My new house was a quickie flip, and by the time the flipper got to the deck, he was out of money. The deck ended up a comedy of construction errors and defects, all blithely approved and signed off on by the city. We knew going in that it would be coming down.
In a fit of good judgment, I decided to hire the work out. Having seen the process, I'm glad I did. Work started three weeks ago, and will wrap up tomorrow. Here's a few shots of the work in progress.
Demo was done by a pair of guys who race Hondas. We had a lot to talk about. Between the three of us, armed with sledge hammers and sawzalls (they let me help!), we made short work of the deck. I have read that people who do demolition have extremely high levels of job satisfaction. I get that.
The deck wraps around the house, and the back side is partly built above a garage under the house. Water was already leaking into the garage and molding up the new drywall. We opened it up and saw that long term water leakage had rotted some of the joists, which had to be fixed before a new, waterproof deck could be built. Here the builders have removed the rot and are sistering in new joists. Not sure why the pic is sideways.
They used a waterproof membrane system below the decking to route water away from the house and into funnels that lead to a drain. Lots and lots of meticulous custom work.
The membrane is cut, stapled to the joist, then caulked, then butyl taped.
I originally wanted the decking material to be Ipe, also called Ironwood, but the cost plus the need and expense of ongoing maintenance, made me go with Trex. Railing is powdercoated aluminum. Puget Sound and Mount Baker in the background.
