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The upstairs deck
May 19, 2014 Bend

The previous owners had the stones to put a hot tub on the upstairs deck.  They may have tripled up the joists, but it was still a terrifying affair.  They’d long since let the tub go to pot, thus saving us the trouble of deciding whether or not to keep it.  It went.

But years and years of waterlogged debauchery left things in less than acceptable condition up on deck two.  Since our shortlist of immediate improvement projects include getting the decks into shape and preparing the house to paint, it was time to delve in.

IMG_0427I guess in an attempt to keep the water at bay, dude went nuts with flashing beneath the decking.  What you see at the top of the pic is how it was.  The bottom shows the incomplete process of cutting it back to something manageable.  While it’s said you can score flashing with a utility knife and just bend it to snap off, this only works when it isn’t already in place.  I wound up scoring with a knife and then deeper with a dremel to cut it out.  It’s worth noting that this overabundance of flashing didn’t help.  The wood behind the flashing, mostly beneath the sliding glass door, was ruined from water damage.  So was the hardiplank.  I suspect the swath of flashing only served to keep the water around longer to do its damage.  Smart thinkin’!  And, as you can see be the staining on the joists, it still didn’t prevent hot tub water from flowing through.

IMG_0430Having a helper is good stuff, though him working over the missing decking gave mommy the pinchies.   We cut back all the flashing, removed all the rotten stuff and left things to dry.

IMG_0433New primed plank is in place.  I do not like cutting hardiplank.  I get that it’s durable as all get out, but it makes short work of most blades.  A lot of my existing plank on the back is loose but otherwise in good condition.  I’m researching pneumatic nailers to hopefully make face nailing more efficient, but I’m really concerned that finding one with enough oomph to fire nails in without leaving them proud will mean spending a pretty penny.

The ongoing plan is to tear out and redo the deck railings, clean and paint the deck and use this stuff properly angled underneath the upper deck as weather protection for the lower.

Also paint the whole exterior, after prep including removing the fake shutters and framing out the windows.  Also fixing the sprinkler system.  Did I mention the fence folks managed to put some of the sprinkler heads behind the fence?  Yes.  Yes they did.  Home ownership.  Oh how I missed it.

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