Building a deck

[Night Elf]

Isn't there a special no maintenance building material for decks? We need to replace ours and I'm beginning the research. Our current one is wooden but we haven't maintained it well and it looks absolutely awful. We didn't know how to treat wood but now we're thinking we should have been scrubbing and conditioning it yearly? Is that right? I remember hearing a while back about some type of hard plastic planking that stays nice looking. Any ideas?

 

Or, is there a way to take an old faded, splintered looking deck and make it nice again?

 

I'd rather get a new one, but it will cost a lot of money I'm sure.

[BarbecueMom]

Composite decking is the plastic-ish stuff. We considered it, but our deck is in direct sun (so HOT!), it's much more expensive than pressure-treated or cedar decking, and many of the predecessors to the current brands of decking have failed to live up to their longevity. There's just no way to know that the current brands really will last 50 years.

 

For us, we really needed to replace the entire structure, but other stuff keeps breaking in our house (water heater, oven, vehicle, birth control, etc.) and we were struggling to come up with the $$$$ to hire someone to replace it (cheapest estimate was about $8000, 16'x30' 2nd story deck... next highest was around $18,000!).

 

Instead, we just ripped off the railings and floor and replaced with new lumber. That's something DH, FIL, and my brother could handle. We had to add carriage bolts in places where the previous owners had used roofing nails (!!!!) to secure the structure to the house, but otherwise left it intact.

 

We also found this Rustoleum brand paint product at Lowe's that we'll be using on the posts and any other exposed parts of the old deck. It's a thick, almost composite-like paint/sealer specifically made for old decking.

 

We've spent about $1,000 on lumber, tools, screws, and feeding helpers. We still need to figure out what to do with the railings and replace the stair steps, probably another $200-300. Dumpster rental is about $300 to get rid of the old stuff.

 

If the deck is safe (ours was not), you might try the Rustoleum paint first if you want to save money. If you replace with new wood, it'll have to be stained, sealed, and cleaned on a regular basis. Composite should just be wash and use, but I'm not sure what you do if there's fading and such.

 

Hope that helps! We've been spending every free, non-rainy moment trying to get this deck done so we can actually use our backyard!

[PrincessMommy]

Trex!!. I had them put on our old deck and LOVED it. We started with a splintering deck when we moved in. With a pool it made it very hard on the bare feet! We just replaced the floor portion with treks and then over time replaced the side parts with wood. We were there nearly 20 yrs and never had any problem. They are more expensive than wood and it does end up whiting out or fading, but it didn't look bad.

[Carrie12345]

I found this great video on restoring decking. We have to fix up our back deck and we're putting a new wood porch on the front, and we never bothered to learn how to care for it before. :glare:

 

The composite stuff is WAY pricey! About 5x's as much as wood, according to our contractor.

 

Lol! Editing to add the link! http://www.ronhazelton.com/projects/how_to_restore_a_weathered_and_sun_damaged_deck

[Night Elf]

If the deck is safe (ours was not), you might try the Rustoleum paint first if you want to save money.

 

 

Do you know if we need to do anything to the wood first? It was definitely painted by previous owners, a reddish rust color that can still be seen on the posts and railings a bit. Also, we have a hot tub attached and the casing for that matched the deck. That needs to be replaced completely because it's literally falling apart, but the deck is still in really good condition. It just looks bad.

[BarbecueMom]

 

 

Do you know if we need to do anything to the wood first? It was definitely painted by previous owners, a reddish rust color that can still be seen on the posts and railings a bit. Also, we have a hot tub attached and the casing for that matched the deck. That needs to be replaced completely because it's literally falling apart, but the deck is still in really good condition. It just looks bad.

 

I don't think so? We haven't bought it yet, been too rainy to try it this week, but it was on an end cap display at Lowe's in black plastic buckets, near the paint aisles. The paint counter person should be able to find it.

 

ETA: This is it - http://rustoleumrestore.com/dcr/