Decking Project

Hello again! It's been about 3 weeks since our last blog. So where have we been this whole time? Working, of course, weren't you? The next few blogs will be a progressive report on our decking project, starting from the raw lumber and finishing up with the final product. There were so many details to this job that it was difficult to decide on which pictures to show about all the creative things we included. So here is a general overview of what we did! The project was three decks- upper, middle, and the "ship" deck.
The above picture is of the thick beams and poles we had to prepare ahead of time before transporting to the jobsite. Preparation included planing, routing and sanding, then treating the knot holes with sealant to keep the sap from weeping, filling some holes with putty, sanding again and finally two or three coats of special black weatherproof/fire retardant paint. Some of these beams were 20' x 4" x 12" and very heavy!
Below is a picture of the demolition process on the upper deck- tearing out the old dryrot boards and preparation for installation of the new boards. Below is the rebuilding of the pony wall, or in this case, the bench wall, because we'll be installing a new bench seat along the perimeter of the whole upper deck.
A view from the upper to middle deck, where much of the demolition was temporarily placed.
One day the guys had to stay past 6 pm to get some certain beams and posts in place. This was during those days when the sunset was somewhere around 5 pm. It was pretty cold, but they had to get this part done for safety reasons- faithful, hard workers that they are! This is the upper deck beams that you'll see in the pictures to follow.
Doesn't seem like much yet, but stay tuned... more coming!