After finishing the repairs to the deck almost a month ago, the weather finally cooperated with enough dry days in a row that I could scrub and stain the deck boards so they all matched again.  We’d noticed that the deck boards had taken quite a beating over the winter even before we started on the project to reframe the deck around the tree, and after patching the decking with new lumber, it needed a coat of stain even more.

After scrubbing the deck with a deck cleaner

Close-Up of the Deck Before Staining

Since the old decking was pretty dirty, had some moss growing on it, and still had a pretty good coat of stain in some spots, I started by spraying the deck down with Olympic deck cleaner using a garden sprayer.  I let it sit for about 10 minutes before scrubbing it with a stiff-bristled brush and rinsing away all of the cleaner.  From the smell, I’d guess the cleaner had a pretty high concentration of bleach and it did a pretty good job of cleaning the deck boards off, although it didn’t remove as much of the stain as I was hoping it would.  We borrowed a pressure washer and tried that next, but didn’t want to damage the decking by turning the pressure up too high, so we wound up not getting much more of the stain off than what had already come off over the winter & during the cleaning.  The people at the paint store suggested sanding the deck down to bare wood for the best results, but that would have required us to counter-sink all of the nails and screws, which is no small undertaking on a deck the size of ours, so we opted to stain the boards as-is and deal with it later next year if it didn’t look right.

Samples of the New Stain Color

For the stain, I picked a shade of Sherwin Williams Deckscapes called Yankee Barn, which might be a little redder than the old color, but blended pretty well, overall.  It is a semi-transparent oil based stain to allow some of the grain to show through.  Before staining the whole deck, I tried staining some scrap pieces of wood from the repairs we had just completed.  Initially, we thought the color matched pretty well on the old and new wood, but it dried a lot lighter on the new wood than the old lumber that already had a patchy coat of stain, so we wound up applying two coats to the new boards and only one to the older lumber.

The end result looks a lot better than it did before we stained; just having things a uniform color really helps.  The new deck boards are barely noticeable and stand out more for their smooth texture than for their color.  It’s not quite as perfect of a finish as I would have liked – the new coat of stain couldn’t soak in to the old deck boards uniformly because of the old stain that was still there in some spots, so it has a shinier finish in those spots and more of a matte finish where the old stain had worn off and the new stain was allowed to soak in.  All in all, though, we think it turned out pretty good.  Our only concern now is that the new coat of stain will start to peel over time in the places where we layered it on over the old stain.  If that’s going to be a problem, we’re hoping it at least takes a season or two before it’s too noticeable!

The Newly Stained Deck

We finished up work today on our deck to fix a problem where tree roots were pushing up on the framing, causing a “bump” around the tree.  We started by re-working the framing for the deck around the tree to give the roots more breathing room and then replaced all of the decking that had been removed for the framing work.  Here are “before” and “after” pictures … it’s a little hard to tell from the pictures, but the “bump” in the deck is definitely gone now:

The "Before" Picture: Tree roots are pushing up on the deck's framing causing a bulge around the tree.

The "After" Picture

We had some trouble getting the old deck boards up in one piece without them splitting or breaking when we tried to remove them, so we wound up replacing some of the decking with new lumber when we put the deck back together.  The new boards we put down are 2″ x 6″ cedar decking.  We aren’t sure if the rest of the deck is cedar or redwood – it’s really red in color when we cut into it and doesn’t smell like cedar, so we thought it was redwood, but the people at the lumber yard thought cedar instead.  Since we weren’t able to find redwood at any of the local lumber yards, though, our only option was to patch it with cedar and hope everything blends ok when we re-stain the deck.

Our next project now is to work on cleaning up and re-staining/painting the deck since it took a bit of a beating over the winter and we need to make all of the new work blend in with the old deck boards.  I’ve done a little reading on the best approach for re-staining a deck and it sounds like we’ll start by giving it a good scrubbing with a deck cleaner and then follow up with a fresh coat of paint in the railings and facia board and a couple coats of stain on the decking.  Since there’s rain in the forecast here every day for the next week or so, though, it’s likely that it might be a couple of weeks before I’m able to really start working on it …

We took a break from our project to fix the deck yesterday and decided to work on running some speaker wire and ethernet cable to it instead.

