Deck rebuild with a timely surprise.

Last spring, I decided it was time to rebuild the deck. The deck boards were 2×4 lumber (non PT) and some were rotting to the point where an unfortunately placed foot would cause the board the sag enough that you would think you were going to fall through (pic 4).

I was training for a charity bicycle ride of 200 km (125 miles) from Toronto to Niagra Falls (named ‘The Ride to Conquer Cancer’) at the time, so I just did the planning in the months of April/May and would commence tearing up the old deck after the ride.

Someone must have been smiling down on me as that decision saved me a lot of anguish. The basement wall started leaking during the snow melt and with a heavy rain, part of my ‘finished’ basement (that’s another story for another project post) was damaged by the ground water. The wall that leaked is right under the deck. A quick gut of the section after the insurance assessment found no more water coming in and I was safe to wait until June for the ground to dry a little before having the foundation repaired.

I tried to preserve the shape of the deck, and mostly succeeded. I couldn’t salvage the built in benches however, nor did I have the tools to build new ones in the same form. My biggest challenge was putting in the steps on the curve.

I did have to replace the entire structure of the deck. The joists were running parallel to the wall and the beams were perpendicular to the wall. With the first set of concrete piers within 3 feet of the house, they settled causing the beam to sink as well and the joists were no longer supported by the beam, but rather only the rim joist was holding them in place (pic 3). Also, the deck was at the same height as the door. I lowered it down 6 inches to keep snow melt from trying to penetrate around the sliding door and surrounding windows.

There was a lot more work than I expected going from more than just the ground up. New piers, regrading the slope to drain away from the house and a new basement window cutout to allow some light into the basement. I covered the openeing with 1/2” plexi-glass fastened down with screws for safety.

Thanks for looking and reading my long winded story. Pics 1 & 2 are the finished deck

-- Mike - Minimum code = Barely adequate.