A Refurbished Deck

 

This hole marked the beginning of the end for my 15 yr. old deck. However,  I walked around this hole for at least ten months (probably longer) before repairs began. It was on the list...

and then winter came along. 

If you weren't standing on the deck, where you couldn't miss seeing the hole, you might think the deck looked pretty much okay. However there were a couple other floor boards that were getting a little squishy and some edges that were deteriorating, so it was never a consideration to just patch the hole.

It was definitely time to think about improving the situation. 

 

I decided to go with a composite material for the floor boards and to also replace the railing. The rest could stay, or so I thought.

The demo began the first week in May.

The tear down wasn't a piece a cake but with the right tools and manpower, (namely Dan power) it went rather quickly.

The downside was it revealed a few more issues. A few joists had to be reinforced and in some cases partially replaced. In the end, Dan flipped them all over so that he could attach the composite to a surface that wasn't full of nail holes and was generally in better shape. (Not a necessity but probably the wise thing to do.)

Now that it was accessible, Dan also addressed the downspout that runs below the deck to a drain under the porch. Some new parts and hangers that attached the PVC pipe to the joists became a side job for this project.

Dan and I were in agreement that it was best to give that diagonal look a rest and go for a border with a straight layout. Very glad we made that decision.

The steps leading out to the public sidewalk had two stringers and for the Trek boards Dan felt that was not enough support. He made two more and attached those. As you can see, the band board facing the street had to be replaced. 

The risers on the steps coming off the porch are also new wood. You probably noticed here that the replacement floor is in place. And after a couple weeks of using the front door, I can now walk out the back of the house.

Not everything got torn apart at the same time. It just made more sense to do it in sections. This is one step off the main deck onto a landing, then one step down and follow the brick road to the garage.

Two days of rain, stalled this section for awhile.

Along the way, two new posts were installed. The rest were structurally sound but not very pretty.

Dan suggested we use the plastic sleeves that drop over the posts. Not available in black so here is one in white off the shelf at Menards. As I'm sure you guessed, white was not going to cut it.

Here they are with one coat of Knight's Armour which is the same color as the porch siding.

They came with caps that also had to have two coats of paint and..,

a two-piece base cover.

Here are three in place. (minus the cap and base covers) The bottom right post needs a taller sleeve and and a bit more effort to get it in place.

The landing area now has a new step up to the deck and the same border as the main deck.

I had to search a bit to find a picture of the short rail on the landing since I forgot to take the "before" shot. This was right after I power washed the entire deck in preparation for staining it black. I think that was about five years ago. I decided to eliminate that little rail this time. Then Dan offered up another idea for that spot. I will get to that later.

Next up was the railing. We used metal spindles with a wooden two piece hand rail at the top and a wood 2x4 at the bottom. Those wooden parts needed a primer coat followed by two coats of paint. 

There are six sections of railing, some of which are shown here. Two long sections, three short ones, and the stair rail for the steps on the east side of the deck.

The black metal spindles required careful measuring and quite some time to install. Unfortunately I didn't do my part which was to photograph the process. So we will go with the after shots below.

You can see here that the long sections of the railing are installed leaving just three short sections around the stairs. The longer sections needed a center support but I didn't want anything bulky so Dan came up with the design you see below and created them himself.

Next came a little touch up painting.

We used the original risers on two of the steps so they could be painted. The bottom one along with the risers leading into the porch and the one step on the side landing will have to wait until spring as they are green lumber and need to dry for 9 months. Sadly that new band board is also on hold to be painted. A bit of a bummer because the color scheme will look a little weird until then.

The slats that you see around the base of the deck were not disturbed in this rehab but they did need to be painted. When I stained them five years ago I used a color that matched the siding on the porch. This time I wanted them the same black as the trim around the porch windows.

Guess what?  I found another "before" picture of that little short railing on the landing. And that brings us to what will replace it.

Dan mentioned he had a gate in his garage (for about 10 years.) It was something he pulled out of the alley and thought he might find a use for someday. He brought it over and I was sold!

Dan offered several suggestions as to how to hold the gate in place and when those didn't work for one reason or another, he mentioned a couple of what he believes are poles used to hold up clothes lines before dryers came along. He brought them over and again, I was sold!

It took some doing on Dan's part to cut them to the right height, and then attach them to the gate. There was a lot more to it (and it was a bit of a pain) but we won't go into that.

So this is as far as we can go for now. This side looks good but...

This side shows all the green lumber that can't be painted for 9 months.

 This poor light fixture, that was ignored for weeks, got a quick refresher at the last minute.

Amazing what a little spray paint can do.

From the above photo to this. The ornamental grass is growing quickly and it will help to block the view bit.

Then and now.

The End (until spring comes and I can paint the cured boards.)