We usually have an old boom box with us when we’re out on the deck so we can have the radio on in the background.  Since it’s not water-proof, though, it’s kind of a pain to have to haul it out every time we want to use it.  We did some research last summer on wireless outdoor speakers, but the stability of any of the wireless products we’ve ever used is always questionable, so we decided it probably wasn’t worth the money.  Since we have the deck all torn up anyway, though, we were able to get access to the conduit that runs from the house, under the sidewalk and to the deck.  The junction box is in a place that would be impossible to get to with all of the deck boards back in place, so we decided to run some speaker wire while we had everything opened up so we can add some wired outdoor speakers later.

Existing conduit for power and coax runs from the house, under the sidewalk, to a junction box under the deck.

The conduit had power and coax running through it when we started, but we’ve never used the coax on the deck and don’t think we’ll ever really have a need for it, so we unhooked it in the basement, tied some string to it, and pulled it through to the junction box under the deck.  We then tied (and taped) the string onto a 4-conductor speaker wire and an ethernet cable and pulled them back through to the basement.  We were worried the conduit wouldn’t be big enough or we would have problems with the cables getting all tangled with the electrical wire, but it fished a lot easier than we expected.

The service entrance to the house. Contains electrical wires, speaker wires, and an ethernet cable.

Once we got the wires fished to the junction box, we then installed a separate run of plastic conduit under the deck that takes the speaker wire and ethernet cable almost all the way to the far side of the deck where we’d be most likely to mount jacks and controls for the speakers.

Water-proof junction box under the deck. Electrical wires continue straight, into the 1/2“ conduit; speaker wire & ethernet cable go left into the 3/4” conduit.

Our plan right now is to hook up an outdoor volume control to the 4-conductor speaker wire and mount it on one of the deck posts.  Then, we’ll use 2-conductor speaker wire to wire the volume control to speakers mounted just under the deck on either end of it.  Inside the house, we’ll run the speaker wire to the other side of the basement where we’ll set up an old stereo that powers the speakers.  The original plan for the ethernet cable was to provide a reliable internet connection to the deck so we could connect to our MythTV backend for projecting TV/movies on the side of the house, but we’re reading now that it can also be used for more advanced audio controls (that enable source selection, skipping tracks, etc.) in conjunction with a multi-room receiver like what would be used for whole-house audio systems.  We aren’t sure yet how far we want to take this project, but setting up a whole-house system is something that we think would be pretty cool.  I guess we’ll have to do more research to see what meets our needs the best.  For now, though, we have the wiring in place to hopefully support whatever we decide to do.

With the weather getting warmer this week, we decided it was a good time to start the repairs on our deck so it would be fixed by the time we got ready to dig out all of our patio furniture and start using it again.  Our deck is built around a tree that we love because of all the shade it provides, but the problem is that the tree has grown so much since the deck was built that it started pushing up on the deck, creating a “bump” around the tree.  The deck still felt pretty solid from the top, but when we crawled under it, we could see that the tree roots had started pushing up on the deck frame so much that the joists had buckled and started to twist.

The "Hump" In the Deck

Tree Roots Pushing Up on the Deck

To make more room for the tree roots, we decided to cut out the old joists and cross beams that were resting on the tree roots and replace them with new framing that gives the tree more room to breathe.  Because the deck is so close to the ground around the tree, we had to start by pulling up the deck boards around the tree to expose the old framing.  This turned out to be a bigger job than we expected since the boards were about 16′ in length.  After prying a couple of those up, we decided a more efficient approach would be to cut the boards in half, making sure to stagger the seams, and remove smaller sections instead.

With all of the decking around the tree removed, we then installed a new joist on either side of it, with notches in the appropriate places to leave plenty of clearance around the roots.  Since we’d had to notch the 2″ x 8″ joists for the roots, we reinforced each of them with a 2″ x 4″ attached with carriage bolts for a little extra strength.  With the new joists in place, we then cut out the existing framing and let the deck relax so that there wasn’t a “hump” around the tree any more.  We wound up having to notch a few more of the existing joists than we expected due to more tree roots, but once we cleared all of the places where the tree roots were supporting the deck frame, it pretty much flattened itself out within about a half hour so that we could complete the framing around the tree and add some cross beams to support the existing joists we’d had to cut out.

