Though out here on the West Coast
we're running out of nice, flat building
sites, homeowners still need some level
outdoor space. Where there's no hope
for a backyard, the solution is often a
deck. Even on flat sites, a deck provides
a civilized separation between
the building and the grass.
When the outer edge of the deck is
supported by a girder, the joists are
ordinary beams (Sketch A). They follow
the expected laws for simple beams
with uniform loading, so you can select
the proper joist sizes by looking them
up in the tables. A simply supported
beam has a single point of maximum
bending stress, right at the center of
the span. This is