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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #10 - Sep 21^st, 2009 at 9:16am

If it were me I would have just used a big old wrecker bar and ripped the boards off, then break the screws off flush. I pretty much demo all decks like that. The right bar makes the job very easy.

This one looks OK, although the one I use is a 6' crow bar with a steel knob welded to the back for leverage. It works very well and very fast.

I'm glad to hear you were successful though.

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Solar Rightwing Extremist

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #11 - Sep 21^st, 2009 at 9:20am

pariah wrote on Sep 14^th, 2009 at 7:56pm:

Hey, Solar.

Thanks for the tip on the Siimpson connector, but I think those will be too rich for my blood for this current project. I'll take your advice about the Deck Mate screws though. Well, I'll ask the contractor what he was planning to get, and if it's not Deck Mate, I'll helpfully suggest that he get them.

Here's an update on my progress with my original problem. I've gotten almost half of the deck boards up by:

Using a circular saw set to just a little deeper than the board depth to cut the deck boards just to each side of each joist.
As I progress along from joist to joist, the sawed boards drop through the joists leaving just a 2-3" piece of board atop the joist.
Then I straddle two joists, bend over a bit, and let a 5 or 8 lb sledge swing from my shoulder - keeping my arm almost totally limp. I swing the sledge just like a pendulum back and forth and bend just far enough to catch the piece of board left on top of the joist (missing the joist). Because the boards are pretty soft and rotten, they usually cleave apart at the screws without much trouble. In many cases, the screws just break off at or just below the surface of the joist.
Once I get all traces of the boards off the joist and am left with a bunch of exposed screws, I go along with vise grips and try to pry out any of the remaining screws. Most of these also snap below the surface of the joist, so I don't actually have to spin the vise grips and extract the screws (which would take ages).
Finally, I go along with a dremel with a metal cutting blade and cut/grind flush any screws that broke off above the surface of the joist.

I've got it down to a science at this point, and I'm moving pretty quickly. I should be able to get the demo done by the time the contractor finishes redoing my trim and gets ready to hit the deck...as it were...and save myself that $1300.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, folks.

Congrats, I can only assume you have finished demo by now, and are in the process of laying new boards.
Pics?

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pariah Progressive Caucus LNF Bunker Offline ...you hoped that the monkey wore a tie... Posts: 5,300 Massachusetts Gender:	Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr Reply #12 - Oct 21^st, 2009 at 7:02am Quote: Congrats, I can only assume you have finished demo by now, and are in the process of laying new boards. Pics? Pics in my wife's camera. I will get them posted in a day or so.
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pariah

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #13 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:14pm

Quote:

Congrats, I can only assume you have finished demo by now, and are in the process of laying new boards.
Pics?

Ok, so when I said that I would post pics in "a couple of days", I actually meant "about a month". Man, it's crazy how fast time flies.

Anyway, as a teaser, here's the rot that started the whole project....including a rare glimpse of pariah's elbow in its natural habitat.

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pariah

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #14 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:22pm

...and some before shots of the whole deck. Sorry I didn't think to take some shots when I had all the boards removed or any close-ups of the rusty, battered screws.

So here's the deck as it looked when we were viewing the house before we bought it. Including an even rarer full body shot of pariah with his first trimester beer-belly and ever-present Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee (Med).

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« Last Edit: Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:38pm by pariah »

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pariah Progressive Caucus LNF Bunker Offline ...you hoped that the monkey wore a tie... Posts: 5,300 Massachusetts Gender:	Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr Reply #15 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:30pm Here's some other rot we knew the contractor was going to find: And how satisfying is seeing that clean, new lumber in there? Nice.
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pariah Progressive Caucus LNF Bunker Offline ...you hoped that the monkey wore a tie... Posts: 5,300 Massachusetts Gender:	Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr Reply #16 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:35pm And finally: Thanks again for the help, all. If you're ever in MA, come over for a beer and some bratwurst and to play in my daughter's sandbox. -pariah
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Solar Rightwing Extremist

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #17 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 1:57pm

OMG!!! What an undertaking!
This should stand as a warning to those building a deck, always leave a gap between the house and the deck, or in the least, create a barrier for water.

