Decking Demolition

Jul 18, 2022Bad DiY, In the garden

Falling through hazard

Decking Deconstructed

You may remember a few years ago I put a foot through some rotten decking and was all chuffed that I managed to fix the small patch…

If not you can read my 2018 post Phase#1 Decking.

I kind of knew back then, that eventually i would need to tear out all the old deck and replace it. It’s probably around 30 years old, so it’s had a good innings standing proud against the ravages of Scottish winters.

I patched things over and over each time i noticed a really bad bit – but after having removed all the heavy furniture , my foot went through a central board and I hurt my leg..

It had gotten to the stage where we couldn’t let anyone walk over it.

This was a major problem as it is the main egress route out the back of our house.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing we got some quotes in and after bawling at the prices, I decided this would be my summer activity.. and as a bonus, try to lose some of my covid belly in the process!

Dave Powered

Hard hard could it be?

The first part was pretty easy as the deck boards were totally rotten, so popped right off!

I knew the design of the deck was bad from crawling under it over the years… but I hadn’t appriciate just how bad it was…

Spans that were way too big, and some support posts that were only 2×4’s .. I’m impressed it held up so well over the years..

Clearly, either the deck was build by a first time person, or some non-trade person… (sometime in the future, someone will be writing this same post about my building efforts 🤣🤣🤣)

Removing the rest of the sub-frame and joists wasn’t too bad – the old six inch nails had mostly rotted away, and those that hadn’t just tore the wood apart with a bit of pressure applied.

Then all that remained were the posts..

Hottest week of the decade you say?
Nae bother !

Most of the smaller posts (2×4) weren’t even dug in, just sitting on top of the ground.. those were easy..

The bigger posts (3×3 & 4×4) were all rotten either at the ground contact point, or at the places they had been nailed.

That just left me the rotten stumps… embedded in postcrete / concrete …nightmare.

The builder had decided to chuck in bricks and large stones in the base of each post, cemented to the wall and of course those parts weren’t rotten.. they had to come out!

I dug around the first of the big awkward posts and was literally sweating out of my eyes.. got to be an easier way to do this i thought… cue a few hours of youtube…

Attaching the lever

Leverage – that’s the answer.

Turns out, if you have some solid wood near the base of the stuck post you can bolt into it with a long, strong piece of timber ( I used some 2×4 c16)

Pop something under the new lever just on the other side of the stuck post and use pivot forces to wrench it right out..

Works a treat, so long as you have some solid wood to bolt into.

Some of the worst posts to get out were unable to use this method though as the posts were rotten to the base 🙁

Leverage