Restoration and Extension of My 31 Year Old Deck

[Frank Pellow]

(part 1 of 5)

I am back in Toronto for a two week period and decided to make a start at restoring our deck. I expect that I will not get the project completed before winter sets in, but just maybe, with the incentive provided by having to report on progress here plus the very active “encouragement” of Margaret (my wife), it might get done before the snow flies.
When I built my shop a couple of years ago (see the thread: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=7769), I had to tear down some of the old deck to make room for the shop. Here are some photos taken in March 2004 just before I started work on shop:

• The deck –photo taken from the east

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• The deck –photo taken from the north

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• The outline of the about to be built shop mapped upon the ground and the deck:

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I built the deck in 1975 and the surface is western red cedar 2x6s nailed onto the joints with three 3 inch galvanized spiral nails at each intersection. Thus, the boards are not easy to remove without damaging them in some way. At the time the shop was built, the deck was in serious need of maintenance. It had last been stained in 1995 and suffered from neglect and even misuse while we lived in Seattle from 1997 to 2003. But in 2004, the shop construction project took priority, so the deck has now been neglected and misused for 11 years. However I am happy to report that, in spite of that, the majority of the 31 year old decking boards are sound. And, the underlying support joists and beams are all in good shape.

The project consists first of sanding, and where necessary filling, then staining the remaining original decking. Then I am going to extend the deck with a semi-circular perimeter to the north and east. New wood will be used for the extension.

Here are some pictures taken just as work is getting underway earlier this week:

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The first picture is taken from the east and the second from the north. By the way, last weekend I built the steps that are shown to the right of both pictures; the wood on the steps themselves and on the risers is restored cedar.

[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 5)

The perimeter of the extension is roughly shown by the yellow line in repeated picture below:

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Here is the rough plan for the extension:

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The first phase of reconstruction was to install new joists in sections where I had to remove the old deck in order to build the shop. This was two years ago. Those sections are to be covered with 2x6 that I took up at that time and have stored ever since. The boards were sanded on all sides with 36 grit paper using my Festool 150 Rotex sander in aggressive mode:

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As you can imagine in this mode and with this grit material gets removed very quickly.

Next the holes were cleaned out then filled with Bondo auto body filler: Here is the filler being mixed:

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After mixing the filler has to be applied within about 4 minutes. I applied it using both a popsicle stick and a putty knife.

[Frank Pellow]

(part 3 of 5)

After the filler was applied, I waited for about an hour then sanded the top surface of the boards first with 80 grit paper and then with 120 grit paper. A coat of Sikens Cetol SRD (078 Natural) was then applied to all sides. Here are some pictures of a segment the same board going through the above steps:
• Before sanding

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• After sanding with 36 grit and hole filling:

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• Sanding with 80 grit paper:

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• After sanding and application of one coat of stain:

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[Frank Pellow]

(part 4 of 5)

The first thing to do was to replace the “bridge” to my main shop door with restored boards:

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In the second picture, it has just rained and water is beading on the boards. Notice, the patch on the second board out from the wall.

Here are a couple of photos showing the restored boards being installed on some new joists:

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The boards were quite straight and I only needed to use my BoWrench clamp once:

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[Frank Pellow]

(part 5 of 5)

Now, to work on the already-nailed-down boards. I will need to remove a few of these as well as some sections of others but, for the most part, it will be possible to sand these in place, countersink their nails even further and fill the holes with body filler. Some of these boards are being sanded with 36 grit paper as shown in the photo below:

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As well as the deck, two chairs and three planter boxes need to be restored. Here is “before” photo of one of the chairs:

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[Kelly C. Hanna]

Cool that you could reuse your deck boards...not many 31 year old decks in use today in this area....

Can't wait to see the final pics!

