A Hillside Deck

Deck

A job that began as a re-deck and became a full rebuild — new posts, framing and stairs, with tight mitres throughout and a mitred picture-frame border.

The brief was simple enough: pull the old decking and re-deck. The deck had a lot of rot in it and had gone a long time without being refinished.

As the boards came up it was clear the framing underneath was not salvageable. We kept opening things up to see how far it ran, and at the end of the day I sat down with the owner and told her what was there. We agreed the only way to do the job properly was to take the whole thing down.

So it all came out. New posts, new framing, new stair framing, new decking, tight mitres throughout and a mitred picture-frame border around the perimeter.

That job was an education, and it came early. It is a large part of why we now look for this kind of thing before a job starts rather than after the decking comes off. Once you have seen it, you know where to look and what you are looking at.

This was one of the first jobs we did for her, at a house she has since moved on from. She has had us back twice since — a screened porch, and a stained glass window put back in sound sash.