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:
- Layout the fence posts is a square as shown
- Make sure all the posts are level.
- Sand/route the corners of the posts so that bracing can move around the corners as it is tensioned.
- Medium tension the bracing strip so there is enough tension for the structure to stay together
- Use a large hammer to tap the butt joints into alignment. Check the diagonal measurements are the same.
- Fully tension the bracing then insert the 8 screws into each of the butt joins
- Insert screws into the bracing then re-tension from the opposite direction. Complete the bracing.
- Double check the diagonal distances then complete with the diagonal corner pieces


