Decking Tune-up

After recently working on a clients deck, I noticed a couple of things that I wanted to bring attention to. This deck was about twelve feet off of the ground, and the support structure was all out of redwood material. Right off the bat, I saw that the 4x4 posts were twisted quite a bit on the area exposed to the elements of sun and water. As I followed the posts up to the beams, I saw that the twisting action just about pulled the post from under the beam. Not good.

Why is it then when people build decking structures, they feel the need to nail everything and bypass the hardware specifically made for connections like I described above? Nails not only have a tendency to split wooden structures towards the ends and edges, but they are not made to hold up and down, but primarily for sheer ( side to side ) strength. All of the nailed structures of this deck were pulling apart, and the nail heads were already pulling from the surface. My task at hand was fairly simple. I was to provide proper fixes without busting the bank for this client.

Since the support structure was not in a visible area, I opted for a much cheaper alternative, pressure treated lumber. The lumber could be painted to match the parts that were not going to be replaced, and they would provide substantial support. After jacking up a corner of the deck, the twisted post was replaced with a fresh and true 4x4 post. I also replaced the bottom 2x that is between the concrete and post as well. The new post was screwed ( not nailed ) to the hardware at the post base, as well as the new post/beam anchor at the top of the post. No more twisting away from the beam, and no more fasteners pulling from the wood.

There were also a couple of dry-rotted areas around the skirting that was replaced and screwed, as well as a portion of dry-rotted joists that were sistered with more pressure treated lumber. All new items were secured with galvanized square drive screws for proper affixing. Last of the steps was to remove some older deck boards that had some splitting issues, as well as some smaller ones that were replaced with full 20 foot boards. I did find out that this decking was neither 1-1/2" or 1-1/4" thick, but rather 1-3/8". The local redwood supplier milled my order to the proper thickness, and the new boards matched perfectly.