# Storing wood under a deck



## Mick-Fish (Oct 7, 2013)

Hi...Has any one ever built a roof under their deck to shed water away from their wood piles....how did it work out...I have a deck about 10 feet off the ground  and was wondering what problems I could have if I take some metal or fiberglass roofing sheets,angle them and atach them under my deck...Thanks


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## pen (Oct 7, 2013)

I did just that with metal roofing under my deck about 3 years ago.  SOOOOO much better than what I used to have to do and try and snake a tarp over the wood in there, then mess with it all winter long, or summer to get water out of it so it didn't become a breeding ground for mosquitos.

I'm assuming your deck is made of pressure treated lumber?  

When putting the metal up, just make certain you leave enough room to be able to hose off any debris that might fall between the deck boards and get stuck on top of the metal over time.  I have a white pine next to my deck, so once or twice a year I need to aide some of the needles out from the metal and the floor joists for the deck.

pen


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## Wood Duck (Oct 7, 2013)

My brother in law did that. I think he used some sort of plastic corrugated material he found at the local Home Depot. It works great and, since his deck is high off the ground, he has a place to split wood in the winter as well as store firewood and his four-wheeler. Make sure to create plenty of slope so it drains quickly.


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## Bluerubi (Oct 7, 2013)

I don't currently store wood under there, but after building my approximately 40' X 20' deck I installed the previously mentioned corrugated plastic panels under the whole thing and sloped them towards a gutter system that ran the length of the deck.  I then enclosed the outside with decking and build some big doors that are lockable.  Works great, and gets around some property restrictions I had around installing a shed.  I'm quite pleased with my 800sqft of tax free storage space.


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## Backwoods Savage (Oct 7, 2013)

Mick-Fish said:


> Hi...Has any one ever built a roof under their deck to shed water away from their wood piles....how did it work out...I have a deck about 10 feet off the ground  and was wondering what problems I could have if I take some metal or fiberglass roofing sheets,angle them and atach them under my deck...Thanks



Mick, make sure you also put something under the wood so it doesn't touch ground. Your situation should work out good.


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## Cluttermagnet (Oct 13, 2013)

I had to demolish a small storage shed that had been built under a deck. It had a conventional sloped roof with asphalt shingles. It had gotten pretty nasty with some funky wet and rotten wood in places. My feeling based on that experience would be to try to keep it real simple. Think "top covered woodstack". Open sides. Make sure that sucker can breathe. Yep, and keep your wood up off the ground. That ought to work out OK. Remember rain water likes to sneak around the back of things and run down walls, like your foundation wall, for example. Think "metal flashing".

If I were building this, I'm visualizing it as a 'deck add-on', i.e. a little 'roof' suspended under the deck and permanently attached to it. Guess you could hang it on 4x4 uprights, though. I like the corrugated roofing, whether fiberglass or plastic or metal. Any of the roof edges could drip- a lot. So side guides might help, also flashing in the back.


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## Craby (Oct 13, 2013)

I did this with corrugated metal sheets.
On a 12' wide deck I used an 8' and 4' sheet. Used lobbers that ductwork subs use to rip the 21" sheets in half so the edges aren't jagged. Screwed the 8' sheet at the house to the bottom of the deck board (making sure the screw is shorter than the deck board).
The  4' sheet overlaps at the outer edge.
Used some scrap wood to shim up under this overlap for constant slope.
The joists are 12" oc instead of standard 16" oc because of plastic deck boards, so the 10 1/2" sheets fit pretty well, though there are some drips that get thru.
I'm thinking of using some 3/8" backer rod 3" long between the deck boards, above the joist to channel the drips into the metal sheets.


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## Soundchasm (Oct 13, 2013)

Mick-Fish said:


> Hi...Has any one ever built a roof under their deck to shed water away from their wood piles....how did it work out...I have a deck about 10 feet off the ground  and was wondering what problems I could have if I take some metal or fiberglass roofing sheets,angle them and attach them under my deck...Thanks



That's exactly what we did here.  Didn't do it for the wood, but it was a car port.  But the water that dripped off the deck seemed to have chemicals in it that put terribly pesky stains on a paint job.  I only wish we'd have put a greater slope to the thing.  Shallow slope wants to hold debris.  The low side empties into a gutter, and the unexpected issue I had was with water traveling back up under the bottom and then dripping.  I created a "lip" on all the panels with some caulking and now it goes right into the gutter.

I swear if I had it to do over again, I'd go whole hog and figure out how to put it on a hinge!!


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## weatherguy (Oct 13, 2013)

They actually make a product for doing exactly what you want to do. It's carried at different hardware stores.


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## red oak (Oct 13, 2013)

My deck is the main reason I have not built a woodshed.  The roof of my house comes out over the deck, and underneath is concrete and a little over 6' clearance.  To me it's an ideal place to store wood - covered, off the ground, open on three sides, and right outside my basement door.  I store it out in the open during the summer, then move in about 2 cords under the deck for the winter.


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## BIGDADDY (Oct 14, 2013)

You could lay a tarp on top of the deck and tie or place weighted objects on it.


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## burnt03 (Oct 14, 2013)

BIGDADDY said:


> You could lay a tarp on top of the deck and tie or place weighted objects on it.



I do this.  Have about 6' under my lower deck, lay thicker vapor barrier plastic over the cedar deck boards during the winter.  Pull it over the edge and staple to the vertical surfaces.  A little bit of water does seem to get trapped and this has removed the stain on a few of boards, but I need to restain every year anyways, so it doesn't bother me.


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## Mick-Fish (Oct 15, 2013)

WOW...Thanks for the  great advice...Mick-Fish


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