For 16-year-old Rebecca getting into her Waterview home wasn’t always an easy task. Being in a wheelchair made it extremely challenging to get up the front steps of the house by herself.

When Rebecca’s mother approached Nurajack about their decking pedestal system to build a ramp, they knew they had to help her out as much as they could. Knowing additional support would be required, Nurajack approached some of their industry partners and with the donation of timber from Placemakers and screws from Spax Pacific the project could begin.

The home was a 1940’s brick bungalow and the area chosen for the ramp was a covered back door patio, with three steps leading up into a porch and then a 150mm high step into the kitchen. Nurajack’s handy reps undertook building the ramp in order to provide easier access to the home and to show how simple the system is to install.

The Nurajacks were used to support the timber joists in the porch area. The large base provided enough stability that they did not need fixing down to the patio or the porch and no nogging of the joists was required. The Nurajacks were adjusted to a height that enabled the Placemakers 90 x 45mm timber joists to be set at 20mm below the finish floor level. The Placemakers pine grip tread decking was then fixed with Spax fasteners to provide a flush finish with the door threshold.

To meet the suitable slope of the wheelchair ramp, a landing was required at the other end of the patio where the ramp could make a 90-degree turn. The landing was framed up and set on SE3 (75-120mm) Nurajacks. Additional joists were then run from the porch deck to the landing and supported on a range of Nurajacks at 1 metre centers.

The self-leveling head on the Nurajack meant that the Nurajacks fully supported the joists and 1.2 metre joists were run and furred to the patio floor level. The final step was to screw the decking in place with the Spax deck screws and add the finishing touches of the base boards.

By replacing the usual timber piles with adjustable Nurajacks, the whole project took around six hours with a team of one builder and three Nurajack technical advisors.

The stability and ability to support loads (up to 1000kg per jack) means that Nurajacks can be used to replace standard deck piles. Nurajacks speed up the deck installation and easily compensate for any falls of a substrate or slope of a ramp.

Overall the ramp build was a huge success enabling easy access into the home without assistance. Nurajack could not have completed this project without the generous support of Placemakers Lunn Ave and Spax Pacific. Nurajack is proud to have had them involved in such a rewarding project.