Planking the south side ramp

Planking the stairs was straightforward. All planks were 2x6 and 41 5/8" long. As before, the planks were stained in advance so that hard to reach, but visible portions of the planks would get stained. And as before 3" deck screws were used -- 8 per plank (two for each stringer). Here's how it looked (unfortunately a bit blurry):



After it dried we walked on it and fortunately it was completely solid with no hint of squeaks or sags.

For the rest of the south ramp the planking needed to accomodate the curve of the ramp. For the north ramp curve I tried alternating regular planks with planks cut diagonally, so that the planks curved with the path. This worked, and looks okay, but I thought the overall appearance could be better if the planks around the curve fanned out, each plank being of similar dimensions.

I measured and thought and thought and measured. The south ramp curve, unlike the north, was of an irregular shape due to the stairway. I finally concluded that I couldn't determine a single, optimum plank shape but could come close. I decided to get a bunch of 2x6x10 redwood planks and use the table saw to cut them diagonally (after the first one is cut, half of it can be used as a brace alone the table saw fence to guide the cutting of the remaining planks). Then I would trim them to fit the ramp. I cut about 13 such planks and tested them on the bridge to see if the idea would work. The results, as shown in this September 20 photo, were promising:



What this showed was that there was enough space for the diagonally-cut 2x6x10 planks to provide for a nice curve.

(Unfortunately, shortly before I took this photo I accidentally fell while walking on the unplanked beams. The injury would seem minor at the time, but would end up having a major influence on the progress of the project for the rest of 2009, as I will describe later.)

Once this was confirmed I bought two more 2x6x10 planks and cut them diagonally, as I needed just a few more to complete the curve. Then I selected the top of each cut plank, sanded the cut sides so that they resembled the other pre-sanded side, and stained each one. While I was doing the sanding it finally occurred to me that most planks could benefit from some topside sanding, either because of imperfections in the cutting process or because of lumbermill marks that needed removal. I should have been doing that all along, but have now incorporated a sanding pass for all redwood going forward.

While this process was going on I began adding 2x6 redwood to the outer sides of each beam, just for looks.

On September 26, the next Saturday, I put the rest of the north side planks down. On the 27th I created the edging and put down the fabric cloth for the clay path that would adjoin the south ramp. The result is shown here:



The process of installing the south ramp planks was much slower than for the bridge or the stairway. I started at the bridge end of the ramp. Each plank had to be put into place with spacers (two screwdrivers that were about 1/8" wide) then I marked where to trim the ends of each plank on the underside of each plank, using the edge of the substructure as a guide. Each plank was thus cut to fit and installed before the next one was put in place.

On the side of the ramp opposite the stair case there is an area where the edges of the planks form a nice curve. For this area I first trimed the planks to be several inches too long. The after all planks were in place I drew a smooth curve connecting the straight edges and used a jig saw to cut the curved edge.

Where the planks meet the staircase I had to do things slightly differently. First, I realized that when I put the plank on the top of the staircase I'd completely covered that beam -- meaning that the staircase beam was not available as a support for the diagonal planks. This was easily solved by screwing a short 2.6 p.t. board on the inside of that beam, where the p.t. board would provide the support to the planks. Second, because the diagonal planks bordered the top-of-staircase plank, I had use a ruler to mark the cutting line on the top of each diagonal plank, using the staircase plank as a guide.

In the end it all worked out. The final 9 planks on the ramp were simple 2x6s cut to 46 3/4" width. There had to be some slight adjustments in the placement of each plank to keep the whole curve flowing properly, but those aren't perceptible.

One potential issue that turned out to be a non-problem was the fact that the slopes of the beams and joists varied, and I had some concern that this might create some awkward spots where diagonal planks crossed beams/joists with different slopes. But it turned out that by using my weight to hold the planks down when putting the screws in, and by carefully choosing which joist to attach to first, the planks would firmly attach to the base underneath while naturally forming slope transitions.

The end result has worked very well. Visitors have uniformly commented on how appealing and solid the bridge looks -- both form and function. Here are a couple views of the work so far from different angles:





There is still a lot of work to get done. Some parts of the ramps still need to have redwood panels applied to the sides underneath the planks, and the whole structure needs a second coat of stain to polish it off. Then railings need to be added with a special feature -- each railing post will have an low voltage outdoor lamp on the top. These won't be solar lamps -- they will be powered from the house with an on/off switch.

And, of course, we need to add the "red breeze" clay to the ground pathways at either end of the bridge. On the same day the above photos were taken, September 28, I hooked up the trailer and drove to the sand/rock yard to pick up the clay, only to find that they close at 3 p.m. on Sunday. I figured I'd go back Monday or Tuesday, but then something happened to change the course of the whole project. I'll cover that in the next post.