This was an emergency project I did for my wife's cousin Mae. Mae has two special needs children and has not been able to work much do to the youngest to having constant hospital appointment. My wife and I donated the lumber and a few friends helped me. The Steps and walk way were coming apart. When we started taking it apart it was worse than expected. It is built over a drainage ditch and the sides started caving in. The plan was just to redo the deck and rails but we ended up reinforcing everything. It is now solidly cross braced which I did not get pictures of as we had to hurry to prevent a complete cave in. We ended up going back to get some pressure treated 4x4 to fix the lack of cross bracing. The top deck is now solid no longer with nails sticking up or soft spots. We screwed everything down so the will not back off like the nails did on the previous decking. This may not the best looking project but it is one I take great pride in as it is now safe for her children. We plan on going back next year and fixing her side deck but at least there is no drainage trench under that deck.
This was an emergency project I did for my wife's cousin Mae. Mae has two special needs children and has not been able to work much do to the youngest to having constant hospital appointment. My wife and I donated the lumber and a few friends helped me. The Steps and walk way were coming apart. When we started taking it apart it was worse than expected. It is built over a drainage ditch and the sides started caving in. The plan was just to redo the deck and rails but we ended up reinforcing everything. It is now solidly cross braced which I did not get pictures of as we had to hurry to prevent a complete cave in. We ended up going back to get some pressure treated 4x4 to fix the lack of cross bracing. The top deck is now solid no longer with nails sticking up or soft spots. We screwed everything down so the will not back off like the nails did on the previous decking. This may not the best looking project but it is one I take great pride in as it is now safe for her children. We plan on going back next year and fixing her side deck but at least there is no drainage trench under that deck.