The back of our house faces west (or at least slightly north of west) and when we first moved in it had no insulation. When I thought we had bought a house what we had in fact bought was a solar oven!
First on the agenda was insulation, then I needed to put up a deck to act as a barrier between the kitchen and dining room space and the hot western Sydney sun. The first one I built many years ago and with somewhat less knowledge and skill it turned out to be not so ideal. I took it to the width of the back landing and it should have been wider, some of the timber used, while being recycled, was not up to the task and it did not cover the back door very well.
It eventually got to the point where all of the superstructure was gone, leaving just the deck itself, which if nothing else, supported the outdoor section of the split system aircon. I set up a tarp on occasion to cover that area but I really needed a new, proper deck.
Some four or five years ago after much encouragement and motivation from my sweetie I designed and built the new deck and the full story of that construction can be viewed HERE, so I won’t bore you with all of that detail now but since it has been built we have found to be a great multipurpose space. It fills for us the following needs -
1. Sun Protection - The original idea was to protect the back of the house and it does that admirably. The roofing is clear polycarbonate, but that is covered with 2 layers of 90% shade cloth so that the deck is protected from the summer sun, but the covering can be removed to give us access to the warmth of the winter sun. There are bamboo blinds along the outside edge of the deck which prevent the sun from hitting the deck directly when rolled down. The sun does sneak past the southern end of the deck but I have installed another bamboo blind hanging from the eaves, which covers this tiny chink in our armour.
2. Amenity – The deck is also a nice place to sit if the weather is a bit cooler. It is a great place to read a book, have a cup of coffee or just look out over our wonderfully productive back yard. It is a wonderful space to let us get out of the house and relax, but still be protected from the sun and rain.
3. Growing space – I installed a set of hooks outboard of the deck frame and another set inboard of the frame, the idea being that I would install hanging pots for food growing outside during cooler weather and then transfer them to the inside hooks during the peak summer heat and burning sun. In reality I haven’t used the inboard ones yet. I also have a grape vine which I intend to grow up under the roof to provide a bit move cover, as well as grapes! A couple of blueberry bushes on the southern part of the deck rounds out the growing area.
4. Outdoor Cooking – the southern end of the deck is at a good height for cooking using our rocket stoves, and I regularly set up and use that area to make stir fries and noodle dishes in one of my woks, which work very well with our rocket stoves. I also have a square cast iron pan that I use for cooking barbecues with the rocket stove. I have also used this area to boil water and pasteurise the substrate when preparing for mushroom growing. Not exactly cooking, but still using the rocket stoves in that area.
5. Workshop space – as mentioned above, the southern part of the deck is at a great height for working, so it acts as an overflow for some of the work of cutting, drilling etc. that I would classically carry out in the garage. The space is airy, light and well ventilated and is generally a pleasant place to work, plus it is a flat area I can set out a project on.
6. Water Catchment – While it is not water catchment in the classic sense ie rain going from roof, to gutter, to tank, I have constructed a permeable path outside the perimeter of the deck and any rain is conducted from the roof down into the path and from there into the ground. Previously in times of heavy rain, runoff from this area would find its way through to the neighbours, but with the current system all rain which falls on the deck area winds up in our soil, keeping plants alive in drier times.
7. Storage – I do use a small part of the area for storage, I built a small table over the outdoor part of the aircon and we use it to sit our drinks etc on, but I also use it to store some of our home grown onions out there. The area is dry, has good ventilation and is easily accessible from the kitchen so I can whip out and grab an onion or two without cluttering up the kitchen.
8. Drying washing – It is an undercover area which we use to dry washing in times of inclement weather. The inboard row of hooks I was going to use for the hanging baskets was been strung with washing line and pressed into service to dry washing. We also have a couple of portable aluminium fold up washing lines which we can also set up on the deck as needed to provide more drying space.
9. Show Case – I use it to display things like our rocket stoves, stored heat cookers, solar food driers, pot in pot coolers and whatever else I can think of when we have open days like Permaculture Day and sustainable House Day. They are at the perfect height to be inspected by visitors walking in through the garage as part of our yard tours.
10. All weather access to the garage – I can whip out onto the back deck and walk along it in pouring rain and then drop down the stairs on the southern end and into the garage more-or-less without getting a drop of rain on me. This can be very handy if the off-grid system requires an adjustment during a storm or whatever. I have installed a 12vDC light under the eaves in the middle of the deck which provides an admirable degree of lighting if required.
While I must admit that Linda deserves the credit for motivating me to build the new deck after putting up with the remnants of old one for many years (you gotta sneak up on these things) I am very happy with how it turned out and with what a useful space it has become.
Other articles in this series:
