Like most of my projects, this one began last week as very minor and progressed into a more involved undertaking as it went along. It's been over two seasons since we re-stained the patio deck and it showed. Some of the old stain was worn off and the rest was still stubbornly there.
Our government, in a seemingly blind duplication of USA policy, has made it virtually impossible to obtain the same old CIL oil based stain as I had been using. This means a change to a water based coating to which I have a skeptical view as far as longevity. If we are forced to change from oil-based to water-based I figured the best thing to do is to sand it all down and repaint. It might be a good time to change the colour too, since I was never wild about the 'natural cedar' tint and besides, you can't get an exact match anymore.
Anyway, some of the 30+ year old deck boards were badly weather checked and split, so my son Tim and I decided to replace the worst ones. When we pried a few loose, we were surprised to see that the back side was in remarkably good condition. This led us to our original plan which was to remove and invert all the boards that were seriously cracked or cosmetically bad before re-staining the deck. Period.
Oh oh! We can't repair all the boards since a gargantuan planter box sits right on some bad looking ones. Too heavy to move, we'll have to empty out the dirt. OK but there are also some support columns for a deck structure resting on some of the deck boards.
On top of our patio deck we have an aging and deteriorating pergola-come-patio-cover that we decided "while we are at it" should come down if for no other reason that it was becoming an eyesore and a safety hazard. We figured a heavy snow load or a wind storm could bring it down and kill somebody if they happened to be under it when it collapsed. This structure was laden down and carried a load much heavier than what it was ever designed to carry due to the fact it was covered with a huge grape vine. Not only that, as mentioned, its supports are in the way of our original deck board project. As well, the monster vine atop the structure has been attracting Japanese beetles by the tens of thousands every July. The excrement from the throng of grape leaf eating bugs combined with the heavy shade below, has caused the growth of green mold on the deck boards and will inevitably lead to rot. "You don't want to damage your new deck finish do you?"
After checking with our cruising friend John, who is, among other things, a professional deck installer, about some nail/screw issues and the wisdom of turning the boards over, we were nearly ready to rent the sander.
But wait, Wendy suggested we look into expanding the deck now that the structure was down and a massive planter box had been emptied of a half a ton of topsoil and clay. I agreed that if an expansion was needed, this would be the perfect time to do it while everything was out of the way. It had always bothered us that the deck ended half way past our bedroom window. Why didn’t the original builder carry the thing just past the window? It always looked funny to me. If we every wanted to replace the window with a sliding door, the deck would have to be bigger.
The original job looked easy. But, this project is growing like a bad tumor. Total it up: Invert a whole bunch of boards. Add a small expansion to extend a part of the deck so the new boards would all be painted at once and it would look like the added on bit was always there. Tear down the pergola, remove the ponderous grape vine and chop out the roots. Empty a big planter box located in the way. Fine! Now dig up and remove the garden that is also in the way, and carry all the dirt temporarily to the front driveway and, while you're at it, make a patch for an unsightly hole in the aluminum siding where a former, relocated AC unit was plumbed in, which was revealed when the planter box was moved.
Now that the patio cover and giant vine are gone, the neighbors have a clear view to our patio. This, I recalled, is why I built the patio cover in the first place. That, and also the fact there is absolutely no shade after 10 am and no place for hanging pots.
Hmmm! Looks like we need a tastefully, decorative privacy screen and some sort of new structure to hang plants and maybe we should have the old aluminum siding on the house painted now that the deck looks so good and maybe we should add that new sliding door off the bedroom and how about...
Wait, stop! That's enough for one blog entry.