Deck Repair Help

My wife and I bought a house about 1 year ago. The previous owners, did nothing for the up keep of the house. The board of the deck appear to be warped. They have some splits in them, and the wood appears to have ripples in it, for lack of a better word. If you run your hand over a board, its all bumpy. I tried to hand sand this,but this would take forever. Would I be wasting my time trying to sand all this, or should I just bite the bullet and replace all the boards?

Reply to
Tony Lisanti
Loading thread data ...

I'm not an expert...but would replace them with pressure treated boards. Use deck screws to secure them.

Reply to
Bg

============= I would pull out a small electric planer before I would take a sander to the boards...just a lot faster...

But without seeing the decking it is realy impossible to say....decking is not really expesive so it depends on just how many boards are warped....or.. spliting

Bob Griffiths

Reply to
Bob G

yep its a lot faster untill you immediatly hit a nail. making it useless

Reply to
rnr_construction

Tony,

Pull a few of the worst boards and flip them over. Is this face less bumpy? If they are badly split or really warped you'll need to replace them. Cabot's deck stain is a good product.

Dave M.

Reply to
David Martel

==================== Sometimes I have to wonder IF I engaged my brain before I posted a reply.... You of course are 100 percent correct...

My deck is held in place with deck screws that are countersunk BUT I woild still have to be careful IF I took out the planer and went at it

I have to check the time stamp on my original message...I had to be either still asleep or in bad need of going to bed....

Bob Griffiths

Reply to
Bob G.

Mine are counter sunk too some appear to be screws, others appear to be nails. I think the guy who did this must have been drunk or something. The railing is put together so poorly its not funny. The guy even posted a little metal sign on the fence. I tried to call it, but he's our of business. Not surprising at all. Perhaps I should post a picture or two on this disaster I have here?

Reply to
Tony Lisanti

Any idea how old the deck is? It sounds like it has just been beat to death by the sun. You could try flipping the boards as suggested, but if that doesn't work think about just replacing the decking. Note that modern treated wood is treated with copper and you'll have to be careful to choose the right fasteners or they'll react to the copper and corrode.

Sanding might be an option, but I don't think I'd want to sand arsenic treated wood myself.

Reply to
John/Charleston

I think its no more then 7 years old. What I don't understand is how it got so bad. There isn't much sunlight in this area, as trees from the cemetery shade this side of the house. I think it was cheap wood. There was a little aluminum sign on the one side of the fence when I moved in, and I tried to call the phone number. It's disconnected now. I guess the company went under. I did start to sand the wood, before I heard this type of wood was treated with arsenic. I don't want to continue sanding knowing that now.

Reply to
Tony Lisanti

Reply to
John/Charleston

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.