Removing the Old Joists

The New Framing Around the Tree

The new framing leaves at least 3″ between the top of the tree roots and the bottom of the joists and about 9″ around the base of the tree, so we’re hoping to not have to revisit this project again in the near future.

Now, we’re starting to work on replacing the deck boards we had to take up to install the new framing for the deck.  We’ve been able to replace most of the boards we removed, but a few of them were damaged, so we’re piecing the deck back together as best as we can.  We’ll wind up needing to buy a few replacement boards, though, and we’re finding it impossible to find a lumber yard that carries redwood decking.  Looks like we’ll probably have to use cedar for the last few boards we’re missing instead and then try to stain the whole thing to match after the fact.

With the “hump” around the tree fixed and a fresh coat of paint & stain, it’ll be like a brand new deck by the time we’re done!

The patio furniture we ordered for our deck arrived this morning. After about 4 hours of work to assemble everything, it’s definitely looking like a big improvement over the empty deck we had when we started.

We ordered the 7-piece dining set, 2 chaise lounges, and a set of nesting tables from the River Stone Collection and the 4-piece seating set from the Buckingham Collection – all from Sears. Everything came with some assembly required, but none of it was that difficult. The instructions were pretty clear – it probably took us longer to unwrap everything and clean up all of the packing material than it did to actually put everything together.

We need to work on arranging everything some more – I think the chaise lounges may wind up moving out to the pool area and we need to find a new home for the grill, but here are some pictures:

I placed an order tonight for a couple of deck boxes too. We ordered the Suncast DB9750 Ultra-Large Storage Bench, which will go on the deck and hold the cushions for the seating set when it’s not in use (to keep them from getting nasty and wet when it rains). The other deck box is a Suncast DB7000W Deck Box with Wheels that we’ll put out by the pool to store the chemicals and pool accessories in. It’ll be so nice when they come – our back porch is getting awfully crowded with us trying to store everything there!

We’ve been looking all over at patio furniture ever since the displays started going up in the stores a month or so ago, trying to decide what would be the best combination of things to put on our large side-deck, the smaller, tiled patio off of the sun room, and the deck area around the pool. We’ve basically come to the conclusion that, while we like all of the more expensive furniture very much, we’re going to need a lot more for those three spaces than what we’d want to spend. So, we’d been talking about buying some really inexpensive stuff to start with, just so the deck, patio, and pool area won’t be empty and then accumulate some of the nicer things over time.

This weekend, though, I think we found the perfect mix of not-so-expensive but nice-looking patio furniture. When we came home, I looked it up on-line and found those prices to be $150 or so cheaper than in-store, so I placed the order last night and scheduled a home delivery for next Sunday. We ordered a table that seats six, 2 matching lounge chairs with a set of nesting tables to go between them, and a set of PVC “wicker” furniture. I think all of the furniture will probably fit on our deck (and hopefully fill it out nicely), but the chaise lounges will probably find a home by the pool and the wicker furniture may migrate to the patio, depending on where we find we’re spending most of our time.

I still need to find a large deck box that we can use to store the cushions for the wicker furniture in while its not in use so they won’t get wet and nasty when it rains. I’m thinking we’ll probably wind up with a Suncast or Rubbermaid one since those seem to get pretty good reviews and will probably do a good job of keeping water out. I really like the way some of the wooden ones look, but they aren’t completely weather-proof, which I think is a requirement. I’ve still got a week or so to figure it out, though, so no major rush. I’m just excited to have the furniture on its way – it’ll be so much nicer to spend time relaxing outside once there’s actually a place to sit down!

We bought our first piece of “patio furniture” last week: a new hammock for the deck. Not sure if it exactly qualifies as furniture, but we’re still excited about it.

We have a large deck to the side of our house that had two trees growing through it when it was built. Something must have happened to one of the trees at some point because you can see where the deck was patched and now there’s a wooden support there instead. The previous owners had a hammock between the tree and the wooden support when we first walked through the house and we really liked the way it looked on the deck, so we bought one this week to put up in the same spot. We had the option of getting a fabric one that looked really comfy, but we weren’t sure how well it would hold up to the weather, so we stuck with a woven cotton one instead.

Now, we just need to work on finding some real patio furniture we like for the rest of the deck …