[Corey Hallagan]

Looking good Frank! I too am suprised that your 31 year old deck is still in such good shape.

corey

[Norman Hitt]

Looking good, Frank. I am curious though about your design, wondering why you didn't lengthen the curved part of the new deck to include the shop door on the East side of the shop and move the steps to the edge of the deck, giving you a flat landing coming out of the shop and then down the stepsto the yard, OR..a right turn on the Deck straight to the house. It just looks more practical to me and seems like it would be more aesthetically pleasing than having the steps against the door, but sideways to the end of the deck.:confused:

[Frank Pellow]

Looking good, Frank. I am curious though about your design, wondering why you didn't lengthen the curved part of the new deck to include the shop door on the East side of the shop and move the steps to the edge of the deck, giving you a flat landing coming out of the shop and then down the stepsto the yard, OR..a right turn on the Deck straight to the house. It just looks more practical to me and seems like it would be more aesthetically pleasing than having the steps against the door, but sideways to the end of the deck.:confused:
Norman, that’s a good suggestion but, the reason that I did not do things as you suggest is lack of space.

We have squeezed a lot into our suburban back yard and making the deck bigger than my current plans would encroach on our already diminished lawn and vegetable garden. I have a single door to the shop which does open onto the deck and that door gets the vast majority of use. You might be right that the steps at right angles to the deck will look funny but, if they do, I might be able to come up with something that makes that arrangement look natural –I am pretty good at solving problems like that.

[Joe Jensen]

Frank, can you elaborate on how long it took to sand each board? Which Festool paper did you use? I was surprised to see that you started with 80 grit. thanks...joe

[Norman Hitt]

I kinda "Figgered" there must be some reason for it, and I DO savvy the lack of yard space. I kinda have a different problem in my back yard, as I have PLENTY of space left, Buuuuut....the City Powers that be, say I can only cover 124 more sq ft of the yard with ANYTHING.

(It must be "who you know" down here at our City Hall, because I have seen several places within the past year that have built houses, bldgs, pools, decks, etc and have almost their whole legal lot covered with something,....Definitely more than the percentage of coverage on a lot that they told me).

[Frank Pellow]

Frank, can you elaborate on how long it took to sand each board? Which Festool paper did you use? I was surprised to see that you started with 80 grit. thanks...joe
Joe, I started with 36 grit, not 80. You missed a step.

I used Festool Saphir paper, 36 on all 4 sides, then 80 on the top side, then 120 on the top side.

The boards shown in the pictures are 7 feet long. As best I can recall becuase I was not really timing myself, on average it took about 10 minutes to sand with 36 grit, 4 minutes with 80 grit (at this point, I was also sanding the auto-body filler), and about 2 minutes with 120 grit.

[Frank Pellow]

...
I used Festool Saphir paper, 36 on all 4 sides, then 80 on the top side, then 120 on the top side.
...

Correction: Only the 36 and 80 grit paper are Saphir. The 120 grit paper is Rubin.

[Frank Pellow]

It rained on and off during the weekend and this is a problem because the boards that are being refinished in place on the deck have to be perfectly dry before they can be sanded. I left Toronto this morning and will not get back to the project for about a week and a half, so I hope for dry weather upon my return. Here is a photo of the deck as I left it this morning:

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There was certainly some work that could be done in spite of the rain and that is the restoration of the chairs and planter boxes. Not only are they badly weathered, but a few parts are cracked and/or broken. My Festool My Festool Deltex sander is perfect for sanding the narrow boards on the back of a chair:

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[Frank Pellow]

I returned from Pellow’s Camp to Toronto in the middle of the week to find dry weather, cold but dry. Of course, dry is what is needed to be able to sand, fill, and stain the rest of the old deck. This I managed to do, as well as to install the posts needed for the extension.
Unfortunately, I could not save all the old cedar decking. Here are some photos showing sections being removed:

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Note in the second photo how the five stained boards immediately in front of the door are brighter than the stained boards to the left of them and in front of them in the photo. This is because they have had two coats of stain whereas the other boards have only had one. There was discussion recently as to whether one or two coats of Sikkens Cetol SRD should be applied. I am in the two coats camp and this photo illustrates why I am in that camp.
All the kneeling that I was doing on this project finally got to me so, after many years of abusing my knees, I finally invested in some kneepads. Here I am modeling them:

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Stylish aren’t I! :D

And here I am making use of them:

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This picture shows some of the new boards being installed. Like the original decking the new boards are 2x6 Western Red Cedar.

