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Refurbishing My Old Deck
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Home Improvement Woodworking Project
When I bought my old house, the deck looked like a haunted
house specimen. My foot actually went through one of the
deck floorboards. The deck rail was partially rotten away as
well. But there was just enough good wood left in my old
deck to justify refurbishing the deck rather than going to
the expense of tearing it down and building a new one.
Here are the steps I took (with a lot of help from friends)
to refurbish my old deck and make it safe to use and
beautiful to look at. Refurbishing my
deck myself saved me a lot of money, and the work was
actually fun. In short, of all my home improvement projects,
refurbishing my deck was most rewarding, a really fun summer
home improvement project.
Step #1: Replacing Rotten Floorboards
I started refurbishing my old deck by replacing the rotten
floorboards before someone falls right through them. Using a
hammer and chisel I pried the old floorboards out from the
end, heading back toward the house. When I was done, I had
the frame of the deck left, but no deck floor.
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Step #2: Building the Deck Floor
I used cheap 2x4 lumber to refurbish the deck
floor. This time I started from the house down the deck,
laying the lumber and hammering into place, then standing on
the new deck surface to build the next section. Since I was
refurbishing my deck in summer, I didn’t have to worry about
the lumber getting rained on before I could seal it.
Step #3: Replacing Rotten Deck Rails
Some of my deck rail was fine, but much was rotten through.
I refurbished the deck rail section by section, replacing
rotten wood with new 2x4 lumber where necessary, or nailing
old sections back into place. For wood that was slightly
rotten in one spot, I used wood filler instead of replacing
the entire section. But for supporting deck rail beams, I
took no chances and replaced them all.
Step #4: Pressure Wash the Old Deck
As part of refurbishing the old deck, I had to get rid of
old, peeling paint. Rather than sand the deck down, my
friends pressure washed the deck. Then after the deck dried,
any new rotten areas that were exposed in the deck were
replaced or refurbished with wood putty.
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