Fun Weekend Building A Deck

[jyl]

Edit: dupe post, sorry.

Had a fun but tiring weekend helping a friend rebuild his deck.

This is a Deck, each side is roughly 50 feet long by 12 wide, wraps around three sides of the house. Ranges from 5 to 8 feet above the ground. It was built in the 1970s, reportedly not all that well constructed, but for a wood deck to survive 40 years in a densely forested area of wet coastal NorCal seems okay to me. We only did one side.

A few months ago, my friend's carpenter buddy installed new posts and beams under the existing structure. Earlier this week they removed about 1/2 of the old joists and decking, and de-nailed the old decking. Idea is to re-use the old decking as it is old-growth redwood planks up to 20 feet long. I got there on Friday morning, and got the de-nailed decking milled down. We ripped 1/2" off each side, planed the pieces to a uniform thickness, rounded over the upper edges. Another guy arrived mid-afternoon and we removed most of the remaining decking and joists, piled those up for salvage. On Saturday about 8 more guys (and assorted wives, kids, and dogs) arrived. Four guys de-nailed the remaining old decking, I cut blocking from old joists, four guys finished demo-ing the old deck's posts and beams then installed and flashed new ledger. I led a team to mill down the salvaged decking, we had a nice assembly line going on with the table saw and planer. A pretty over-educated work crew, all graduate degrees and PhDs outnumbered Masters. I got this job because I am Mr. Safety around power tools, and because with my recently gouty ankle I wasn't volunteering to climb around on half-built structure 10' high.

Carpenter guy and my friend who owns the house led the rest of the guys who were installing the new joists, blocking, putting water-barrier tape over the joists. By the end of Saturday all the joists were installed. On Sunday we finished milling all the decking and by noon when I left, there were a few courses of decking installed. My friend and his carpenter buddy will finish the decking and do the railings and benches over the coming weekends. The remaining work is okay for a solo guy now.

It wasn't all work - there were great meals, lots of wine and beer, sitting around the fireplace.

And next year we'll do the second side, I guess in 2012 we'll finish it.