Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | May 24, 1999 07:54pm | #1

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   Adding vapour barrier and gravel and sloping the ground away from the house will go a long way to preventing dry rot in the first place.

   You could add ice and water shield to the top of the joists to prevent water from sitting beneath decking and on the top face of the joists. Definitely use pressure treated lumber for the frame and use end cut on all cut lumber.

   Think about prestaining the decking so that all 4 sides are sealed...and again use the same stain to end cut all the decking.

   How does a 30 year deck sound? And your last question...no putty will work on extensive damage that you describe and last longer than a year or two, it's just not worth the effort.

1. 
   Guest_ | May 25, 1999 08:43am | #2

   *I used construction adhesive at the decking/joist connection in the hope of excluding water (and giving a nice solid feel). One catch -- used the glue on bare wood, not stained.Was the redwood maintained? Kept clean & sealed periodically?

1. 
   Guest_ | May 25, 1999 08:54am | #3

   *If it isn't designed to shed water/snow then don't know anything that will protect for much longer. A typical homeowner, including me, even if they know better just doesn't put deck maintenance very high on the list.

2. 
   ToolBear_ | May 25, 1999 09:36am | #4

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   I had a cedar deck that lasted 20 years, despite the constant fall of needles that jammed the spaces (too narrow) and rotted the edges of the 2x4, the butt joints, and the beams below.

   I replaced a lot of decking, cleaned out the rotted cavities of the beams and packed the holes with hydraulic cement (Yes, I know, a hack, but I was selling it.)

   The spendy solution is either Git Rot (marine) or West epoxy filled with lots of little wood chunks or micro ballons or cabosil to reduce the amount of epoxy used.

   Having used the epoxy sold by Home Base, my impassioned recommendation is - Use the West system. They have metering pumps so the mixing is precise and fast.

   I suspect that building paper or flashing laid over the beams in construction would have been A Good Career Move. Other GCMs: Preprime all the wood, twice. Dip the butt ends. Avoid butt joints, use a much wider gap than a 16d nail spacer. Or just pour concrete.

   BTW - the hot dip galv. 16d finish nails were still good after 20 years. In fact, many did not want to come up. They were holding just fine. It was the surrounding wood that had gone West.

   ToolBear

3. 
   Guest_ | May 25, 1999 09:53am | #5

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   I'm curious...

   Was the "redwood" actually the grade which is resistant to decay--"heart grade"?

   Often, redwood which is sold and installed is common, which has sap wood...this will rot like pine. Also, sometimes it is all stained red to improve appearance and cover up the light sapwood.

   Also, when building, keep in mind that the idea is to drain any water through the deck on down. Don't butt splice over a joist-use a double joist with a 2x spacer between to allow draining. At rim and ledger allow a gap and standoff for drainage. Remember, the end grain is most susceptible. Even heart redwood or cedar will degrade if there is too much water and moisture.

   G luck

   Adam

1. 
   Guest_ | May 25, 1999 10:19am | #6

   *Now hold on there Tool Bear "...gone West" What the heck's wrong with THAT (pardner)? man, and I was just startin' to feel good around here. -yb

4. 
   henn_ | May 26, 1999 12:02am | #7

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   Thanks to all for some good advice. The house was recently purchased so I don't know how well it was maintained or if heart redwood was used. Some things that made the problem worse were a number of planters with drip irrigation were on the deck and the daily watering (and overflow) made for some really bad spots. Also, spinklers were mounted at two different support posts for the deck- again, much more damage in these areas since daily watering is the norm during the summer months here in Northern California. Two last questions- what exactly is dryrot? Is is simply water damaged wood or some kind of mold or fungus that will continue to spread and when picking out new redwood for the rebuild, should I look for heart redwood that has as little yellow color as possible to avoid sapwood? Thanks

1. 
   Gilly_Bear | Jun 01, 1999 01:26am | #8

   *A little trick that was tought to me by an oldtimer in Cape Breton regarding deck life. He capped all his joists with inverted plastic rain gutter (raintrough) before securing the deck boards. GB

5. 
   henn_ | Jun 01, 1999 01:26am | #9

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   I am in the process of tearing out a redwood deck that is less than 15 years
   old due to dryrot. Unfortunately the support girders and posts were not
   pressure treated wood and have extensive damage. I also had a lot of damage
   to the redwood deck boards where they rested on the girders. Is there a good
   product to coat the underside of the new deck boards with, where they rest
   on the support beams, to prevent this from happing in the future?  Also,
   where there is minor dryrot damage to some of the redwood, is it possible to
   cut out the damaged area and use some kind of wood filler in order to
   salvage some of the boards? Thanks for your input.