Putting down the decking goes quickly once the joists are attached and blocked. We worked from the two ends, setting them in place with a few screws, then placing the other boards.
Spacing was adjusted at one end, then the boards were progressively attached, working from the spaced end. Since it’s very rare that a board is really straight, you proceed with a crowbar and some kind of spacer to straighten the boards as you go. Once the boards are down, some can be unscrewed, tweaked to fine tune the spacing, and reattached.
Since the deck width was measured carefully, three times, we didn’t need to do anything radical like rip a board to make it narrower.
The next step will be exactly that: the steps. This will entail removing the end boards so that forms can be set and later removed, so the end trim pieces haven’t been attached to the deck yet.
After the steps are poured and set, the trim pieces will be attached and the deck sealed for protection against water and ultraviolet rays.