From Dirt to Deck: How Justin Built a Ground-Level Floating Deck Solo (No Concrete, No Experience)

On paper, Justin's goal was simple: build a ground-level floating deck that sits flush with the back door, no big step down into the yard, no step up into the house either. In practice, that created a few real constraints:

• Uneven ground — one corner near the back door sat noticeably lower than the others, meaning the whole structure had to be built up to compensate
• Solo build — no second pair of hands, which changes how you sequence every step
• No prior foundation experience — Justin is a capable DIYer, not a tradesperson, and wanted a method that didn't require specialist knowledge or equipment
• Ground-level means no forgiveness — with a raised deck you can hide imperfections underneath. At ground level, everything has to be right

He was upfront about all of it. And that's exactly what makes his build worth learning from.

THE BUILD AT A GLANCE:
 
Project: Ground-level floating deck
Builder: Justin (solo)
Lumber: 2x8
Foundation: 40 TuffBlock, 4 rows of 10, 5 ft spacing
Joist spacing: 16" on-centre (12" for the first joist off the house)
Deck boards: CAMO Marksman Pro X1 hidden fastener system
Deck size: Approx. 167.5" long

"My experience in using these TuffBlocks to build this ground level floating deck, easy mode."

How Justin Built His Floating Deck: Key Steps

Step 1: Plan Your Layout and Work Out Your Materials

Before a single block goes in the ground, Justin started with a layout plan, using the corner of the house as his reference point.

He then used the BuildTuff Deck Calculator to work out exactly how many TuffBlocks he'd need. Plug in your deck dimensions and it spits out the block count based on 16" on-centre joist spacing and 5 ft spans. For Justin's build, that came to 40 blocks, 4 rows of 10.

Why bother calculating upfront?
Because underordering means a trip back to the store mid-build, and overordering means money sitting in your garage. Get the number right before you start.

💡 Check your local building codes before you start, permit requirements vary by city and county. In many areas, a permit is required if your deck:

- Is attached to your home and more than 40 inches above grade
- Exceeds a certain square footageIncludes stairs, railings, or a roof structure
- Freestanding, low-profile decks (like this build) may be exempt in some jurisdictions - but this isn't guaranteed.

Even when using deck blocks instead of concrete footings, your deck still needs to meet local structural and safety requirements.

Always contact your local building department before starting to confirm permit and inspection requirements.

Step 2: Site Prep — Don't Rush This Part

His specific challenge here was that corner near the back door - it sat lower than the rest of the yard. Rather than trying to fix this later with the frame, he addressed it at ground level, compacting and building up the base at that corner so it would reach the right height once the framing, blocks, and deck boards were all stacked on top. By the time everything was in place, he was sitting at that comfortable 7–8 inch step up into the house.

Justin was clear on this: site prep is the most important step, and the one most people underestimate.

What Justin did:

• Cleared the area and determined his layout
• Compacted the ground using a hand tamp (a plate compactor works faster on larger areas)
• Added a layer of paver base at each block location and tamped that down too

Compact Ground

Why paver base?

Two reasons: it creates a stable, level surface for each block to sit on, and it improves drainage so water doesn't pool under your deck and cause the ground to shift over time. Skip this and you're relying on bare soil, which moves.

Spend more time on this step than you think you need. It's not glamorous, but it's what keeps your deck level five years from now.

Step 3: Build the Outer Frame First

Rather than placing all the blocks and then trying to frame on top of them, Justin built the outer frame first and used it as a level reference for everything else.

Why this order matters: when you're working alone, you can't hold a beam in place and check level at the same time. By building the outer frame first and getting it level and square before anything else, Justin created fixed reference points he could work from independently. Every subsequent block and joist had something to be measured against.

He started with the two corners he could anchor - the higher outside corner and the lower corner near the door, and levelled between them first. Once those two points matched, he moved around the frame corner by corner until the entire outer frame was level. That became his baseline for everything else.

Squaring the frame — the 3-4-5 method:

This is a simple trick builders use to check if a corner is a true right angle. Measure 3 ft along one side of the corner, 4 ft along the other, then measure diagonally between those two points. If the diagonal is exactly 5 ft, your corner is perfectly square. If it's not, nudge the frame until it is. It sounds fiddly but takes about two minutes per corner and saves you hours of frustration later when your deck boards don't line up. Justin ran this check on all four corners before moving on, even though he started with the house corner as his reference, the house itself wasn't square, and this step corrected for that.

Joist spacing:

• 16" on-centre for all interior joists
• First joist off the house: 12" — this accounts for the door threshold height

Outer Frame

Step 4: Place and Level the TuffBlocks

With the outer frame level and joist hangers already installed (more on that below), Justin used the frame as reference points to place each TuffBlock,  levelling them to each other as he worked inward.

Why pre-install joist hangers before the blocks?

