Deck Rebuild Opinions

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TH wrote:</div>
When redecking, I’d ask myself, ”will these posts and footings last 30 years?” It doesn’t make sense to put 30 yr material on old structure. That’s why I rebuilt everything.

Agreed.

I’d look long and hard at any old structure before putting thousands (or 10s of thousands) of composite over it. There’s a bar on the Chetac chain in WI that redid a deck that’s probably ~1000 sq. feet and went with all trex on pre-existing treated structure. Last summer was the third season since it had been redone according to the waitress. It looked like a roller coaster.

That’s what we call in the field, putting lip stick on a pig.

Thoughts? Granted this is only one small area, nothing about the rest of the deck makes me think it’ll be any different.

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what specifically we be looking at?

More.

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I don’t know. Everyone is worried about the substructure and footings. I don’t know what I’m looking for to understand if it’ll last another 20-30 years or not.

Sorry,
I can’t help without a lot more pics and dims/measurements or see it in person.

You didn’t mention what kind of bourbon you want in your old fashioned.

LOL,
I would head up there put catching a plane to NC tomorrow.

Matt you won’t be living there in 30 years so just deck it and crack a beer and turn the ball game on.

Looks pretty good for an existing structure. I’d add some joist tape to cover the existing screw/nail holes and make sure the top of the joists are absolutely flat with each other. Any differences will show through the composite decking way more than it did the wood decking.

Ryan Speers wrote:

Looks pretty good for an existing structure. I’d add some joist tape to cover the existing screw/nail holes and make sure the top of the joists are absolutely flat with each other. Any differences will show through the composite decking way more than it did the wood decking.

Thanks. They didn’t give me the joist tape so I’ll definitely be going back for that. I’ll make sure everything is flat too.

Cable railing is sharp looking, too.

Here’s some progress project pig lipstick.

I’m now on to figuring out how to handle the stairs. There is no concrete pad for the landing nor are there any footings. There were only patio pavers under the stairs previously without any class 5 underneath.

Is there any concerns about laying down some class 5 and putting patio pavers back in as a landing? Seems like the most economical option here.

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Just ripped down my old deck this weekend and am ordering the materials for the full rebuild this week. Upgrading to composite and am going with Deckorators. 20 yr warranty, no maintenance. $20,000 is hard to part with but knowing I don’t have to re-stain it every couple years is worth it.

From my research, all major composite brands are great. you get more aesthetic options and colors as you go up the price scale. There’s one brand that’s less slick has a noticeably better grip. But otherwise it’s really about what looks good vs what you want to spend.

My last house had over 600 square foot of cedar decking. At 10 years old, I started to get rotten boards. It was pretty shaded, but professionally cleaned and treated at least every other year. The new high bred cedar isn’t what cedar used to be. Don’t think I do wood on a deck again. After watching me fight my deck. My brother-in-law poured pilings, set steel beams, and poured an exposed aggerate raised deck 50′ across the back of his house. Besides the low natural oil content of the new cedar. Everything that protected wood from uv light has been outlawed from deck sealer products.

Wow I wish I understood decking and that stuff. If anyone wants to fish vermilion and help/show me how to rebuild a small deck let me know.

I just finished replacing my wood decking with composite. The structure underneath was in good condition. I am far from a carpenter but all in all it turned out pretty good. Now the question is what to do for railing? I’ve been reading about going with composite but the problem is I do not have 4*4 posts to install the sleeves on. Just wondering what the best option is? Can you just order the correct length and angles for everything or do you need to cut it to length?

Thanks,
RVRDUX

Aluminum railing and post. Get the post with the leveling screws built in. You will have to put a block in underneath the deck where each post goes. Very easy to install and is very low maintenance.

Westbury railing is wonderful stuff to work with. Just sit down before you find out what it costs.

^Westbury is worth it. I wouldn’t recommend anything else.

Project pig lipstick is finally complete. The only real issue was getting facia from different lots. The colors were far from a match so I had to take them back and wait for more with some darker coloration.

Thanks to all that recommended Trex. I am very happy with it. The color matches the gazebo very well.

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More pics.

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Few more.

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Biggil,
The deck looks amazing! Realy! Lots of cash went into this to be sure!!
Issue are the steps and lack of railing.
The steps need to be of equal rise without 3/8″ variance from ground to top of deck. I forget the maximum heights of a surface of the grade but I believe you will be required to have railing on the 4 step stair.

That said, I’d love to see the before pics of the stair horses to see backing under the treads the way you did them! Genius design!! Yep and I love the lighting too!

If I may ask, what is the railing brand that you used?

Railings are Trex Transcend. Went with the cocktail rail, because cocktails.

The 4 step is only 32” off the ground. I believe code is 36” to require a railing. I miscalculated this stair by 1” somehow so the top step is 1”less. Not sure what I did but it is what is is now. Before there was 5 steps and about 3” of variation between the top step and the rest. It was the same for the 3 step stairway. The previous owner was lazy and nailed the stringer as low to the rim joist as possible without care of the spacing of the top step. I dropped both of them down so that they would have equal spacing, or as close as I could get. Ultimately I wanted to keep the risers at 7” so I didn’t have to rip the facia so I spent about a week contemplating how I was going to achieve this.

I’m planning on extending out a small paver patio landing to finish it off at some point.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pics of the stairs before putting the treads on. I just attached a 2×4 support to the outer stringer under the tread to support the mitered triangle. I saw this design on a YouTube video and thought it looked simple enough. I struggled setting that little triangle with equal spacing between the treads but I feel it turned out alright.

I really like how you did your stairs. Nice job!

Good looking Deck Gil.

fyi – A handrail is required when over 30″, I believe they also re-wrote it to include “measured at 36″ horizontal to landing”

I think it’s about 26”-28” at the deck and 32” at the landing.

I hadn’t even noticed until now my username changed back to my original username. Something happened when I linked to my google account I think.