The deck Before and After reveal is here!
If you haven’t seen what our old excuse for a “deck” looked like on our House Tour page, let me show you. Spoiler alert: you weren’t missing much!
Let me break this sad scene down for y’all: someone literally threw down some shoddy pillar supports, built an ok frame, then covered that frame with a sheet of PLYWOOD!! (ugh), and then screwed a bunch of boards down on top and called it a deck. You don’t have to be a carpenter to know that wood and moisture =bad. Not only were the wrong materials used (not treated lumber), but by throwing that sheet of plywood between the frame and surface boards, they essentially eliminated the deck’s ability to drain water off. So over time, that piece of plywood rotted and caused the surrounding wood to rot and the whole thing was an unsound, crumbling mess.
We didn’t feel skilled enough to handle this particular project (becoming a parent, man. Makes you super cautious and stuff) so we hired it out. If you have to hire a contractor for anything, be sure to check out my top tips for finding the right person for the job (and avoid the headaches that come with the wrong one).
Here’s a progress picture from the construction process:
And here’s the newly built deck!
(My crazy haired child, determined to jump in front of the camera any time I’m taking a picture of something besides him 🙂 ).
It’s a 10×10 (old one was 4×6) fairly simple little deck. We asked for some rails to keep Roman from toppling off and 3 ½ foot wide steps leading down to the patio walkway. We’re going to DIY a gate in front of the steps (y’all know we couldn’t let them do all the work!).
We left the roof support post and plan to build bench seating running the length of the deck behind it.
The treated wood takes about 6 months to dry out in our humid coastal climate, and I can’t wait until it’s ready to be painted and stained! I’m working on a bit of an inspiration board for the deck design. I’ll share that with you soon and hopefully get some feedback from y’all! Do you have any outdoor projects planned this year? I’d love to hear what you’ve got goin’ on! Just leave a comment below 🙂
PS, Here are our other Backyard progress posts!