This was one of Justin's smartest solo-build decisions. Normally you'd attach joist hangers after the joist is in place, but that means holding a heavy 2x8 in the air with one hand while fastening with the other. By pre-installing the hangers onto the outer frame first (using a small jig he made himself to keep them consistently positioned), each interior joist simply dropped into place without needing to be held or clamped. For a solo builder, this is the difference between a smooth process and a genuinely difficult one.He only drove two screws per hanger during pre-installation, so if a joist turned out to be slightly thicker or thinner than expected, he could still adjust easily before fully fastening

On ground settling:

A lot of people worry about deck blocks shifting over time. Justin's take: the load on a deck isn't carried by any single block. It's distributed across the entire structure, from deck boards down through joists, hangers, blocking, and blocks. If one spot settles slightly, the surrounding blocks share more of the load. With 40 blocks at 1,700 lbs individual capacity, the total structure capacity across his build was 68,000 lbs. As he put it: "We're not going to be bringing in 10 fully loaded pickup trucks to sit on top of this deck."

Levelling out the TuffBlocks

Step 5: Install the Joists — Crown Side Up

Once the blocks were placed and levelled, Justin installed all interior joists and cross-bracing (blocking).

One tip he called out explicitly: always install joists crown side up.

Most timber has a slight bow or curve to it, the "crown." You can spot it by sighting down the length of the board. If you install it crown-side down, gravity and the weight of the deck will push the board further downward over time, causing a sag. Installed crown-side up, the load works against the bow, and the joist gradually straightens out. Justin ran into a bowed board during his build and flagged it directly, check each one before it goes in, not after.

Installing the Joists

Step 6: The Overhang — Don't Go Too Far

Justin inset his first four corner blocks about 12" to allow the deck boards to overhang at the edges, giving a cleaner finished look with no exposed end grain around the perimeter. It's a nice detail, but it's also where he hit his biggest mid-build problem.

He noticed sag developing on the overhang as the build progressed. His honest assessment: he was probably pushing the limits of how far that overhang could go without more support underneath. His fix was to add extra blocking and a few additional TuffBlocks beneath the overhang, which sorted it, but would have been easier to plan for upfront.

His takeaway for you: for a deck this size, don't extend the overhang beyond 12". If you want the look of a larger overhang, add more blocks to support it rather than relying on the frame alone to carry it.

The Overhang

Step 7: Joist Tape — Optional but Worth Considering

Before laying deck boards, Justin applied joist tape along the top of each joist.Joist tape creates a barrier between the timber joist and the deck board above it, reducing moisture contact at the joint, which is where rot typically starts. Not everyone uses it, and Justin acknowledged there's genuine debate in the DIY community about whether it's necessary.

His personal philosophy: "I'd rather say I'm glad I did than I wish I had." If you have the budget, do it. You've already put in all the hard work - protecting it costs relatively little.

Laying down the joist tape

Step 8: Laying the Deck Boards

Justin used the CAMO Marksman Pro X1 hidden fastener system, which drives screws in from the side of each board rather than through the face. The result: a clean surface with no visible screw heads and a consistent 1/16" gap between boards.

This stage was physically the hardest part of the build. Justin was working alone, bent over for hours in the sun. He was straightforward about it: "drink plenty of water and take ibuprofen."

But he also came away with some genuinely useful tips from doing it the hard way.

Start with your straightest board

This sets your reference line for everything that follows. If you start with a crooked board and space evenly from it, every subsequent board will be just as crooked. Take time at the start to find your best board, sight down it, and lay that one first.

Tarp your materials

Don't leave deck boards sitting in direct sun for days before you install them. They'll warp. Justin had this happen and had to work around it. If you do end up with warped boards, a board straightener (he used the CAMO lever) lets you push them back into line while you fasten - otherwise you're fighting each board the whole way down.

Sight down each board before you commit

Lay a long board out and look down its length before fastening. Some boards have a localised defect, a kink or curve in the middle - that won't show at the ends but will create an inconsistent gap once it's down. Justin encountered this and explained it clearly: if you try to force a uniform gap on a board with a mid-point defect, the board ends up curving slightly. Better to identify it before it's screwed down and either position it strategically or swap it out.

Planning the mitered corner

Justin also mitered the perimeter corner of the deck boards for a cleaner finish, cutting at 45 degrees so there's no visible end grain at the edge. He also had gutters to work around, which he handled with a jigsaw and a round-over bit on his router. Small details, but they're what separate a deck that looks built from a deck that looks finished.

Installing the Deck Boards

💡 CAMO gap: 1/16" between boards. The hidden fastener system makes this achievable consistently.

The Finished Deck

Justin's verdict at the end of the build: "Easy mode."

That's not a throwaway line. He built a structurally sound, properly levelled, finished-looking deck — solo, on uneven ground, without any prior foundation experience, in a weekend. The challenges were real, the mistakes were honest, and the fixes were practical. That's what makes his build worth following.

Watch the FULL YouTube video on the BuildTuff channel.

Build Resources Used in This Project

If Justin Built This Solo in a Weekend, So Can You.

No concrete. No digging. No second pair of hands required. TuffBlock is the foundation system that turns a dirt backyard into a deck — exactly like Justin and Jess did.

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