How To Build A Small Freestanding Deck - So Much Better With Age

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If you’ve wondered how hard it is to build a small freestanding deck, this post is for you! See how we transformed a small area in our front yard for a sitting deck.

Woman sitting on chair on deck in front of house with cat in the window.

I can’t wait to show you how we made a freestanding deck in our front yard. The sun disappears from my backyard early afternoon so we wanted a place where we could sit out front and enjoy the afternoon sun.

There are a few things to consider before determining if a freestanding deck is right for you:

This type of deck isn’t attached to the house so you don’t need to do anything to ensure it’s attachment. It’s basically a floating, detached deck.
We live in a very mild climate zone (Vancouver, BC Canada) and have very little frost so the decking posts we use only needed about 6 inches of drainage rock underneath instead of deep footings. If you live in a colder climate, you will probably need to dip deeper footings. Check with a local professional.

Let’s first let’s see what our yard used to look like.

I’ve mentioned many times before that our exterior needs a lot of work. We’ve done a few things like paint the back patio concrete slab with stripes and I painted the brick pavers at the front door but really that’s just lipstick to what really needs to get done, and that’s an entire overhaul.

Future plans:

new pavers on driveway or poured concrete
new pathway to the front door
new front door step
re-stain this fence (like our backyard)

Here is what our front yard area looked like before.

I had just done some pruning a few months back and took some quick pics with my phone. These ‘shrubs’ went for years without pruning and now they look like trees (they’ve looked like this since I purchased this house).

This whole area is going to be changed, these shrubs will be removed and hydrangeas and boxwoods will be added.

Here are the painted brick pavers I did about three years ago now. The paint has held up great on the pavers but not the wood. The pavers are slowly sinking and the whole step and path and driveway need to be redone.

Front door area with black door and white and painted brick pavers.

Can you spot the little kitty in the window?

We got a kitty a couple of months ago she’s the cutest thing ever!

Wait for the next photo…

Shrubs removed from front yard and cat sitting in the front yard.

She is an indoor cat but definitely wanted to get outside 😂.

Cat hanging on window screen, man raking front yard.

Prepare for the FreeStanding Deck

The biggest part of this job was just clearing the shrubs and levelling out the ground area. There is quite a large slope to this area which is hard to tell in the photo. Getting rid of the roots of the shrubs is important so the shrubs don’t regrow through your newly made deck.

Map out the area you want to create and spray paint the ground then start digging out the shrubs or grass.

I decided on a square size of 8×8 feet but the width of our house was a bit smaller than 8 feet so the deck is 91″x96″.

Next you want to make sure it’s square and level but using wood markers and string. They mostly just help with as a guide to see where to place everything, to make sure it’s square and it’s an easy way to ensure the ground is level.

Preparing ground for a deck with string and wood stakes.

Level ground area ready for a deck build.

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building the freestanding deck

Here are the major supplies needed to get you started on your deck.

Supplies:

4-way deck blocks
2x6s 8 feet long (for joists and decking boards)
2x10s 8 feet long for fascia (the ones listed are 16 ft long so they could be cut in half)
drainage rock
landscape fabric

Next you want to measure out where you’re going to put the 4-way deck blocks. Six were added to this space.

Dig a hole 6 inches deep and pour drainage rock into. I didn’t get a photo of the hole being dug and it looks like by this photo that rock is just sitting on the ground but I assure you it’s 6 inches deep 😉

Then you can put one of the 4-way deck blocks on top of the drainage rock.

Man laying down drainage rock to build a deck.

Then put a 2×6 in to make sure they are lined.

Make sure to use pressure-treated wood or cedar.

NOTE: The 2x6s were actually laid out in the other direction and the decking boards went on top in the other direction. See photo below.

4-way deck blocks in ground in front of grey house.

Photo of joists getting ready to build deck.

Next lay out landscaping fabric over the ground and drainage rock. You’ll want to lift the decking blocks up, lay the fabric down and plop them on top of the fabric. Make sure they are all lined up again.

The landscaping fabric ensures no plants to grow up under your new deck.

4-way deck footings on top of drainage rock.

Lay down drainage rock over the fabric, enough for it to be 3 inches deep.

Drainage rock over landscape fabric in front of grey house in front yard.

Now, I had surgery during this week and, unfortunately, and this is the only photo I got of building the actual deck.

So before you start laying decking boards, you’ll want to add your 2×6 joists to the 4-way decking blocks like this:

Then build the fascia (a square box) and attach it to the end of the 2×6 joists.

Then you can start screwing in the decking boards on top with decking screws into each of the joists (one board will have 2 screws at either end screwed into the joists and screwed into the middle joist as well for a total of 6 screws per board).

It looks good, doesn’t it?!