Laying Down The New Decking (Early Nov 2002)

Once the old decking was up, I shimmed the northwest corner of the deck with 6-8 foot wedges (slowly tapering down to nothing) because those joists were not installed evenly and were lower than the rest of the deck on that end. Then I cut 2 inch tarpaper strips to tack down on the tops of all the joists to make a water-tight seal between the joists and the decking, and then I began to lay down the new boards at a 45 degree angle to the deck, which both Lynn and I prefer to the straight back-and-forth pattern most decks use.