Pressure wash and restain a deck

[rbowman]

[cshenk]

Agreed. Here, fences last at most 10 years. I have no wood decks but ages ago I built one for my Mom. She was still using it when she died. It was cedar. 40 years by then.

[Scott Lurndal]

The decks were installed by a prior owner. In this state, it was likely sourced from a sustainable plantation anyway.

[micky]

I have a wood picket fence that is 45 years old. I have replaced many parts but specifically, only one post out of about 32, only 8 rails out of about 60, and only about 80 pickets out of 300 or 360.

I've also replaced almost every piece of wood in the gate, one at a time on the same day. (2x4's in the shape of a Z, plus pickets.)

The posts must have been treated, but I guess not the pickets and not the original rails.

The pickets that get full sun even half of the day are mostly still in excellent condition. Pickets in the shadow of trees most of the day can go days or weeks without drying out and have gotten weak especially starting 10 years ago.

They used to sell semi-round rails at Home Depot, and maybe I should have bought some, but by the time I needed them, they didn't have them and neither did the company that installed the fence, Long Fence, just south of Baltimore. I had to buy 8' posts from a farm store and take them to a saw mill to be split down the middle. I had to go to Harford County to find a saw mill and the nearest farm store was only 3 miles from it. The saw mill didn't charge much and it was interesting to watch. I think I bought 6 because split into 12, that was the maximum I felt I could fit in the back of my car, a compact convertible.

I had also bought rails from the fence company and still have 8 unused rails, but if I use them all, it should be just as easy to get more.

Most rails are still in perfect condition, but 8 have failed and 4 or 6 are getting thinner and thinner, a couple only half as thick as originally. I separate the pickets but leave them in place, replace the rail, and renail the pickets.

I bought all the remaining pickets that the fence company had, about 40 that time, and I've bought second hand pickets, for 10c apiece, from someone who was tearing down his fence. I took them off myself so they wouldn't be damaged. They are 6 feet high and I only need 42 or 44 inches, so I have extra holes where the nails were but that's not a problem. But I still may run out of pickets in 5 years.

Most non-end-of-group homes don't have fences, but my next door n'bor has a rear yard fence, that is literally falling down. I made new cedar pickets for it years ago. Had to go to the other side of town to buy cedar, and I did other repairs because.... I forget why. But it's beyond repair now. The new owner is young, wants to install a new one himself, and wants to include the part between our yards, 5 posts worth,

40 or 48 pickets. I will take off the pickets there to use as spares for the fence. Most seem to be good. That should give me another 4 or 5 years.

But I'm 77 and planning to be here another 20 years, so if anyone can tell me where I can find "peeled pickets" I'd appreciate it. They are shaped like a parenthesis on one side and flat on the other. I'm willing to pay shipping from distant states.

One post broke at ground level and I can't imagine why. It's in back and I'm an end-of-group townhouse, and there is almost no foot traffic there, only when someone wants to take his lawnmower from front to the back or vice versa, and the lawnmowers are just push-size, nowhere near enough weight to break a post. Yet it is broken. I watered the hole, attached a chain with a big screw, tied the chain to a board that rested on two car jacks, floor jacks, to pull the bottom of the post out. Put in a new post as far as it would go (to the bottom of the hole, I think) and cut it off to the right height. Much fun.

For a while 30 years ago termites were eating 5 or 10 or 20 of the pickets and even going up the picket to eat the rail. A woman whose husband and sons have an exterminating business would not sell me poison, told me not to use poison because poison is bad, but to cut off the bottom of the pickets so they didn't reach the grass. That worked.

[Jim Joyce]

My posts in this thread have only been about pine, treated versus non-treated.

What I call exotic woods, (my exaggeration) like teak, sapele, mahogany, redwood, cedar, and the stuff that Ed mentioned, are a completely different animal. For me, pine is affordable, but the others are not.

[cshenk]

No, all treated. Wood fencing doesn't live long here in Virginia Beach. Different climate.

Serious termite problems due to being mostly recovered swamp land.

[micky]

I believe you about yours, but I don't think the termites would have done so well in my pickets if the pickets were treated. They did fine, in a half dozen or more, sometimes making through 38" of picket to reach the top rail where they did pretty well in a couple cases.

I'm glad to hear your swamp has recovered.

I don't know what my termites have been doing for 30 years since I deprived them of their fence. They never call, they never write.

[badgolferman]

Hello cshenk. Seems we are neighbors. I'm on the Peninsula.

[cshenk]

LOL, well here, what is said is the only people without termites, just don't know they have them.

Anyways, much of Virginia Beach is still swampy and we are very near the Great Dismal Swamp (real place). It's a tidal area with a bazillion 'necks' of waterways. Wood is problematic here. Fire places are cheap to run though since you can collect all the wood you need for free!

[micky]

Been there. Stayed at a campground and rented a small boat for the morning. But I've been depressed ever since. It was so... dismal.