Another VOGT Family TreeHouse Scrapbook! (posted April 30, 2016 )

Deck Wars: The Journal of a Deck Rebuilder - April-November 2002

Our split-level style house has a deck off the kitchen and dining room that was built when the house was built, back around 1985. Structurally, it was still solid and sound, but the decking and railings looked like crap, and the post supports were inadequate for the deck as a whole and were installed in a most unusual and likely illegal way. The deck was 16x20, with four concrete-filled metal posts along the 20 foot side, and no mid-span support posts - that means there was a full 16 foot span from the house to the edge of the deck with no support except at the end of that 16 foot span. Because of the long (16 foot) span from the side of the house to the first (and only) support posts, the deck itself had a lot of unpleasant “spring” to it, like walking on a diving board. Some years ago, I added two adjustable jack-posts in the center of the deck to take some of the spring out of the deck and to give it more support. Now during the rebuild, I planned on making that center support permanent, in addition to replacing the concrete-filled metal posts with 6x6 beams on proper footings.

Worse than that, the concrete-filled metal posts were installed to extend below grade to a 20+ foot underground “footing” wall that ran the length of the deck under all the posts. These iron posts, extending into the ground as they were, had corroded and fatigued over time in contact with – and buried in - the dirt. One of them had even rusted through to the concrete, which weakened, and the entire pole snapped off at ground level, fell over, and almost killed the dog one day (those posts are heavy!).

These photos show and describe the process of rebuilding the deck. The only thing that was kept were the stringers (the joists that extended out from the house to the edge of the deck), but the real challenge was to do the rebuild with minimal disruption to the use of the deck. I didn't have an army of helpers - it was only me - so we couldn't tear down the old deck and put up the new one in a weekend. Besides, it was too big a job to have it all planned out in my head before-hand. I figured most of it out as I went along.

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