Deck Remodel – Thursday (day 8)
Sorry if anyone had trouble getting to the site. This evening I ended up moving it to a regular hosting site as the free one just wasn’t up a lot of the time and I got a little tired of dealing with it and not being able to publish a post until their server(?) was back up.
I did manage to get one more post in today. The footing I poured yesterday had set up nicely. I trimmed off the excess re-bar pin and moved another 6×6 into place, made sure all was level, drilled the holes for the carriage bolts, and got it snugged down. I noted the wood really perspired a lot of moisture around the washers when I tightened the nuts… that accounts for a majority of the weight.
This is the 3rd post put in now.
Deck Remodel – Wednesday (day 7)
Not much progress today. I braced a portion of the outer face board in order to pull down another post. Then I backed out the lag screws attaching the face to the post. Unfortunately this time the post came out of the ground along with the concrete pad. Like many other parts of the existing deck, the footing/pad was less substantial than it should have been. The footing that came out of the ground was only about 3″ deep and maybe 18″ in diameter. I ended up pouring a full replacement footing for the post at least 18″ deep and probably the same in diameter with a nice new piece of re-bar sticking out ready to receive my new post when the concrete has hardened sufficiently. I can imagine somebody 20 years from now blogging about how dumb it was for “someone to make such a big footing for a deck” and what a pain it was to pull out and so on. Oh well… too bad for them!
Deck Remodel – Tuesday (day 7)
Sometimes it pays to go a little overkill on things. For instance today I bought some carriage bolts for the deck posts. They are a lot bigger than the ones that are originally were in there. In fact, the ones that were there were mostly just small lag screws and had almost rusted to around half their original diameter. Usually when I tried to back them out they just twisted in half.
Here’s some examples where I am thinking it is worthwhile going a little overkill.
I think this bit is about as long as from my elbow to the tips of my fingers.
BTW – It is nice not to have to drill two holes and hope they meet somewhere in the middle. Probably saves a bit of time as well.
These big thick bolts make me feel pretty confident that it will be rock solid long after I am gone.
These bolts are huge (1/2 in thick and 10″ long) and definitely make you feel like it is rock solid.
These 6x6's weigh a ton. Even with Jennifer's help we had some difficulty getting it in place and positioned.
Of course with some things you can’t always buy the best.. especially when you’re on a budget.
If you do have to cut corners, at least try to spruce it up a bit.
Deck Remodel – Monday (day 6)
Another short day of work. I spent half of it replacing a receptacle that didn’t have power to it… and still doesn’t! I did manage to get one of the posts up. It is a post that didn’t exist previously.
The circled post is the new one I put in that did not previously exist.
I had a little bit of trouble even moving it into place and putting it on the footing. I would guess it weighed at least 130 lbs if not more. It is hard to take a picture in the dark as the camera just couldn’t seem to get in focus. I finally got it to snap this shot with the flash, so here it is:
The treated wood is still pretty wet and lot heavier than it looks
Deck Remodel – Saturday (day 5)
Today Vic and I worked on removing the wire fencing around the base of the posts. I think I may put a wood fence back around the bottom when we are done depending on how it all feels. We also dug and poured two footings for the additional posts I am planning on adding. Here’s a picture of one of them. We scratched our names in it, although it will get covered up anyway..
Footing for the first post. Yes, I know, our names will get covered up..