So you have this nice patio that no one uses and its under an upper deck.  You really wish that patio space was another finished room that you can walk into from your house.  BUT, you don’t want to lose your deck either.  You love that deck! 

Well let me tell you, you can keep the deck, AND have a finished room under that deck.  We have done it many times and it works out great!

Build a Hidden Roof System Into Your Deck!

First, you have to make your deck into a hidden waterproof roof system, then build the finished room underneath.

This post is about how you turn your deck into a hidden roof system.  When we are done it just looks like the same deck you’ve always had.

Stare at the picture below.  Stare harder.  I drew this myself just for you.  Read the fancy labels.  Refer back to it as you read the rest of the post and all the magic will become clear and understandable.

Nope, look at it a little longer.

Okay, first, we removed the decking boards off of your deck carefully, keeping track of their row and position.  Then we cut all your deck joist in two, sideways at an appropriate angle that slopes away from your house. We remove the top piece of each joist and set them aside.  Now the joists that remain all form an angled plane leaning away from the house.  This will be the hidden roof.

We cover these angled joists with sheets of plywood and then cover the plywood with a waterproof rubber roof membrane.  Then we take the top pieces of the joists that we set aside and place them back on top of the bottom joists.  It’s like putting two triangles together.  (Do you keep looking back at my drawing above? It should help!)

This is what it looks like at this stage.  See how the top of the joists look wider as they go away from the house?  That’s because the black rubber roof is angled down away from the house.

A vinyl wire mesh is then stretched and attached to the top.  This will keep debris from falling between the boards and clogging the system.

It is time to put the deck boards back and hide the secret roof..  The rain will fall on the deck and run down between the decking boards just as it did before, but now the water will be caught and guided out to the outside edge of the deck.

When we are done, you are ready to close in the patio below and turn it into a finished room.  Or if you like, you are now able to sit under your deck during a rainstorm and not get dripped on.

Here is the finished result of the deck in the pictures above.  After finishing the deck, we did, in fact, close the patio area and turned it into a bedroom, with a bathroom and a closet.  It turned out beautifully!

You don’t use that patio of yours when it rains anyway!

Jack Home Construction and Remodeling Services
995-2288.

You know you want to do it!  Call us for a free price!

Shawn, the hidden roof in a deck guy.