| I'm with Pulpo, you can do my drawings anytime. As he said, I have always liked to have my 4x4 posts extend up through the decking and use the same posts that support the framing in your railings. This makes for a very stiff railing and also brings the entire railing system back inside the plane of the deck. It looks a lot nicer. The only thing you can't do is run 2x2 spindles down onto the deck box which I don't like anyway. Essentially, you're hanging the deck on the posts. I put 2- 1/2" carriage bolts in each post.
Your stairs look fine. You really don't need joist hangers to connect the stringers to the deck. Just toe nailing. I'm not exactly sure about the codes, but here in New York they want the stair bottom supported on concrete. We usually build a box that extends under the stairs and out at least 12" in front, with an 8" rise to the first step. This can be faced with bluestone. Like I said, I'm not sure of the code involved, all building departments seem to handle this differently and this covers all the bases. They won't accept a 2x6 buried in gravel here.  |