Fixin' The Deck Part 11

It's Memorial Day weekend, and that means a few different things. It means the INDY 500, this time the 108th running, and the Monaco grand prix for the 70th time. It's somewhat surprising to find that the INDY 500 is so much older. For me it means three days off work and the chance to bring the deck renovation a bit closer to its conclusion. When I say "conclusion" I mean be done with installing deck boards. After that there is a bunch more to do including installing fascia boards, gutters and downspouts, perimeter flashings and of course a perimeter railing. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

This is the scene at the start of the long weekend. It looks like just a small section of deck left to complete but it's worth pointing out that at least a dozen boards in the foreground are just laid in place and not sloped at all.

I began by tearing off the top layer of plywood and removing the nails. The remaining section of plywood is low enough that the deck boards could be installed on top with suitable shims....but it is stained all over and rotten in places, so I started tearing that off too.

One (1) piece out! I can now see straight into the table saw room. With a ladder underneath the hole, I was able to get in and out of the workshop much more quickly every time I needed to get another tool or saw blade etc.

This is the bit of plywood that was right above the table saw room. The white patches are fungus damage that I have been watching grow for the last several years...

D came out to help....but didn't...

Next section off... at this point the substructure started to get very wobbly! There are a several reasons for the lack of support: these joists are sawn 2" x 10"s while the newer ones are 2" x 12" and consist of much more robust Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL). Add to that the older joists are spaced at 16" intervals versus 12" at the LVL and that no blocking was present. Suffice to say, the structure was not strong enough to support some deck boards which are held down with a few short screws. 

So, after an evening detour to the local Big Box store to pick up 2" x 10" lumber, I spent most of the next morning chopping and installing blocking from below. It is much easier to install the blocking flush when the plywood above is still in place:

After that the rest of the plywood was torn off and the structure was found to be rigid enough for me to dance around on top of it (if you can imagine what that might look like?). 

This is later after non-rotten/stained plywood has been installed over the framing. This is now a super solid base on which we can lay the deck boards:

It remains necessary to install shims on top of the plywood because the plywood platform is essentially level and we want the deck boards to slope at least 1/8" per foot.

 

An important milestone was needing to bring more boards out of the garage...

At the end of the weekend, we have about a dozen more boards to install before this part of the project can be completed. Before that I have to do some repairs to the rim joist.

Covered the exposed areas with plywood for now, just in case it should rain again before Fall:

The deck looks much more impressive after I swept it down and looked in the opposite direction:

To be continued...