B & G's Deck...It's Finished, Finito!!!

There were times we wondered if this day would ever come...but it did and the deck redo is done.

The weather is too cold to touch up the cream colored stain so that little chore will have to wait until next year as will any furniture choices or placement. Winter came a little early this year and when most people are putting away their furniture it would be foolish to stage the deck and then take it all inside.

Let's start with a couple of before photos. These photos show the condition of the deck when B and G purchased the house.

Notice the set of steps on this end of the deck. We eliminated those steps and installed a 6 foot wide set in the middle of the front of the deck. Also notice the only section of railing that was installed on the deck. B and I removed it by just pushing on it.
In this photo notice the undersized rim joist. Besides being undersized it was in very poor condition. The deck also did not have any joist hangers installed and the only attachment was toe nailed twist nails. G installed joist hangers wherever possible.This photo shows how high the deck appeared because of the undersized rim joist. By installing a wider rim joist the deck now is visually lower to the ground. This is also the side we installed the 6 foot wide steps.And now the new and improved deck.
Here is an close up of the 6 foot wide steps. These steps will also act as additional seating. Next year B's plan calls for a stamped concrete landing at the bottom of these stairs with a walkway going to the garage entry door.
We used wood button plugs to cover up the screws that were used to hold the risers in place. FYI the wood button plugs line up nicely. I have no idea why in this photo they look all askew.A close up of the hand rail cap.
We used those same wood button plugs to cover up the screws used to attach the 2 X 12 rim joist to the old 2 X 6 rim joist. Carriage bolts were used to attach the deck posts. Once they were painted they mimicked the wood button plugs. I wanted to continue and use the button plugs to cover the screw holes on the spindles but G thought it would make the deck look like it was riveted together. I say "pshaw!" but I was over ruled.
B and G did a great job picking out both of the deck stain colors. Both the cream and the redwood color were perfect choices and contrast nicely without being gaudy. The cream color is an exact match to the body color of their house. We thought it was important for the deck to look like an extension of the house and not an add on. Finally this last photo shows how we notched the post to accommodate the 2 X 4 used for the hand rail. The photo also shows some of the touch up that needs to be done in the spring.
All in all we are very pleased with how the deck turned out.

B & G's Deck Update Before the Rain

R and I stopped by B & G's to do a little deck work. The 'To Do' list is getting small but the threat of rain is large. We knew we would be lucky to get the remaining spindles installed before the deluge. We were lucky. The spindle gods were smiling upon us today. We finished installing the spindles at 4:30PM. I started to snap a few photos at 4:39PM. The rain began at 4:35PM.The 'To Do' list includes installing railing cap on the hand rails, cut railing cap ends to correct overhang length, screw down the railing cap, fill screw holes, and touch up paint.Deck work was done for the day so it was back to 'The Gear' for more woodwork stripping. Both sets of windows in the living have been stripped (except for muntin bars). Tomorrow I start on the door casing, jamb, and woodwork that opens into the sun room. The door has already been stripped.

I think the woodwork stripping in the living room will go like this.....

Windows (2 sets) DONE
Door casing, jamb, and woodwork around door to sun room
Door to sun room DONE
Inset cabinets (2)
Inset cabinet doors (4) DONE
Baseboards
Fireplace

I conducted a test spot on the top of the mantle and it appears to be popular or birch, never stained, and the first paint color was olive green. Door to sun room is to the right in the photo.
If by chance it decides not to rain sometime in the near future I need to transplant some blue dwarf irises and a light yellow spider day lily that came from R's mother's house. I would also like to strip the paint from the exterior of the second set of living room windows. But I don't have any faith in the weather and if I can just get these plants into the ground...somewhere....I'll be happy.

B & G's Deck Update

B & G have been very busy at work and we have been tending to end of summer chores and patio furniture excursions so the deck building has been very slow until today.

Today B and I went to Home Depot and bought the last board needed to complete all the risers. On the way home I had B stop at my favorite consignment shop so I could buy a painted small rectangular kitchen table I saw yesterday for 15 bucks.

The table was looking prudy ugly. It was painted white and had pink laminate glued to the table top. Yesterday I was able to peel the laminate up and take a gander under it. I found oak....yes OAK.

So now the table is mine. I will strip it and then decide what I want to do with it.

Back to the deck.

Once we were done shopping we cut the riser and installed it. Then it was on to the posts.

To make the notch where the post sits on the rim joist we had to use kerf cuts and then chiseled out the remaining wood. The kerf cuts worked best when they were about a 1/4 inch between cuts. We then used a hammer to knock out the cut portions. I used a chisel to remove the remaining bits of wood. The entire procedure took approximately 15 minutes were post. B then sanded the post making sure to remove the sharp edges on all sides of each post.

Here is B making kerf cuts while her mother in law takes photos and a break.
This is the post after all the cuts were made.Here's the post after the majority of wood is removed using a hammer.This is what the post looks like after the chiseling is done but before it is sanded.Finished post before paint.We then measured the post to the correct height and cut. Then we had to cut a notch to accommodate a 2 x 4 at the top. We used the same procedure that we used to make the notch for the rim joist.

The remaining cut was the bevel at the bottom of the post. It is a 45 degree angle with the bottom 1/4 inch cut off.

Tomorrow the posts and the remaining unpainted risers will be painted. Once the risers are all painted I can reinstall the stained treads.

Saturday is R's last race day this year and they need to be at the track at 1 PM so it's iffy if all the painting will get done before they blast off for the racetrack.

B & G Deck Update

Progress has been slow and steady on B & G's deck. I was going through older photos and noticed that the date on the photo of R installing the first board was August 4th. So despite the heat and mosquitoes I think we are making pretty good progress.

B & G stained the deck boards last week and it looks great. Several days ago we installed the wider rim joist to hide the original narrow rim joist. We countersunk a 1/2" diameter hole a 1/2" deep before installing long deck screws to hold the rim joist in place. After we installed the long deck screws we inserted a 1/2" cap plug into the hole but not before squeezing a little wood glue into the hole. I think this looks more finished than just installing screws and having the screw head exposed.
B pre stained all the wood prior to installation. Today she was washing our dirty finger prints off of the wood in preparation for some touch up work.

The photo below is of R doing his imitation of a clamp by standing on the end of a board while G cuts a new stringer.
Tomorrow we will start fabricating the posts. After much deliberation we all agreed upon a railing height. Not too tall and not too low but just right.

I just noticed that R has on those shorts again!!!