decked

Over the past month or so we've had a weekend project,
redoing the deck at my parents house.

trex deck

Many years ago we had put this wooden deck up,
back when I was in 4th or 5th grade I think,
more than 30 years ago!

deck framing

The deck had a ton of potted plants on it,
and the top had slowly rotted away in places.
One day we dropped by and my Dad had cut out all the old redwood.
Holey chit.
Over the years the dirt had settled up underneath the framing,
and in many spots the wood was in touch with the dirt,
which helped to rust away the steel supports as well as rot some of the framing.
During this time,
I realized some of the similarities between us.
He was slowly taking 5 gallon buckets of this fill dirt to the front yard.
My brother would have hired a crew of guys to do this,
whereas I figured what the heck I'd better help out!
The first day helping,
the boys and I trucked over a dozen wheelbarrow loads to the front.
(1 wheelbarrow = 4-5 buckets)
After a couple hours the kids were basically exhausted.
They definitely weren't used to the manual labor I grew up with!
We pushed on to get as much done and I tried to make it as fun as possible.
One more.
Okay, last one.
One more...

composite deck installation

Next was replacing rotten frame-wood and the rusty steel supports,
which meant digging holes for the concrete feet,
bringing the dirt to the front yard,
mixing some concrete for the supports...
The kids missed out on this day as they were in Camarillo.

Every evening throughout the week,
my dad would plunk away little by little.
So many little projects - drainage, electrical, rot fixing etc. to do.

trex fitting

Instead of redwood he chose to use a composite board,
using these little TREX fittings to attach to the framework.

trex fitting installed

It's an interesting design,
using the little plastic fitting in between each pre-routered board.
I sure hope they engineered all the bugs out of it,
cause this stuff seemed a little pricey.
Definitely not as solid feeling as a traditional screw in the wood deck.
There was an idea to glue the boards to the framework,
but then they'd never come off.

installing composite TREX deck

Over the weekend I honed my TREX deck install skills.
The plastic/wood is so much easier to cut and form compared to metal!
Hopefully it will last at least as long as the original wood deck.

If you look in the background,
that fence is made by the same plastic company.
Definitely flimsy compared to wood.

Jakob - Jaxon & Big Jack Perich

Most importantly it was a good way to hang out with the family.
The kids got to see what it takes to build something,
and we helped my Dad not beat up his body so much!

TP