More Decking

 

Ordered the fasteners required to build a deck support structure around the air conditioner.  The cross bars will support the decking.  But the AC unit blocks cross bar installation as it denies access to the side rails from one side to the other.  The solution is to bridge from the cross bar in front of the AC unit to the cross bar immediately behind the AC unit and then connect that to the side rails.  Sure it will flex a little more than the normal cross bars but according to the online deflection calculator it should do the trick. Ordered directly from 80/20.net

Day 242: This is the basic design of the assembly that will surround the air conditioner.  The short bars attach to the main support rails.  It turns out to be stiffer that I expected and that's a good thing.

Day 245: The deck support structure is installed.  Now we just need the decking.  The decking is the next problem.  The company that makes the decking is out of white raw material and does not know when they will get any more stock.  On top of that they rarely get orders for white decking and manufacturing people just hate to do all that setup for one small order.  We may be going with another color if this situation does not resolve itself.

I tested the new addition by placing a small strip of plyboard on top of those rails and then walked around a bit.  While it did flex a bit I am more than satisfied with the results.  This will make servicing the AC unit much easier.