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[Frank Pellow]

Today, I started and finished a job that I had not been looking forward to doing; that is to dig holes for then install the five posts to support the extension. The reason that I dreaded the job is that, when digging the holes for the original deck, I hit lots of crap such as bricks and cement that the builders of our house had dumped outside the foundation. Today I was lucky :) –all I hit was one rock big rock that meant I had to relocate one hole.

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Thirteen (30 kilo) bags of concrete mix later we have 5 posts ready to spport beams for the extension:

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Here is a close-up view of the deck I took this evening:

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All the boards have now been sanded and repaired. The brighter boards in the foreground have just been stained. The boards really soak up the stain and that is why most of the boards in the background look faded. If the dry weather holds tomorrow, I will apply a second coat of stain to the whole deck. This will make it look a lot better.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I am very intrigued when you say you filled the holes in the decking. Aside from Bondo, I've never seen any filler stand up to the elements...what are you using and have you seen it work before? Does it take stain well?

[Frank Pellow]

I am very intrigued when you say you filled the holes in the decking. Aside from Bondo, I've never seen any filler stand up to the elements...what are you using and have you seen it work before? Does it take stain well?
Kelly, I used wood in some places and Bondo in others. Earlier in this thread, I show how I am applying the Bondo. It does stain well but does not exacly match the old cedar. With the stain applied, it is fair close to the new cedar colour. I dedcided early on in this project that it wold be impossible to match all my my patches to the old wood, so I decided to "feature" them.

[Frank Pellow]

As promised in last nights post, I put a second coat of stain on the deck today. Here is a photo taken after the stain had dried.

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I like the look of different colours and I even kind of like the fact that you can see the repairs. Our deck reminds of the interior our cedar and canvas canoe which is about 80 years old and which was repaired about 20 years ago.

As well as staining I took up the turf in the area of the deck extension:

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If the rain holds off tomorrow, I will put down thick plastic then cover it with crushed stone.

I saved the pile of turfs to use as topsoil in an expensive yard and gardens re-org that is planned for next spring.

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This reminds me of the turf buildings that we saw at the Viking re-creation habitat at L'Anse-aux Meadows in Newfoundland that Margaret and I visited last June:

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[Frank Pellow]

Sorry, but I am bumping this thread in order to test the problem that I reported in thread: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=44074

[Frank Pellow]

I only got in about 6 hours work on the deck today, but I accomplished a lot. First, the plastic is now spread and covered with about 10 centimetres (4 inches) of crushed stone. I then installed some to the beams and one of the joists. Leveling the posts to the existing deck is best done with a good old fashioned and inexpensive line level:

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For me, it works much better than a modern laser level.
Sticking to the low tech theme, the posts were cut to the correct height with a non-power crosscut saw:

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Here is the site as I left it this afternoon:

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Things are going very well but I am sorry to say that I have to break off work on this project now and will not get back to it until a week from today at the earliest.

[Frank Pellow]

Today, an appointment was cancelled so I had an unexpected 5 hours to work on the deck. As a result, all the beams have been installed, and most of the joists have been installed.

There were a lot of irregular angles to content with but I found that by clamping the 2x6 and 2x8 timbers to the miter gauge I could easily cut most of them.

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I used long spikes on some of the joints:

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Here is the end result after today’s labour:

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[Art Mulder]

Looks really solid, Frank. Goin for another 30 years on this one? :p

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I like the way you think Frank...you build them to last like I do!!

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Gee Frank, I'm totally exhausted just reading your post, never mind doing the work.

Greg