Our Backyard Renovation – The New Deck is Going Up!

Do you ever jump into a home project and wonder what you got yourself into? Our deck removal and new addition has turned into almost a 3 week project. However, we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I figured since we are close to the finish, it was time to show you what’s been happening.

If you missed the first post, you can find that here

 

The old deck has been ripped down. Board by board, they were popped out and everything came apart. The above video is of the top support bars coming down, this was so exciting!!

It’s amazing what you find out about your house as new projects begin. Our old deck was supported by two 6X6 posts and then attached to the house for support. Your house is not supposed to be supporting the deck! The old ledger board was coming away from the house, making for a very dangerous situation. If the deck had completely removed itself from the house then it would have all come tumbling down.

We pulled the old posts out and found that they weren’t even supported by concrete in the ground, these posts were merely sitting on top of a pad of concrete that was barely even into the ground.

Talk about scary!

So now we have 12 support posts, all dug 3 feet into the ground and properly supported. As the posts were setting up in the concrete, we worked on taking the stairs down.

We found a lot of problems that our old deck caused and required a few repairs to the house.

The old ledger board didn’t have proper sealant, which caused rotting both in the board and the siding of our house. We had to take a few days to make proper repairs and install precautions to make sure this wouldn’t happen again.

This is what our deck looked like last week and we have come so far along!

I can’t show you pictures yet because it will ruin the final surprise :) We have the new deck floor built, railings are starting to come up, spindles put in and the new stairs have been built.

Stay tuned for our final update, we hope to have it finished up by this weekend!

Then I will need some of your help with our next project, so all of you with green thumbs, I hope that you can lend some advice!