Everybody has problems. Some of them are more serious than others, but we all have 'em. When John Lennon sang that "...there are no problems, only solutions" it is widely agreed that he was talking bollocks. He was certainly speaking without knowledge of our deck and the monster list of issues we've had with it.
If you're not already familiar, please don't bother reading the other fourteen (14) parts of the series, just know that the deck above the garage was leaking, and getting worse every year. I know, a deck above a finished ceiling, who'd have thought? Anyway, back in August 2023 we started trying to fix/replace the deck and, after much more than our share of problems, we were patting ourselves on the back at finally getting the deck boards down in June 2024. The "finished" deck looked like this:
By November of 2024 I had rebuilt the steps which lead down to the front yard...
...and we were considering options for new railings and a spiral staircase down to the rear yard:
And then.....wait for it....and then it started raining. Yep, that's right, raining. We quickly learned that, in spite of our best efforts, the deck was still leaking into the garage; it wasn't as bad as it had been, but we could not ignore it...
After much consideration of what to do next, we took the only action that we had open: fill the gaps between deck boards with caulk. Although filling the so-called drainage grooves won't help shed water, it should prevent any further leakage into the garage. Several weekends in December 2024 were spent very carefully installing caulk into the deck grooves. We even covered the fresh caulk with tape to prevent contamination with leaves, cat footprints etc.
However, after more rain in the early weeks of 2025, it became obvious that the caulking was in fact our latest failure. On close inspection of the deck, it was apparent that the caulking was heavily blistered, and thereby porous - the deck was actually leaking more at this point than before we started working on it.
In the Spring of 2025, I decided to take a completely new approach to the problem: I started working on my '67 F250 truck instead and switched off completely from the deck. When the truck was done (you never say finished!), I moved on to swapping the engine in the '68 Mustang. The deck was the last thing on my mind for months, and I was all the better for it.
Having said all that, the very fact that this post is being painstakingly typed out indicates forward progress. That movement was born out of the realization that I had to do SOMETHING before the proper rain comes. So, almost a year since I last wagged a finger in that direction, I came up with a three four point plan to rescue the deck once and for all:
1. Get as much blistered caulk out of the deck grooves as possible.
2. Install caulk which is not sensitive to UV-light.
3. Cover the whole surface with a waterproof membrane like on a proper roof.
4. Put the railings back and get on with life.
Step one is not as simple as it sounds - removing cured/blistered Lexel is complex at best. After some experimentation, it turned out that the ideal removal tool has a sharp V-shaped blade which fits perfectly into the grooves between boards. The one I used is designed for making linocuts:
Although it worked quite well, using this tool by hand across the entire deck would have taken weeks and more hands than I have available. The first modification I made was to file down the wooden handle...
And insert the tool into a three (3) foot steel gas pipe. This makes the tool mush heavier such that it can be used with two hands and slid several feet along a groove with a single thrust, so to speak.
Further modifications included fixing the blade into the handle with super glue and wrapping nichrome wire around the end of the tool to stop the wood splitting. The tape stops the wire from unravelling.
The battlefield after a number of "thrusts:"
Waste caulk can be swept away....
To be continued...
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