Deck Re-do @ The Bear Den
I finally got my rotting decking & railing removed and replaced:
I’m doing a lot of these things lately to make things more maintenance free for me, and for Mrs Bear when I’m no longer around.
So——I personally built my Deck 16 years ago, after they changed the Pressure Treated from the old “Dangerous” type to the new “Useless” type.
That coupled with the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a Deck paint that lasts more than a year or 2 per coat, and your deck doesn’t stay nice very long.
When I built it, I had just gotten done building a few for other people in the area, so I pretty much knew what I was doing.
At that time the word was that the only composite, or manmade decking was not worth using, so my choices were limited.
So after 16 years, and many coats of lousy deck paint, I decided to get my decking & railing replaced with a composite decking.
I wanted to use the same stuff I used for my front porch, but that “Timbertech” was discontinued, and the closest decking available was “Azek”.
So I figured all the decking & Facia, and concealed fasteners I needed, and called around for pricing. I couldn’t believe the differences in pricing from one distributor to another. The place I ended up getting it from was a full $1000 cheaper than any of the others!!
Since Bear Jr acquired the railing for my front porch, I got him to do it again for me, so we figured what I needed, and he got the Trex Plastic Railings with Round Aluminum Balusters, and he picked the railing up & brought it here from Lowe’s.
Then since I can no longer do the work myself, I had to find somebody to do it, that I could trust to be able to do it right, for a fair price.
Since we don’t know anybody up here in Lehigh County, I got some recommendations from a local lumber yard, and made some calls.
After a few “no answers”, and a couple “no calls returned”, I settled on a guy who seemed like he could handle the job, and had done many of the same over the last few years.
He and his helper did a pretty good job, in a decent amount of time, as it was the only full week without rain we had all year.
They actually showed up every morning either on time, or early, which is unusual for most guys in the construction business around here.
Since I didn’t order any extra, I watched very closely that they didn’t screw anything up, because the materials are expensive & it takes days to get any replacement Deck or Facia for any screw-ups.
So they carefully removed all my old decking, railing, balusters, stair treads & risers.
All of the posts I had put up were in good shape, so all they had to do was move them from the outside of the Rim-Joists to the Inside.
And the Ledger, 2 X 10 Joists, and Double 2 X 12 Beams were in Great shape.
Then they applied the new decking with concealed fasteners on every Joist.
They had to add 2 extra stringers to the small stairs, because the Azek needs support spaces no more than 16” apart.
Then they put all the railing up, finished up a bunch of odds & ends, cleaned up, took a couple pictures, got their check, and were gone.
All in all I can say I was happy with their work.
Hope you like the Pics,
Bear
This is what my Old Deck Looked like, after 16 years:
I took this Pic to show how weathered the Decking was getting.
Note: I didn't touch it the last 3 years, because I knew I was going to get New Decking & Railing:
Here's all the Decking & Railing that was removed. Posts will be reused.
One of Bear Jr's Tower climber's will be taking this pile to his Deer Camp for use in Tree Stands:
Structural members were all fine & ready for New Decking:
New Decking all in place. Old Stairs still there for use while installing Decking:
Moving Old Posts from outside to inside of the Rim Joist:
Installing Post Sleeves & Railing Components. Also new Treads & Risers installed:
All Finished--Pic #1:
All Finished--Pic #2:
All Finished Pic--#3:
All Finished Pic--#4:
I finally got my rotting decking & railing removed and replaced:
I’m doing a lot of these things lately to make things more maintenance free for me, and for Mrs Bear when I’m no longer around.
So——I personally built my Deck 16 years ago, after they changed the Pressure Treated from the old “Dangerous” type to the new “Useless” type.
That coupled with the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a Deck paint that lasts more than a year or 2 per coat, and your deck doesn’t stay nice very long.
When I built it, I had just gotten done building a few for other people in the area, so I pretty much knew what I was doing.
At that time the word was that the only composite, or manmade decking was not worth using, so my choices were limited.
So after 16 years, and many coats of lousy deck paint, I decided to get my decking & railing replaced with a composite decking.
I wanted to use the same stuff I used for my front porch, but that “Timbertech” was discontinued, and the closest decking available was “Azek”.
So I figured all the decking & Facia, and concealed fasteners I needed, and called around for pricing. I couldn’t believe the differences in pricing from one distributor to another. The place I ended up getting it from was a full $1000 cheaper than any of the others!!
Since Bear Jr acquired the railing for my front porch, I got him to do it again for me, so we figured what I needed, and he got the Trex Plastic Railings with Round Aluminum Balusters, and he picked the railing up & brought it here from Lowe’s.
Then since I can no longer do the work myself, I had to find somebody to do it, that I could trust to be able to do it right, for a fair price.
Since we don’t know anybody up here in Lehigh County, I got some recommendations from a local lumber yard, and made some calls.
After a few “no answers”, and a couple “no calls returned”, I settled on a guy who seemed like he could handle the job, and had done many of the same over the last few years.
He and his helper did a pretty good job, in a decent amount of time, as it was the only full week without rain we had all year.
They actually showed up every morning either on time, or early, which is unusual for most guys in the construction business around here.
Since I didn’t order any extra, I watched very closely that they didn’t screw anything up, because the materials are expensive & it takes days to get any replacement Deck or Facia for any screw-ups.
So they carefully removed all my old decking, railing, balusters, stair treads & risers.
All of the posts I had put up were in good shape, so all they had to do was move them from the outside of the Rim-Joists to the Inside.
And the Ledger, 2 X 10 Joists, and Double 2 X 12 Beams were in Great shape.
Then they applied the new decking with concealed fasteners on every Joist.
They had to add 2 extra stringers to the small stairs, because the Azek needs support spaces no more than 16” apart.
Then they put all the railing up, finished up a bunch of odds & ends, cleaned up, took a couple pictures, got their check, and were gone.
All in all I can say I was happy with their work.
Hope you like the Pics,
Bear
This is what my Old Deck Looked like, after 16 years:
I took this Pic to show how weathered the Decking was getting.
Note: I didn't touch it the last 3 years, because I knew I was going to get New Decking & Railing:
Here's all the Decking & Railing that was removed. Posts will be reused.
One of Bear Jr's Tower climber's will be taking this pile to his Deer Camp for use in Tree Stands:
Structural members were all fine & ready for New Decking:
New Decking all in place. Old Stairs still there for use while installing Decking:
Moving Old Posts from outside to inside of the Rim Joist:
Installing Post Sleeves & Railing Components. Also new Treads & Risers installed:
All Finished--Pic #1:
All Finished--Pic #2:
All Finished Pic--#3:
All Finished Pic--#4:
