How to Replace Rotten Decking

Not everyone is willing to give up their wedding anniversary celebration to spend the afternoon replacing an old rotten deck, but that's exactly what Jennifer and David Cooke did! They heard that Ron was heading to Monmouth, Oregon so they put everything on hold so he could come and help with their deck. They ripped out all of the old boards and replaced them with new boards and a new fastening system, which hid all of the nails and screws from view. The result was a beautiful new deck. They may have to celebrate their anniversary a day late, but they have quite an accomplishment to show for the delay!

Click Here For a list of what you will need in order to complete this project.

When Ron saw Jennifer's deck, he agreed that it needed to be replaced, but he wanted to do things a bit differently on the new deck. He pointed out how the ends of the boards came together on the existing deck to form a line down the middle. On the new deck, Ron suggested that they stagger the joints to make the deck look more like one deck instead of two halves put together.

Secondly, Ron recommended they take preventative measures to be certain that the excessive rotting does not happen again by treating the ends of the boards with a preservative. Lastly, Ron pointed out how the old rusted nail heads were beginning to pop up in places and suggested they avoid this by using an invisible fastening system. Jennifer agreed with all of Ron's suggestions so they got to work.

• Jennifer and Ron began by using pry bars to remove the fascia or edge boards that ran around the deck.

• To remove the decking, Ron showed Jennifer how to pull nails from the first plank. To do this he used a Japanese hand tool called a nail puller. He positioned the tip of the tool with the two sharp points at the edge of the nail head. He then took his hammer and tapped the striking surface of the puller. The idea was to drive the tool up underneath the head of the nail.

• He pulled back on the nail puller, and the nail was pulled most of the way out of the wood. When the nail did not come out completely, Ron recommended placing a block of wood under the puller and then prying it up.

• It was not necessary to pull out all the nails. Jennifer and Ron used pry bars to lift the boards and then together pulled them up the rest of the way.

2. Inspect for dry rot:

• Once they removed all of the old decking, they inspected the remaining joists for dry rot.

• To do this they used a screwdriver to poke the top of the planks any place that looked a little suspect. Jennifer's joists were fortunately in great shape so they could move on to replacing the deck.

3. Determine deck layout:

• When laying out the deck, Ron wanted to avoid having the joints line up in a straight line.

• A staggered pattern is more pleasing to the eye.

• To achieve this staggered pattern, they first laid down a full board. From the second board they cut a section long enough to finish the first row. They began the next row with the piece remaining from the second board. They finished out this row with a portion of the third board and then used the remainder of that board to start the third row and so on.

• Deck animation showing all five of the planks shown consecutively.

• The plank ends had to meet at the center of a joist so that they could be supported and attached.

4. Cut wood:

• After a quick lesson on using the power miter saw, Jennifer got to work cutting wood. Ron suggest that Jennifer wear a mask while she cut because the wood they used was pressure treated to resist rot and it was possible for the sawdust to cause an allergic reaction.

5. Attach deck boards:

• Jennifer and Ron set the first board in place. They nailed the board down to the joist. The first board and the last board were the only ones that would be nailed from the top.