Custom Decks in Edgewood, KY

Edgewood (ZIP 41017) households drawn to herringbone sometimes find a whole herringbone floor more pattern than they want on a large deck. A herringbone border puts the pattern where it reads best, in a band around the edge, and leaves the middle as a calm field of straight boards.

The band is usually eighteen to twenty-four inches wide. It is made of short boards laid in herringbone, each pair meeting at right angles, running continuously around the deck. A straight edging board runs along each side of the band, one at the outer edge of the deck and one against the field, which holds the ends of the short boards and gives the band clean lines. The edging boards can match the field or pick up the darker tone of the herringbone, which decides whether the band reads as part of the floor or as a frame around it.

Corners are where the pattern needs thought. At each outside corner the herringbone has to turn, and the neatest answer is a square corner block of boards laid on the diagonal, which stops both runs and restarts them. The band length along each side is worked out so the pattern arrives at the corner blocks on a full unit.

Under the band, the frame carries a ring of blocking wide enough to fix both ends of every short board, set between the joists all the way around. The field in the middle is framed normally. Because the herringbone covers only the perimeter, the cutting and framing are a fraction of a full herringbone floor, and the effect from the lawn and the house is nearly as strong. At the stair, the band stops on each side of the opening against a corner block, so the top step lands on the plain edging board. At the house wall, the band can be left off entirely, since that side is covered by furniture more often than not.