On doing deck maintenance

[JR]

I've spent too much of my summer working on this deck. I'm abosulutely positive I did things in all the wrong order.

I started out painting the whole thing. It looked sharp, except the h-brackets at the bottom of the posts looked rusty. Thinking I'd just pull them out and replace them, I dove in. Well, two of the 6x6 posts had dry rot.

Ok, so I pulled out the posts. Inspecion of the beams revealed some qyestionable areas. So now the 6x8 beams need to be replaced.

This might be a good time to point out that 6x8 doug fir is heavy. Really heavy. A genie lift finally solved the installation problem, but just priming and painting was tough.

AAAAnyway, I fabricated the knee braces, put it all together and it looks great. Except for the little bit of dry rot peeking out between a rim joist and 4x6 joist. One more time with feeling, I r&r'd the joist, rim joist, two 4x4 rail posts, a few deck boards, and a couple of balusters.

Ok, so what did learn?

1. Dry rot is bad. Very bad. Bad like a rat. It has to be killed dead, right away, or disease will spread.
2. When painting a deck you need to bring your A game. Splits in the wood need to be caulked. Dry rot (see #1) needs to be exorcised and filled with wood filler or the board completely replaced. Seal all board ends.
3. That little trick they show you on Ask This Old House, of putting a nail between deck boards when installing is important. It provides breathing room so that debris does not collect, leading to dry rot (see #1).
4. A hammer drill, borrowed from your buddy, is the perfect thing for drilling holes in the concrete footing for new braces, even though your buddy, once strong as an ox, can no longer hold up his end of a 6x8, causing sh%t fly all over the patio because you can't properly plan a deck retrofit.

On to the next hunny-do!

[chopnhack]

Sounds like a rough go JR.. Some jobs are like that, I have learned the hard way too! I now inspect each job and each area it will affect for potential conflicts. This really helps when bidding on work too.

[bmyers]

LOL

I feel your pain. I'd call this one of those "bugger on your finger" projects.. Looks great BTW.


B

[Pappy]

I am about to post a thread for some advice on deck materials. That over the edge pol ladder just got more attractive....

[JimD]

I said it on your other thread but will say here your dry rot is a good reason to use PT. I've not seen it do that. When it splits you can leave it alone but the splits will get bigger. Still it lasts around 30 years here with no maintenance. Deck boards might go a little quicker but most will go this long. I've got a deck on a house I'm selling and another on one I'm buying that both have unstained PT boards. Both are about 30 years old and I replaced about 6 boards on the one we're selling and don't have any to replace on the one we're buying. Trex is better but PT is good stuff. In framing applications installed out of the ground it should last indefinitely.

Jim

[gerti]

Well it may have been a PITA but it looks great! Yeah, hate those snowballing projects. And when it's your house you don't just want to cover it up, you want to do it right!

[atgcpaul]

Nice looking deck.

I can imagine how you replaced the rotting posts but can't imagine how you replaced the beams with all the joists sitting on them. You raised up a temporary beam that was sitting on top of a Genie lift while you took out the bad one?

[JR]

You raised up a temporary beam that was sitting on top of a Genie lift while you took out the bad one?

I don't have pics, but I'll try to explain.

I lifted the deck by the joists. I mad a simple rig of four pairs of sistered 2x4s as temporary posts. On top of these posts rested single 2x4s acting a beam. These assemblies were jacked up using bottle jacks. The beams and posts fell away once the fasteners were cut.

With all that done, and the new posts installed, I used the genie lift to put the new beams in place.

[conwaygolfer]

I just applied HD new deck over paint to our deck. It is so thick it fills in all cracks, etc., but only gets 50 sq.ft. Per gal. with 2 coats. Now to see how long it lasts with winter coming, etc.. It has the look of the expensive synthetic boards.

Conwaygolfer