I'm impressed at the end results, it looks really great! Cheesy

Though, I'll pass on the sandbox, I have childhood issues from 1962. Undecided

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pariah

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #18 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 2:35pm

Quote:

OMG!!! What an undertaking!
This should stand as a warning to those building a deck, always leave a gap between the house and the deck, or in the least, create a barrier for water.

I'm impressed at the end results, it looks really great! Cheesy

Though, I'll pass on the sandbox, I have childhood issues from 1962. Undecided

Yeah, it was a big job. I knew when I bought the house that the area around the door was flashed badly, because there was an active carpenter ant nest in the basement that was found on inspection, but I didn't realize that the whole ledger board - from one end of the house to the other - was flashed wrong. And of course to add to the bad flashing, the original builder had installed the deck boards before siding the house, and he butted the boards right up to the OSB (using OSB instead of plywood probably being yet another mistake), then he left no gaps between the deck boards and didn't pitch the deck at all from the house, so water just ran down the siding and collected on the boards, ran down behind the boards against the badly flashed OSB, hung out on the ledger board, etc. Then leaves would collect there, and pine needles, and so when I finally got around to pulling off the boards, the debris that had collected between the deck boards and on the ledger board was essentially wet soil, and I would find centipedes and other critters just hanging out in there.

So yes, I reiterate: leave a gap between the house and deck. Essentially, when I hired the contractor, I said, "Make it so that I never have to worry about this deck again," so he said, "you'll want to take the whole ledger board off, cut back the joists from the house, and then reattach it with spacers," which is what we did. He also put ice & water shield behind the siding up to 2 or 3 feet over the level of the deck and spaced the boards from one another so water can run between. All in all, I'm really happy with it.

It does look great, though. Now, I just have to get around to replacing the posts and railings Sad

And Solar, obviously, you're under no obligation to play in the sandbox; I just wanted to put the offer out there

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Solar Rightwing Extremist

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Re: Creative Ideas for Rusty and Stripped Deck Scr
Reply #19 - Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 6:00pm

pariah wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2009 at 2:35pm:

Yeah, it was a big job. I knew when I bought the house that the area around the door was flashed badly, because there was an active carpenter ant nest in the basement that was found on inspection, but I didn't realize that the whole ledger board - from one end of the house to the other - was flashed wrong. And of course to add to the bad flashing, the original builder had installed the deck boards before siding the house, and he butted the boards right up to the OSB (using OSB instead of plywood probably being yet another mistake), then he left no gaps between the deck boards and didn't pitch the deck at all from the house, so water just ran down the siding and collected on the boards, ran down behind the boards against the badly flashed OSB, hung out on the ledger board, etc. Then leaves would collect there, and pine needles, and so when I finally got around to pulling off the boards, the debris that had collected between the deck boards and on the ledger board was essentially wet soil, and I would find centipedes and other critters just hanging out in there.

So yes, I reiterate: leave a gap between the house and deck. Essentially, when I hired the contractor, I said, "Make it so that I never have to worry about this deck again," so he said, "you'll want to take the whole ledger board off, cut back the joists from the house, and then reattach it with spacers," which is what we did. He also put ice & water shield behind the siding up to 2 or 3 feet over the level of the deck and spaced the boards from one another so water can run between. All in all, I'm really happy with it.

It does look great, though. Now, I just have to get around to replacing the posts and railings Sad

And Solar, obviously, you're under no obligation to play in the sandbox; I just wanted to put the offer out there

I hope that the one Carpenter nest you found was the only one in your house, though, they do tend to nest near a water source.
I had them in the shower area, and I wound up tearing out the entire corner of the house.
They not only nest, but they burrow inside the timbers, leaving no sign of of their prescience.
My wall looked fine to the naked eye, but when I would grab a stud, it would crush like Styrofoam, they would tunnel the entire length of the board, totally destroying its structural effectiveness.
Needless to say, I fixed the water issue, and they have never come back.

The cat box issue was when I was a kid playing on the neighbors swing set, we were seeing who could jump off the farthest, I won, or lost in this case, I hit the edge of the sandbox, wound up face first in the sand, with a mouth full of cat turds, all the while trying to breathe, I got the wind knocked totally out of me. Grin

I never set foot in a sand box ever again.

The deck really does look great, you sound like you got a good contractor, not many can claim that these days, with the Mexicans taking over the construction industry.

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