Just finished this for my favorite clients. They wanted an easier way to get in their new hot tub and a place where they could sit and dangle their feet.

I begged them to let me use redwood. It would have been 100 times easier. They wanted something low maintenance, so we used timber tech (weathered teak).

I explained that it was going to be a complete pain to figure out a way to accomplish their vision without any exposed cuts on the synthetic boards. They also didn’t want to see any of the pressure treated frame. They said… “you’ll figure it out. We don’t care what it costs.”

Was hiking today and found this absolute beauty of a hunting shack. If they don’t have a hot tub in there yet, they probably need to get one installed ASAP.

It’s amazing. It gives you a consistent gap and hides the screws. Give me reasons why you aren’t using this…

Doing the decks on my new build with help from dad. Finished the first one up a few days ago and now we're working on the rest but figured id see if we get shredded here.

My wife and I bought a home that was built through a sizeable home building company. The deck that was purchased with the house was built by a sub-contracted third party. Most of the deck is built well in my opinion but there are a few things I still question. Like how the top rail is toe nailed doesn’t look right to me. Another was how the deck boards were nailed in, leaving a hole for water to just sit in there.

We paid right around $6000 CAD for the deck which is an absolute steal, so we’re a little conflicted when it comes to accepting certain build qualities.

We got an excellent deal, so should we be okay with certain faults?

Would love to hear some feedback from you guys.

I live in Wisconsin and deal with crazy weather changes. I see a lot of people say stay away from solid stains, but I've had zero luck with semi stains.

To provide some context of my issue, I have two decks, one it the front of my house and one in the back that are both 5 years old now. I had them stained using Pittsburgh Ultra semi stain and in one year, it started to look like it stripped itself. Very disappointed and thinking maybe someone else can do better, I had a professional come in and they stripped it, used deck brightner, and stain again in an oil based semi stain and they used Cabot. Looked great for about 1.5 years and they looks like crap again. Also looks like I have rot and have to replace some boards now.

I have a pool deck in my back yard exposed to more sun and also is exposed to chemicals for the pool and that deck is 20 years old. I've used solid grey stain from Ace hardware and I have stained it 3 times in 20 years. I just sold the pool a few months ago and they also removed the deck, there was little to no rot and still looks good with the last time I stained it being 5 years ago.

Many posts I read have people saying, "stay away from solid it will peel especially in climates with harsh winters." Well as I mentioned earlier I have had zero luck with semi stains and the solid stains seem to have more UV resistance and have lasted 5 plus years while semi stains seemingly have to be stained every 2 years max no matter how much prep.

Im thinking about going with solid oil based stain on my house decks since I had great luck with it on the pool deck and I get confused how people say semi is easier to maintain. I'm not looking to stain my deck yearly or every 2 years and it's a ton of prep to stain again while semi comes right off when and easily provides a consitant finish that is also easy to apply just using a thin coat or two. I understand solid just is more of a top layer while semi penetrates better, but anything I read online confirms that semi doesn't last as long and requires reapplications about every 1 to 2 years while solid it says every 3 to 5 years. Not sure why so many people are against solid and are for semi other than the look, which I agree, it is nice to see the natural grain and looks better, but I've had zero luck having it last.

Any suggestions? I just pressure washed my decks and I'm about to get them further prepped because I need to stain yet again this year.

Taking this Labor Day to show my progress on my first full deck. I’ve done a resurface before but never anything to this scale. 11 months since breaking ground. Did not progress much over winter time. Couple spots to touch up yet.

Hey everyone, i bought a house in the Bahamas on a small island and need to restrain the deck. Its on a small island, so not really anyone there that knows much about restaining it. They suggest painting it with a water base stain. The house sits right on the Atlantic Ocean and gets a lot of salt spray. I do know that the original owner used Ready Seal semi transparent redwood stain on it about eight years ago. Its pretty worn out from the sun, wind and rain. What would be the best option to restain it in such severe weather? I would like to use a different color shade too, if possible. Any suggestions appreciated.

Saw this deck in the wild the other day. Might have been 14x14 at most. If we ever get a tornado I think the deck will hold the house in place.

Frost line is 48” where my deck is being built

Can I keep as-is to pass inspection or are these not up to code? Also doing 3-step stairs - can I get away with just the vertical 2x4s or do I need to cap it with another, horizontal 2x4 (or the like)? Thanks!

Edit: Holly crap, I don’t know what the phone did to the formatting but I’m sorry! Also, you all rock and are hilarious (and helpful)!

There was a hot tub on this part of the deck when we bought the place but it kept leaking in new and creative ways so we finally took a sawzall to it. Now we have a large pit and are debating what to do. We briefly considered replacing it with another hot tub but, although we enjoyed it while it worked, we find we haven’t missed having it so it’s not worth the maintenance/problems.

The hole is roughly 8x8 feet and 22 inches deep, with another removable section that’s about 16 inches wide (previously for hot tub access). It’s on a second story deck but there’s a concrete slab that reaches the ground.

Currently we’re considering:
Just covering it with more deck. This seems silly though since there’s already deck all along the side of our strangely long house so more deck is not particularly desirable.

