Fixin' The Deck Part 18

The deck project has been gathering pace lately due to a combination of excellent weather, a few days of unexpected "free" time, and a desperate desire to see the back of this entire episode. This particular post focuses on the exterior wall at the deck side of our house, so while not strictly about the deck itself, it is a chapter in the same book. This particular wall has taken a lot more weather since we removed an over-mature pine tree from our front yard and has been crying out for attention for ages.

The next photo shows the deck-facing wall after removing some of the window trim and one short piece of siding. There are a couple of issues here, apart from the peeling paint (!) Firstly the deck is a few inches lower than it used to be, so the siding is a bit short. More significantly, the lower several inches of the siding are, in layman's terms, moisture-damaged. My Mother would have called them rotten.

I started cutting back the siding to the first horizontal nailing point (or to below the window), and I discovered that the lower few inches of the plywood sheathing were also "rotten" to the core.

The next picture was taken after ripping out the siding and plywood and cleaning up; there was no insulation in the wall cavities to remove, just like the rest of the house...

There was a distinct absence of blocking at the base of most of the wall cavities, which made it easier to rip out the plywood, since it wasn't nailed to anything.

The rotten siding and plywood continued around the corner, so I ripped that out too. You can't really see it in the next picture, but the boards at both sides of the corner are damaged most of the way up:

Obviously, the plywood will have to be replaced, but what to do about the siding? Option #1 would be to patch it, and to try to hide the junctions, but that didn't pass committee approval. Option #2, which did pass, involves tearing off a bunch more siding and replacing the damaged bits with full boards. 

The weather was a perfect 65 F (18 C) the next morning, and I spent several pleasant hours ripping off more siding while trying my best not to damage the sections I want to keep. The photo below was taken at lunch time - there is just one more piece of siding to remove from the corner:

I discovered that as well as insulation, the round-the-corner section of the wall was also missing plywood sheathing! You can see in the close up below that at the top of the wall there is just attic space behind the tar paper. At the living space there was just drywall, tar paper and siding between us and the outside world. No wonder my heating bill is close to the national debt of a medium-sized country.

The section of the siding above the window is staying. Apart from the peeling paint, it is in decent shape:

Mid-afternoon update: After removing the last piece of siding and hitting the lumber store, I am working my way down the narrow section of wall installing plywood sheathing and blocking as I go. This will ultimately bring the wall forward about 3/8 of an inch. 

I packed fiberglass insulation into the wall cavities that border the living space. The attic floor is already well insulted, and the attic walls are best left without insulation.

Sheathing goes on next...

There was a pause at the base of the wall while I nailed in some suitable blocking:

All done!

The last thing I got done was installing blocking at the base of the main wall. It is January right now, so it gets dark by 5:30 pm.

The next morning was another beautiful one. I kicked off by installing insulation in the wall cavities:

By the time I was ready to start on the sheathing Samuel Sheep had arrived and I put him straight to work. We had one guy measuring and cutting and one guy nailing which is against standard union practice since there were no spectators.

A brand-new flashing was fabricated and installed over the plywood:

We also installed special inside and outside corner pieces which I ordered on the interwebs:

I sent Samuel Sheep out to pick up lunch while I started installing new tar paper from the bottom of the wall up. The new paper goes over the aluminum flashing and under the existing paper; it is important to overlap layers of paper working upwards.

All done: 

Finally, we can start replacing the siding. We had to choose between aligning the siding with the existing material or making it perfectly vertical, and we choose to stick with tradition. We made a jig so that we could repeatedly cut the top angle precisely, but cutting around the window and various electrical installations was more challenging; it was great to have Samuel Sheep around to help. 

By sundown we had completed the area below the window and made it so that the board to the left of the window is aligned with the old and new sections of the siding. That seemed like a good place to stop and in any case, I was worn out!

The next day I was back on my own and I had other stuff to do in the morning. When I did get outside it was another gorgeous afternoon, and I started by making a carboard temple to help me cut around the exposed beams:

After cutting out and applying primer to the exposed edges:

As well as beams to cut around, there were more electrical installations and the far-left board is not a full width, which added up to a time-consuming process:

I'm working the other way round at the right side of the replaced area. The first thing to do was cut back the trim around the big window so that the siding can fit behind it. This is a legacy of moving the wall forward about 3/8".

