Sandy and I are confined to quarters. Doc confirmed we both have strep throat, which is (very) contagious to others. Therefore, we are staying in the house, while Dave and his help are roasting in our hot, humid weather, building the new deck. The only thing I was able to do this morning: Cleaning up debris and some huge branches from last night’s storm. I will return with content soon, as the antibiotics should start to kick in within just a few days. I won’t include photos today, as you would not want to read the blog after viewing photos of my throat.

At least, I have my fingers crossed.

— Al Navas

Going...gone!

The photo above also shows the rock- and sand-filled area that will be the patio, just outside the Family Room. The new deck will be extended to completely cover the patio, in line with the concrete deck by the pool; at the near side it will be 16 feet wide, and almost 18 feet wide at the far end. I snapped the photo from the deck area in front of the dining room, where the deck is 11 feet wide, and the only section still standing along the East side of the house.

Today the contractor will not work on the deck if the rain holds off, as he must dig a drainage channel for a new home he was building before he started this job.

— Al Navas

Damage to the ends of joists.

Not to be outdone, the aprons (rails?) between the support posts showed terrible damage. Carpenter ants did their thing, unrelentingly:

Damage to structural aprons.

Many boards showed this damage:

Check it out!

As a result, it was time to consider total replacement. I asked Dave to prepare a new materials estimate, to include a complete wrap-around deck, and a full extension over the patio area that will receive the pavers, in front of the Family Room where he is sitting:

Time for a new estimate.

The additional lumber was delivered yesterday morning (Sunday morning!); it does not include the railings at this point:

New material ordered, and delivered!

The following photo shows most of the lumber that will make up the new deck areas:

Most of the new deck.

Demolition started, with the portion of the deck in front of the Living Room removed first (far left in this photo):

South portion demolished in front of Living Room.

The local dumping area, just outside our new office area:

A part of the old deck removed, just outside the Living Room.

Work will continue today, with the removal of the huge board against the siding just outside the Living Room. Then, install flashing, and felt behind the new board. Then start building the new portion of the deck. We will approach the build in sections, as this makes the most sense at this point.

A note to all my readers: If you have an old wooden deck, please inspect all the structural components.

— Al Navas

New footers are in place.

Dave believes this might be an early-1900s cement mixer – quiet as a mouse, the “spokes” on the drive wheel have been welded to the rim more than once. It worked so well that it earned a place in my future tool kit:

Concrete made easy - vintage mixer?

Today: Install support poles, to allow removal of the rest of the stairway landing at the upper deck; make the form for a 20-inch tall retaining wall, and pour; install 5/8-inch diameter bolts for the pole support brackets; install temporary support poles to allow use of the hydraulic jacks to level the upper deck; install joist brackets and lag bolts…I am sure I missed something, but will update later.

Thanks to Dave and his assistant doing all this work, I have been able to catch up with some work in the shop. More on this in a future article.

— Al Navas

The rain held off for most of the day, and allowed work to proceed. The excavation of the area in front of the family room went quickly using a tractor equipped with a front bucket; the same tractor provided the muscle to fill in the area with 5 inches of rock and two inches of sand. This is what we now have, after tamping everything tight (the steps on the bottom-right will be replaced next week):

Looking South, after excavating and filling with rock and sand.

Another view of the same area:

Looking West.

The lumber was delivered late in the morning, and now sits on the driveway, in front of the garage:

Lumber delivered.

We also received the two pallets of pavers (more than 8,100 pounds!), and 75 bags of concrete (for the footings, and a small retaining wall):

Pavers and Quickcrete skids - two each.

The pavers will provide quite a drastically different look from a wooden deck at poolside:

Pavers, 16-inches square.

Next: Make all the 3-foot deep footers that will hold the support posts for the upper deck.

— Al Navas

Stairway support pole at lower deck level.

I chuckled when I saw the brick (photo above). It reminded me of the Roman mosaics we saw in Cyprus, many years ago. No doubt that, at some point, a brick walkway was present at poolside in the early days after the house was built; then the lower deck must have been installed, over 35 years ago.

The contractor removed the entire lower deck in just a few hours — a chain saw proves a very useful tool in this case:

Lower deck removed.

The first load going to the sanitary dump, loaded and ready to go:

Lower deck debris load headed to the dump.