Ripping out the boards of that entire section and replacing them all with composite boards. This is still boring, but we’ve had a terrible time with routine wood-board maintenance so this would at least be easier. Believe it or not, we refinished the entire deck two years ago!

Putting in some type of greenhouse. We live in Wisconsin though (zone 4-5) so this would probably only extend the growing season by a couple weeks without adding heat.

Some kind of fire pit with seating? I have no idea how this would look and I’m not sure how smart having a fire this close to the house would be.

I’d love to get some outside ideas. Let me know if any other info would help. Thank you!

I have an existing 30 year old 14'X22' deck that is 9' above grade. It has a ledger that is connected with 3/4" hanger bolts into the house framing through a brick veneer (this is now against code).

I hired a GC to refurbish the deck and he expected to replace the decking and some of the framing. We didn't need a permit for this, but things got a little more extensive.

The original ledger was bad in a spot so he face mounted a new 2x10 to the existing ledger with screws. However the new 2x10 had a twist and this led to some poor fitting joists. While researching some things, I found that doubling a ledger like this increases the leverage against the brick and makes a failure more likely.

The GC has suggested digging down to the footer of the house which extends 6" from the wall and putting some 6x6 posts flush to the wall and on the footer and cementing them in. These posts would be notched to support the double 2x10 ledger and take the load off of the brick.

Does this seem reasonable?

The decking boards are not installed, but they did put on a knock-off rain escape system. Holding off on anymore work for now.

I know there are Simpson brackets for attaching a ledger through a brick veneer, but they don't support a doubled ledger. So, I would have to trash the existing joists and rain system.

Posts supporting a beam a few feet from the house would also work, but that I want to avoid that if at all possible.

Upper level is 14’x26’, lower is 10’x12.5’. Trex toasted sand with Fortress fe26 42” steel rail. I need to finish the fascia, but feeling incredibly accomplished with how it came out.

Hi everyone, I’m looking to refresh my t&g wood balcony and could use some advice on how to finish the surface.

I want a completely waterproof, durable, and good-looking finish that prevents rain from rotting the wood, especially around the edges.

My plan right now is to sand off all the old coating and add metal edges for extra protection. For the surface itself I’m stuck between two options:

I’m trying to figure out what coating to apply to the surface. I’ve seen two main options online, but I'm getting mixed reviews:
1. Liquid Rubber : Some sources say this creates a great waterproof seal, but others claim it will crack along the T&G seams as the boards expand and move.

1. Waterproof Wood Paint : Looks nice and is easy to apply, but I'm worried it won't hold up to rain or will start peeling off.

Has anyone done this on a T&G wood balcony before? Did liquid rubber hold up for you, or did you go with regular waterproof paint and regret it / love it? Any other suggestions for something that will stay waterproof and still look nice would be really appreciated.
I’m in a warm, humid climate if that helps. Thanks!

Our deck needs a complete re-face, as our railings have started to rot and fail. We currently have very old, discontinued trex and it's actually held up really well, but unfortunately needs to be updated alongside the railings.

We're currently thinking of doing:

• Trex Jasper boards & drink rail
• Trex signature mesh railing in Bronze, alongside deck
• Trex signature round balluster railing in Bronze, alongside stairs
• Trex signature wedge lights along posts

Would love to know if anyone has any "watchouts" of our selections before we sign the bid. Right now we're thinking of paying higher labor costs for the mesh railing because we like the look & higher visibility, but are wondering if it's really worth the 13k difference. Does anyone have the mesh railings and have opinions?

Pics 1 - 4: Existing house
Pic 5: Top contender boards (we're currently going towards the middle board, Trex Jasper)
Pic 6: Mesh panel railing we want for main deck
Pic 7: Round baluster railing we want for stairs

My mom’s dream is to fill a small dog pool with sand to create a sandbox for my 3 year old daughter (her granddaughter).

She says she did the math calculations and believes it will require twelve 50-pound bags of sand to fill the small plastic pool.

I told her there’s no way the pool needs 600 pounds of sand, and even if it did, her deck would probably collapse.

Am I wrong?!

I don’t want to crush her dreams, but far more importantly, I also don’t want my child to be buried in sand from a structural collapse.

First time resurfacing. I know the gaps aren’t great but we saved money and are happy with the results.

Silly us left a few boards on the deck and now we have tan lines. We were planning to stain this here in the next few months, but don’t want to lock these tan lines in.

How would you proceed? My gut says let the rest of it “tan”, and then stain? I appreciate your time and any input you may have

Not sure why this one spot seems to be falling apart but looking for idea to patch it vs replacing full board

I'm at the end of this redwood deck and I have about 3" for the last board.

Do I just rip one board to fit? Or divide the space between the last 2 boards? Or 3?

I’m limited to a 4x4 platform (to match the previous build in place) because it’s a means of egress and is currently in violation of setbacks, but the previous steps were quite literally falling apart. In a bout of silliness I decided not to dig out and redo footings…

That 6x6 is closer to the edge of that footing than I am to giving up. Outside joist rests centered on that 6x6, but boy it looks… great.

A friend hired a guy to replace some of the framing under their deck, and I'm not an expert but this seems sketchy

The guy even said there's nothing behind the new piece he tacked to the wall - surely he didn't mean the new joist is half-attached to a piece he just nailed to the siding though