You Are Certainly Welcome To Enter But...

Please, mind the dust!

Hope to be up and running before the end of July 2011. Thanks for looking.

DECK RE-VITALIZATION - SPRING PROJECT

A fence can add privacy and the feeling of an "outdoor room". Click picture to enlarge

The Picture Above
I took this picture last June after I had completed my 'deck renovation project' in which I turned the boards over, sanded them and re-fastened them with galvanized screws. The thirty year old deck looked like new so I decided to expand the project and construct the privacy screens as shown. My wife also wanted a screen near the two planter boxes in which we harvested a huge bounty of tasty tomatoes all summer long. 

That's What I Do
I sell plans for a living. Even so, I never did find the exact plans to accomplish what I had in mind, but as usual with any ready-made plans, if you do some simple tweaking and use your imagination you can adapt many stock plans to suite your needs. I am proud to display the fruits of my labor. I'm no carpenter but it turned out pretty good don't you think?  Since the deck was already there, the two additional screens and structure cost me only about a hundred bucks for the whole thing. (plus stain)
NOW... 
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A Simple Project? Maybe!

Reversing deck boards might help this old weather-checked deck

Like most of my projects, this one began last year as a very minor job and progressed into a more involved undertaking as it went along.  It's been over two seasons since we re-stained the patio deck and it showed. Some of the old stain was worn off and the rest was still stubbornly there.

Our government, has made it virtually impossible to obtain the same old CIL oil based stain as I had been using for the past 20 years. This means a change to a water based coating to which I have a skeptical view as far as longevity.  If we are forced to change from oil-based to water-based I figured the best thing to do is to sand it all down and repaint. It might be a good time to change the colour too, since I was never wild about the 'natural cedar' tint and besides, you can't get an exact match anymore.

These 30 year old deck boards were definitely showing their age. 'Weather checking' where the boards were exposed to bright sunshine and moss growing in the shade all contributed to the overall tired look of this old deck. The pressure washer also served to speed along the deterioration of the boards by blasting out the vital oils and loose fibers while cleaning the deck.

Anyway, because some of the 30+ year old deck boards were badly weather checked and split, my son Tim and I decided to replace the worst ones. When we pried a few loose, we were surprised and amazed to see that the back side was in remarkably good condition. This led us to our original plan which was to remove and invert all the boards that were seriously cracked or cosmetically bad before re-staining the deck. Period. 

Not quite! This project is only beginning. 

Oh oh! We can't repair all the boards since a gargantuan planter box sits right on some bad looking ones. Too heavy to move, we'll have to dig out 1100 pounds of dirt. OK but there are also some support columns for a deck structure resting on some of the deck boards. To do the job right, we'll either have to lift the structure, work around the supports, or take the whole thing down.

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Down She Comes

On top of our patio deck we have an aging and deteriorating pergola-come-patio-cover that we decided "while we are at it" should come down if for no other reason that it was becoming an eyesore and a safety hazard.

 We figured a heavy snow load or a wind storm could bring it down and kill somebody if they happened to be under it when it collapsed. This structure was laden down and carried a load much heavier than what it was ever designed to carry due to the fact it was covered with a huge grape vine. Not only that, as mentioned, its supports are in the way of our original deck board project. 

Also, the monster vine atop the structure has been attracting Japanese beetles by the tens of thousands every July. The excrement from the throng of grape leaf eating bugs combined with the heavy shade below, has caused the growth of green mold on the deck boards and will inevitably lead to rot. "You don't want to damage your new deck finish do you?"

After checking with a very good friend John, who is, among other things, a professional deck installer in a major city, about some nail/screw issues and the wisdom of turning the boards over, we were nearly ready to rent the sander.  Oh and by the way, John agreed with me about my decision to turn the boards over. "We do it all the time." he said

But wait, my wife suggested we look into expanding the deck now that the structure was down and a massive planter box had been emptied of a half a ton of topsoil and clay. I agreed that if an expansion was needed, this would be the perfect time to do it while everything was out of the way. It had always bothered us that the deck ended half way past our bedroom window. Why didn’t the original builder carry the thing just past the window?  It always looked funny to me. If we every wanted to replace the window with a sliding door, the deck would have to be bigger.

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Let's Add On To The Deck "While we're at it"!

 The original job looked easy.  But, this project is growing like a tumor. Total it up: 

• Invert a whole bunch of boards. 

• Add a small expansion to extend a part of the deck so the new boards would all be painted at once and it would look like the added on bit was always there. 

• Tear down the pergola, remove the ponderous grape vine and chop out the roots. 

• Empty a big planter box located in the way. Fine! 

• Now dig up and remove the garden that is also in the way, and carry all the dirt temporarily to the front driveway and, 

• while you're at it, make a patch for an unsightly hole in the aluminum siding where a former, relocated AC unit was plumbed in, which was revealed when the planter box was moved. 

I ordered some deck plans from one of my suppliers and adapted them to my deck addition. The nice thing about ePlans are you get them instantly. No waiting for the post office or fussing with paper plans. Looks pretty good to me so far.

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Now We Have No Privacy. We Need To Build A Screen!

Now that the patio cover and giant vine are gone, the neighbors have a clear view to our patio. This, I recalled, is why I built the patio cover in the first place. That, and also the fact there is absolutely no shade after 10 am and no place for hanging pots.

You're not done yet buster... Hmmm! Looks like we need a tastefully, decorative privacy screen and some sort of new structure to hang plants and maybe we should have the old aluminum siding on the house painted now that the deck looks so good and maybe we should add that new sliding door off the bedroom and how about...

Check back soon, this simple project is far from over. 

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This Project Is Far From Over - Stay Tuned!