Rear Landing Deck – Part II: Final Details and Finishing Touches
In the blog section, here on our website, from the previous week, we looked at a steel landing deck that led to a back door of a home. Here, even though it looks a little bit more elaborate and definitely more contemporary, the landing shown below also leads to the back door of a city row home. The door at that deck and landing also happens to lead directly to the kitchen of the home. It’s common for decks to lead to a kitchen which coincidentally creates a complimenting type relationship between the kitchen and the deck. It’s a very nice feature, to have a deck, at the back of a house.
It’s also particularly nice to be able to use that deck as an outdoor space for eating and entertaining. That relationship works particularly well, like a symbiosis, when the deck is set just off of the kitchen because the deck can often be like a additional dining room or eating space from which you can migrate or serve from an adjacent kitchen.
The particular deck, shown below, is similar to the one that we looked at last week, but just a bit larger. That slight increase in size is helpful because the one we looked at last week was simply too small to do anything other than have as a platform to use for the ergonomics of turning at the stairwell and entering into the home. It’s important to have a landing at the level of the back door or any exterior entry door because you need a little bit of space at the same level of the door to access keys, and manipulate and or manage the lock set which grants access into the building.
The next picture below shows that same deck in a downward view, almost like a plan view. The backyard has a small but just sufficient outdoor patio which can also be used for dining, seating, and entertainment. And even though that backyard patio space is useful for these purposes, it’s still also very nice and an important feature to have the elevated deck with just enough space to do more than use the landing as an access platform. The extra space allows a little bit of room for potted plants, and a small trash can.
With this amount of space, a small table and chair set could also be added to the deck. It’s particularly nice to have a small table at a landing at an elevated access or entry door because sometimes, particularly when you come home from grocery shopping, you may have several things in your arms that make it difficult to reach for and use your keys to open a door.
Particularly when you’re parking in the backyard and unloading from your vehicle, they’re often things in your hands or arms when you’re going into the home. People also often have many keys on their key rings, and therefore it’s a nice feature to be able to put things down for a moment and reach your keys and select the correct key to open a door. It’s hard to do those things when your hands are full of groceries, for example. These subtle but ergonomic details make a big difference when planning a deck, even when the deck is relatively small.
The picture below shows a slightly different angle of that rear deck and lower patio. This backyard is kind of perfect for a limited space, often found in urban areas like the Washington DC typical yard layouts. We say that it’s perfect because it has just enough space for all of the functional things you might want in a typical backyard, even though there are several types of constraints.
It has a parking space. Parking is extremely valuable here, particularly as density continues to increase. The lower patio is perfect for seating and at least a minimal amount of entertaining of guests. And the stairway and deck are at least minimally useful, both for access and a bit of extra room to accommodate the things you need to access the door and live a bit more comfortably with space just outside of the kitchen door.
The next picture below shows two different counterpoints. There are two row homes set side by side. In this case, these houses each have a rear area so the rear facade shown at each of the houses, side to side, is reduced in overall width. The house to the left, although in disrepair, still has the original landing at the back door. The original stairway to that landing is now missing, but you can see that that landing was just large enough to functionally use as an access platform.
The house to the right is similar, with a landing at the back door, just large enough for its functional purpose. However, the landing and stairway to the right are built with the type of 2x dimensional pressure treated Southern Yellow Pine lumber that is often found in typical backyard decks.
Like the first landing that we looked at in last week’s blog, this simple platform, built from steel elements, is a overall simple and smaller scale version of most wood decks, even though the wood decks might be built with a much larger footprint and overall space.
Use a contractor who understands and cares about doing things right. Always, feel free to reach out to us here at Dupont Decks and Patios. We are happy to help with almost all steps of the deck building and design process. A backyard and outdoor space should make a significant, positive impact on both quality of life and home value. We can help with more than just decks, we also build patios, pergolas, ramadas, awnings, gazebos, arbors, and privacy fences.
Let us know about your ideas and talk to us if you have questions about possibilities. We are happy to participate in improving your outdoor space and quality of life! You can call us at (202) 774-9128. You can find us online at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com and you can email us there as well at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com/contact-us
