Shortcuts that suck

[liam]

The the contractor that built our house was the previous owner, and hooboyhowdy did he take some shortcuts. One of which was to not use treated timber on the 16' x 21' deck out the back of the house. So we have rot appearing, and some holes showing up. Priced up the material to replace the deck surface and it's going to be $2000 if we do all the work, and if the underpinnings are in good shape. If we do the work then it needs to last until late September, as it's just too hot for us to do the job here in the NC summer. The deck is also the only way for the 3 old dogs to get out in the back yard - so it will be leashes to take them outside as long as we have to have the deck disassembled.

All because the contractor used a pile of inappropriate (probably cheap and left over from another job) wood.

/rant

[AutomaticMan]

"You know what? That makes me mad!"

[MM54]

@liam said in Shortcuts that suck:

So we have rot appearing, and some holes showing up. Priced up the material to replace the deck surface and it's going to be $2000 if we do all the work, and if the underpinnings are in good shape.

With rot appearing and holes forming, I would venture that the underpinnings are not in good shape.

[liam]

@mm54 I am not assuming they are good - but what we can see without ripping up the deck is OK, so I am hoping

[Roadkilled]

@liam My last house in St. Louis had a 2nd floor deck built with substandard lumber. To make it worse, the rim joist was just nailed to the house and there were only two supporting posts at the outer rim. We hired a contractor to replace it with a properly constructed deck. He told us that demolition was tricky because he was worried it would collapse on its own half-way through deconstruction.

[Zaphod's Heart of Gold]

@liam I extended/reubilt my deck last year, also in NC. Smartly I used ground contact pressure treat for everything including the 10x14 pergola. Built it myself and got the materials at cost thanks to a contact at a lumber yard, still ran over $2k plus nails and screws and concrete (new footers) and some tools....well worth it though, the addition has been great.

I made a series of posts on old oppo that I should go back and save, detailed the whole process.

If you have any questions ask me, I'm basically an expert now*

*note: I am not an expert, just an engineer and DIY type person who followed NC building code

[e90m3]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold That looks a lot like one of my friends yards, so much so I had to do a double take. While he is an engineer, he's not a car person like us, so unlikely he'd be on here.

[Zaphod's Heart of Gold]

@e90m3 I'm not too far away from you either. But I think I'd know if one of my friends had an M3

[liam]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold said in Shortcuts that suck:

@liam I extended/reubilt my deck last year, also in NC.
[...]

If you have any questions ask me, I'm basically an expert now*

*note: I am not an expert, just an engineer and DIY type person who followed NC building code

I will remember the offer, thank you! Your deck looks lovely. My missus wants a pergola - it is not in my perceived sphere of competence though.

[liam]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold @e90m3 I'm in Cary - would be really happy to attend a meetup of NC OPPOs, in a Covid sensible manner

[Zaphod's Heart of Gold]

@liam I'm just south of Raleigh and @jeepoftheseus is a little further west, we've talked about getting together in the past but haven't done it yet. All pretty close, not sure if anyone else is around here

[JeepOfTheseus]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold @liam I’m always down. There was another Oppo in Clayton but I don’t recall their user name nor if they made the jump.