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Deck renovation
project
When the owner called me to have a look at the deck, he
talked about a "small project." The deck I found had three different
parts. The first, was a raised area constructed mainly from a pine
understructure which had rotted in many places and was covered in two
layers of plywood which itself was covered in astro-turf. The lower area
was a redwood deck but had been painted. The substructure, consisting of
4" x 6" full sized pine beams was severly rotted in places and in
addition, the beams were four feet apart, resulting in a 'bouncing' of the
boards which eventually had ripped the nails out and lifted. A third
section was lower still and had been built at a later date. This had a
concrete pad underneath it which carried the hot tub.
After
discussing options with the owners, we agreed to replace the entire deck
area with new redwood and to renew the structural timber as we went and
where necessary. We would however raise the lowest deck level and also
deck the upper level, which originally had a plywood decking with redwood
planks. So the first step was tearing off the existing covering. The hot
tub, which weighed 800 lbs when empty was moved manually with a crew of
six as a mechanical removal was not possible, due to the proximity of the
swimming pool.
After rebuilding the main structural members, treating the few
existing beams that we kept, with an epoxy based restorer and adding new
beams using pressure treated 4"x6" lumber we turned to the raised deck. We
removed the stairs because the stringers were cracked and removed the
existing 2"x6" joists which were in poor shape. We replaced these using
the best 2"x6" boards from the old deck. They were very straight and, on
edge, still extremely strong, thereby saving the owners some money.
It was now time to start laying down the deck planks. We used
self-tapping, self-counter-sinking 3-1/2" screws and going up to a length
of 4-1/2" screws on the older timbers to ensure that we reached decent
material. The handrail at the back was built in a standard manner and is
up to code. The drop at the front is such that a handrail could be avoided
altogether, but in the interests of safety, we built a lightweight barrier
using 2"x4" redwood on edge and tensioned wires. This allowed for a
continuing transparency between the pool, the hot tub and the raised deck,
but was enough to prevent anyone falling off the edge.
The owners
were so thrilled with the result that they paid us an added bonus! That's
the kind of work we like.
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