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.

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.”

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

Frost line is 48” where my deck is being built

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.

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.

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

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

The previous owners of our home did lots of DIY that we have had to fix. This deck failed and detached from the posts. How do I frame this?

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I swear, some of the jobs that look like they'll be a piece of cake are the ones that end up taking twice as much brainpower as you expected. You show up thinking, Alright, simple 12x20 deck, we'll knock this thing out, and then you start measuring and realize the foundation isn't where you thought it was, the house isn't square, the grade is doing something completely stupid, the existing framing is questionable, and of course the stairs want to land in the one spot where you absolutely don't want them.

And now that simple deck has somehow turned into a geometry problem.

That's probably one of the things I like about this trade though. Anybody can look good when everything goes exactly according to plan. It's when the house, the ground, the measurements and whoever built the original structure decide they're all going to fight you at the same time that you really have to know what you're doing.

I'm curious what you guys have run into.

What's the one deck job that taught you the most? Not necessarily your biggest or most expensive project I'm talking about the one where you finished, looked at it, and we'll I'm never be doing that again.

I'd genuinely like to hear some of the stories from the guys who've been doing this for years.

Our old deck was attached via ledger and sat flush with the bottom of the door trim. It wasn’t flashed at all, so I have to deal with the consequences of that still, but the new deck is freestanding and much larger so it extends to the right another 18 feet past the original deck.

The second slider on the right was an addition and isn’t in plane with the rest of the foundation, so it sticks out and if I try to set the height to match the old one it would require a significant scribe on the final deck board to fit.

Thinking of just setting the height so the final deck board will slip underneath the concrete lip underneath that door, so no scribe will be needed and I can gap it off the house for drainage. It would require retrimming and some siding work to fill the vertical gap but it needs to be done anyway.

The last picture shows a laser line roughly where I’m thinking. I have almost zero room for adjustment since drop beams are going right in the piles and have fixed heads.

Would appreciate some insight from people who’ve dealt with similar situations.

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?