Our Olde House: August 9, 2021
Miss Sherry had a 30’ x 20’ backyard wooden deck built about fifteen years ago; it was professionally done, a very nice two-level design with two diagonal steps down into the yard in front of the side gate. About five years ago the wooden deck started to sag next to the house in a couple of places.
Unfortunately for me the wooden deck had been nailed to the house along the edges; this is not the best design because the wood will eventually rot and break away from the house. Since this was one of my first home improvement projects on this house I decided to complicate it by replacing all of the wooden decking with new “plastic wood” decking at the same time I added pier supports along the house.
I measured the existing boards, went to the home improvement store and ordered an equivalent number of plastic wood decking for just the top level of the deck since that is where the sagging was occurring. The plastic decking is very nice because it does not get moldy/slippery in the winter like the wood, and I can power wash it clean so it looks like new. The brochure said plastic decking it is not as strong as wood but I chose to ignore that hint.
I removed all of the wooden decking, added some piers along the house and thought I would then just lift the deck frame onto the new supports. I tried using a long 4×4 to get enough leverage to lift the deck frame edge, but the frame did not budge with the 4×4 stressed to my limit. Oops.
Maybe the car jack would work. I did not try this since it seemed extremely likely the jack would kick out and hurt me especially since there was no way to firmly attach it to the deck frame. I had a large floor jack but it was too big to maneuver under the deck frame. I saw an advertisement for a very small floor jack that looked promising; said it would lift two tons for $40, so I got it.
That little jack worked perfectly, and next to my chop saw is my favorite tool now. I have no idea how much the deck frame weighed but that jack lifted it without effort or straining and the deck frame was quickly attached to my new piers making a very stable and sturdy deck.
The plastic wood decking was installed over the frame fairly easily, it uses some special fasteners that hook the boards together, all without any nails through the decking; this is one more very nice advantage of plastic wood decking over wooden decking.
Another five years passed which brings us to present day, specifically the extreme heat we experienced over this past month; one part of my plastic wood decking started to sag apparently due to that “plastic decking is not as strong as wooden decking” hint I ignored.
Since the plastic wood decking is installed sequentially from one side to the other with fasteners, it is not possible to remove one or two boards from the middle; I would have to start at one side and remove all of the boards up to and including the desired boards. That seemed like a lot of work so I decided I would try to add another support under the sagging part by gaining access where the upper deck met the lower deck.
I pried off my access board and saw that there already was a joist under the sagging part, it was just not quite long enough to reach the support on my end, thus allowing the plastic deck boards to sag. OK, back to the store to get some bricks to make a pier under the short joist. I had to cut a hole in the lower deck so I could get the little jack and bricks under the upper deck.
As I brushed away the leaves under the deck so I could stack up support bricks I saw there was concrete, the original walkway from the house to the gate, a perfect foundation for my bricks. I used my little jack to raise the short joist to the correct height, pushed my brick tower under it, lowered the jack and the boards were a perfect match.
I noticed the two plastic decking boards behind this end board were still slightly sagging, probably due to some stretching in the heat. I made another brick tower, jacked up the boards, pushed the second tower under the boards, but the top brick made it too high. I used my chop saw to cut a piece of old wooden decking which was just the right height to finish the support tower. I lowered the jack and had perfect alignment for the whole deck now.
I replaced my access board with a new pressure treated 2”x6”x6’ board and reconnected the deck fasteners to the new board. I cut a piece of exterior plywood to temporarily cover the hole I cut in the lower deck.
I am very pleased that I could use both my little jack and chop saw on this project since they are my favorite tools; being able to use the walkway for a foundation made the repair much easier and more stable. Now I am ready to replace the lower decking with plastic wood decking to complete the decking replacement project.
