Your bridge deck must not sag. If it bows, it’ll trap water, snow, and possibly a lost frisbee. Here’s the secret: use joists spaced no more than 16 inches apart. That means if your bridge is four feet wide, you need three joists (two edges, one middle). Nail them into the beams with some serious anger.
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Exaggeration time: If you skip the middle joist, your deck will droop like a sad puppy’s ear. A year later, you’ll step on a soft spot and sink to your thigh, shouting, “This is fine!” while a worm watches you in judgment. Don’t be that person.
The Final Layer (and the Drama)
Screw on your deck boards with a gap between them—about a pencil width. Water needs an escape hatch, or it becomes a mosquito breeding pool. Mosquitoes are the paparazzi of the insect world: annoying, everywhere, and impossible to reason with. Keep them out.
Now, you’re done. Step back and admire your work. You have successfully built a bridge over a sewer pipe. You are now a civil engineer of the backyard, a lord of the leavings, a sorcerer of sanitary solutions. Go pour yourself a drink—just not one that came from that pipe.
