Aunt Mel's Deck (part VII)

Here is the finished deck.








Here are a few more stained boards. We will be heading back up again in a month or so to stain the rest of the deck.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part VI)

We also built a step at the bottom of the stairs.




I had a first rate crew helping me out.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part V)

Now for the rail.



I used cedar fence pickets for balusters (needed fewer and cost less, and I like the look).








I used the waterproofing stain on all the ends and places that we won't be able to get to later.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part IV)

I started with the new deck boards next to the door, so that Aunt Mel could get in and out of her house.


I then worked outward from there.







I stained a few of the boards, we weren't able to finish the staining, so we will be back later to do that.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part III)

Framing day





We had a couple guys from Aunt Mel's church show up to help with the framing (a big help because this was some of the heaviest lifting of the whole project).



In the end we replaced every other deck joist and all three headers around the stair opening.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part II)

Destruction time.

I ripped off the rail. (mostly by hand with out tools)



Then I started pulling deck boards. Initially I thought I could just replace a few bad deck boards. But the demo process showed that every board was rotted: some came apart in my hands. No wonder the deck felt soft and creaky.



After all the deck boards were off it was obvious that I had been overly optimistic about the condition of the framing members.

Aunt Mel's Deck (part I)

So, what did we do on our vacation?


A few weeks ago we visited Aunt Mel and noticed that her deck was in poor shape.

There were rotted deck boards.



The rail was falling apart.



The lateral supports were covered in lichens.


And some of the framing was rotted, even the added in stiffeners were bad.



Since Aunt Mel wasn't able to fix it, we decided to come do it for her.