If your is in dire need of some deck repairs and you’ve been putting it off and off for a while now here are some tips that might help you out and save lots of money, all you need is little time cut out for yourself to do these deck repairs.
1. Loose or rotten deck boards are the main culprit most the time. Sometimes decks are nailed together and sometimes decks are screwed together so 1st thing you have to do is check out which way the deck boards are installed. If the deck is put together the better way namely with “screws” then it is relatively simple to remove the board if the screw head hasn’t rusted to the point that it is no longer usable. But if you do run across rusted screws or if you have nailed boards then what we do is cut the board in half far enough away from either end to be able to have leverage on pushing or pulling the board. Work the board up and down loosening the screw or nail and not that you will be able to get underneath the board at the floor joists to pride up with a pry bar. The reason you want to use the prybar on the floorboards against another floorboard is you will indent and damage the good floorboard beside it and that is a reason why you want to pry it up from the floor joists which is not visible.
2. If you have bad floor joists caused by rotting and you’re not being able to screw or nail into the top of the floor joists we usually screw or nail and new floor joists to the old decayed floor joists if the floor joists is good enough to attach to. This will give you a fresh surface to nail to. Just keep in mind the position of the new floor joist.
3. Cracks or fissures in your floorboards are an early sign of wood deterioration. As time goes on the weather will eventually destroy cracked or fissured wood, a quick fix in many cases would be to fill the cracks with exterior plaster (this plaster expands and contracts with the weather). The plaster will keep anymore further degradation of the wood.
