction a hydraulic bottle jack with a suitable jig will be used.

Construction steps:

  1. Layout the fence posts is a square as shown
  2. Make sure all the posts are level.
  3. Sand/route the corners of the posts so that bracing can move around the corners as it is tensioned.
  4. Medium tension the bracing strip so there is enough tension for the structure to stay together
  5. Use a large hammer to tap the butt joints into alignment. Check the diagonal measurements are the same.
  6. Fully tension the bracing then insert the 8 screws into each of the butt joins
  7. Insert screws into the bracing then re-tension from the opposite direction. Complete the bracing.
  8. Double check the diagonal distances then complete with the diagonal corner pieces
Completed deck and foundation frame
Using a sash clamp to tension the wrap-around bracing. In the future a gadget using a hydraulic car jack will be used
Note how the deck fits onto the foundation frame (lifted slightly). The two are typically stacked on top of each other and flown horizontally