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About 15 years ago we had a wooden deck installed. It is about 25 sq metres. The decking which was some sort of hardwood was actually in good shape but the supports were rotted.
The last time I did any woodwork was over 50 years ago and applying the principle of “I’m not a gynaecologist but I’ll take a look anyway” which worked for my bi-fold gate welding project, I thought I’d try it again.
Predictably when you rip everything up and get into the mind of the original builder problems emerge. When I tried to replicate how he had started off with battens bolted into brickwork I had problems with some dodgy bricks and mortar ( which date from 1919). So I whacked in some stirrups and away we went. I used 90 mm Merbau and LVL beams and pine H3. I also put in damp coursing. I put a false area under the tap so a plumber can get access to the inspection point. I oiled the deck with 50/50 boiled linseed oil and turps. I painted all the bearers. I used stainless steel screws to locate the Merbau. Material cost and removal of old decking came to $4,800 in total. I have no idea what this would have cost to get done in the current construction frenzy. I did it all on my own from demolition to moving materials (including 6 m lengths of LVL ) in and out.
Hello @Welding_Virgin
Thank you so much for sharing that decking rebuild. It looks beautiful and the linseed oil has definitely brought out the timbers natural colour. I'm sure a lot of our members will enjoy reading the steps you took while rebuilding your deck. Thank you for posting the photos of your finished deck.
Again, thanks for sharing, we look forward to seeing more.
Eric
Looks great mate and heaps of $$ saved in tradesmen I imagine doing it yourself 
Somthing to be proud of
Great work @Welding_Virgin! I confess I misread your name as WeDding Virgin, sort of appropriate given the gynaecologist reference or was it a Freudian slip on my part
I've had similar experiences when looking to rework/renovate existing work--I found the original work was about getting the job done quickly & usually for the cheapest price, which makes sense from a commerical perspective--gotta make a profiit to stay in business. I don't like to spend more than I have to but admit to over engineering/over building to make sure it lasts
Nice looking job overall & good to think of allowing for access to the plumbing access point. As an aside, I've used nails in the past for decking but now think that while screws take longer to fix (and may be more back-breaking to install), they last so much better--I have nails lifting as the decking swells etc on the pine joists & will eventually replace them with screws.
Cheers, Peter
I tossed up nails but on the original deck they kept coming up proud and I was always having to knock them back in. There were something like 1800 screws in it all up. I now have a professional tradie crack. I just finished before the rain and after 3 days of solid rain no warping.
One of the things when you basically rework someone else's work is that you basically have to get into their mindset. There was weird stuff like an absence of stirrups in on area which needed them but pavers were used and it always felt solid. I concreted around a paver, drilled into it and installed a long dynabolt and I installed an lvl bearer with a suitably drilled hole on it. It is like what dentists do with implants and crowns. Was easier than putting a stirrup in and getting it level. This is the sort of stuff you can do when you aren't under commercial pressure.
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