What remains of the landing on the stairway, still attached to one of the poles that will be replaced:

Lower deck stairway attachment.

The wood did not appear to be cedar; and the heft and color reminded me more of redwood. I could be wrong; just in case, I saved some of the best pieces, to recycle them into outdoor furniture:

I saved some of the better boards.

Today: Delivery of materials, including pavers, lumber, fasteners, joist hangers, rock, and sand.

— Al Navas

We reached decision time this past weekend, and awarded the job to a local contractor. He and his assistant will start work this morning; reluctantly, he asked me if it was OK to start at 7 AM, to which I replied that I am usually up between 5 AM and 5:30 AM. He and I went to Menards Monday morning and payed for the materials; delivery is Wednesday afternoon.

The new deck for the North of the house, from the driveway to poolside, will be replaced in cedar, as will the stairway to the upper level near the kitchen. All the replacement upright poles will be 4″ x 4″ treated wood placed on brackets in concrete footings (the old were simply buried in the ground). For the patio area just outside the family room we selected 16-inch pavers in a light color, to lighten up the area under the upper deck. I will work on replacing the floor boards in the upper deck section as time permits. I will post photos of the progress of the deck, in hopes it will help others; I thank everyone for all the comments I received to my earlier blog entry, as it helped Sandy and I a great deal in reaching a decision on how to proceed.

A portion of the old deck, a few years ago.

The remaining portion of the deck, shown in the bottom of the photo, will have to wait until next year, or until the next large commission job comes in.

This means that, for now, I will be free to start a large new project for a local church, in partnership with one of the local cabinet shops.

— Al Navas

Make sure to visit the Isoloc web page to read the details. In case you are not familiar with the look of this joint, I invite you to look at the Isoloc Photo Gallery page, and click on each of the four links to go to each of the photo pages. In the meantime, maybe I can entice you look, with the following:

From the Leigh "fancy" Isoloc web page.

Disclosure: Leigh is a sponsor of my blog. I am never paid for promoting the use of their products. I sometimes do receive tools, for evaluation purposes.

— Al Navas

I learned recently that (cedar) wooden decks don’t last forever. The entire deck on the North side of the house must be replaced; also, the deck in front of the family room, and close to the swimming pool, must be replaced in its entirety. And new supports must be installed under the upper deck to stabilize the entire structure.

The bids are coming in. While the cost will be significant, it is to be expected after 35+ years in use. Most of the work will involve shoring up the upper deck, replacing the staircase, replacing the lower deck where the table and chairs are, and replacing the deck that starts near the bottom-right of the photo and runs to the upper level (click on the photo, to enlarge the image).

I have some questions I hope my readers can address, to help me decide how to do this work:

1. Have you ever repaired or replaced a large deck?
   • Is it best left to a contractor, or
   • Was it easy enough that you were able to tackle it?
   • What material did you use? The newer composites, or simply replaced with cedar?
   • If your old deck was cedar, were you able to reuse any of the old cedar boards?
   • If you were able to reuse old cedar boards, did you bother sealing the old nail/screw holes?
2. Have you ever repaired a sagging elevated deck?
   • How did you do it?
   • Did you use temporary support columns,
   • Or did you simply install new ones, and then removed the old ones?
3. Did you do all the work yourselves, or did you hire a contractor to do it?
4. What are some of the “gotchas” I should be be looking for?
5. What would you do differently, were you to do it over?

I appreciate your comments!

— Al Navas

The original announcement is located here; and all the entries in the 2 x6 contest are here. The first thread has been read a total of 9,700+ times already, and has over 100 replies.

I encourage everyone to participate in these contests and challenges. Why? Because they are important to each of us in several ways:

• We are pushed to meet a deadline in the shop
• We are moved to “think out of the box”
• They move us to try things we might not try otherwise
• There is nothing to lose, other than a few hours’ worth of our time, in return for several hours of enjoyment focused on a single objective
• Beginners and advanced woodworkers participate on equal footing, regardless of experience, tool availability, or skill set — only creativity, and a desire to produce the best within one’s ability

What do you think of the entries in the WoodNet 2 x 6 contest? Which will likely win in the various categories?

I would love to hear from you what you think about these contests and challenges. Will you participate in the upcoming Lumberjocks Summer 2010 Woodworking Awards?

— Al Navas