All siding installed:

The rest of the work documented in this post was accomplished over the weekend in between a few other commitments. To start with the nail holes in the siding were filled, and the window was caulked around: 

After that the trim between the siding and the underside of the roof, around the attic ventilation opening and at the left side of the big window was de-nailed and re-installed. A couple of pieces had to be modified due to the front facing wall moving slightly. All the trim was caulked around, and the replacement pieces were painted with primer.

Amy Sheep came out to help scrape old paint off the siding that we didn't replace:

By packing up time the majority of the old paint has been removed and some minor damage to the siding has been repaired with wood filler. Next time I will be removing the rest of the old paint, painting primer on this area and moving over to the small section of damaged siding at the right side of the big window. 

I also need to replace the trim at the perimeter of the window:

Fixin' The Deck Part 17

The last post was focused on preparations for re-installing the perimeter railings, most of which was accomplished right after new year. While all that work was going on I was also looking into a suitable coating to apply to the deck and I decided to go with a "liquid membrane" from Semco. It's a big commitment, so I made a small mockup of the deck from some scrap boards and ordered a pint of the coating:

The material is mid-gray when wet, but dries "slate brown."

 

One half of the mockup got two coats, and then the whole thing was left out on the deck for two weeks while it was mostly raining.

Soon after that we made the decision to go with the Semco product and I ordered a five (5) gallon bucket. I wasn't sure whether to "paint" the deck surface first or install the railings. Applying the coating would be easier without railings to work around and/or splash, but then I would be forced to spend ages walking all over the new surface while I rebuild the railings. The compromise was to apply the coating to a strip about three feet wide at the perimeter. The coating is very similar to the original color of the deck boards:

The perimeter of the deck has moved slightly, but the railings will be going back in (hopefully) the original positions - I took detailed measurements and marked the components as they were dismantled. The one post that we did not remove holds up the roof above the rear of the deck. The sleeve cannot be slid over this post either; it has to be glued and pinned in place: 

I used an empty post sleeve and the railing parts to position the second post which took a little bit of finagling. I also figured out the spot for the post at the front left corner of the deck:

Once I was happy with both locations, I made a template out of cardboard which fits over the post sleeve. The sleeve has a square 5" x 5" footprint and is designed to fit over a (nominal) 4" x 4" timber post:

The second part of the template is a 5" square piece of plywood with a 1/8" hole drilled at the center. When placed together, the center point of the post may be determined accurately.

I put screws at the center of both posts and used an old-fashioned string line and a tape measure to locate the centers of all the intermediate posts; it was too sunny to use the laser.

I used the same method for the other long side of the deck and the short sections of railings at the stairs and next to the exterior doors. Time to drill some holes! After removing each placement screw, I bored a 5/8" hole through the plastic deck board with a spade bit. This hole was extended into the framing/blocking below about another inch or so with a regular 1/2 inch drill bit:

It took a couple of goes to establish my post bracket installation protocol. It goes like this:

1. Center the bracket over the hole in the deck, center the cardboard template around the bracket, and tape in place - the hole in the bracket is not circular, which can be helpful in the event that hole(s) are bored off-line.

2. Apply a liberal amount of caulk to the underside of the bracket:

3. Do the same with the bearing plate:

4. Install a 5/8" wide and 5-1/2 long lag bolt and crank down. The caulk under the bracket makes it slide around when the bolt is tightened; the cardboard template helps re-locate the precise position. Additional caulk is then applied around the base of the bracket, around the bearing plate and over the bolt head:

The post bracket comes with a cap which snaps over the bearing plate and provides a solid foundation for the timber post. The cap is designed to let water out so does not need to be caulked. 

All brackets set:

All the timber posts were replaced with PT lumber and are mounted to the brackets with twelve (12) wood screws.:

First section of railings re-installed: 

I worked my way to the front left corner and halfway across the driveway side of the deck. I am deliberately not installing the rest of the railings just yet. Stay tuned to find out why!