Outdoor Living: Franklin MI Cedar deck

Hello .. We have been crazy busy with work so I have to apologize for not keeping up on updating our blog. For the last few weeks we have been on this project we are going to review today.

Remove and replace a Franklin MI two level cedar deck.

We are matching an existing design with a few changes. I really like the original design.

Basically the deck is 14 x 42 with a center step down 14x14 octagon level. There is also a 16x20 pergola centered in the design.

The old deck was made from cedar and was in really bad shape, it was built in 1980 and there was a few problems areas.

We filled up a 20 yard dumpster from all the debris on this job it was a bear to tear down. Also every utility line was ran through the deck area, including the electrical main, cable, and phone, air conditioning, a water line and two electrical outlets.

Here you can see the cedar fascia board sandwiched over the deck boards and the framing, this is one of big problem areas we see all the time. This why we always run a border board around the outside of the deck, so the fascia board can be run underneath the border board to cover the fascia/framing seam so there is no gap area where the two materials are sandwiched together. The picture frame border also covers the ends of the cut deck boards.

You see the gap between the fascia and the rim joist has collected all kinds of debris and it created an area for water to sit, damage the deck frame, fascia, and the ends of the decking.

The other big problem area we see in deck failure in is the ledger board of the deck, (where it attaches to the home) Here you see there was flashing used in the construction of the original deck, but because the house has wood siding. The wood siding failed and created the damage to the ledger and than eventually the deck and house.

So the end result from the siding/ledger failure was replacing about 30' of the house rim joist

Here is the new ledger attachment and flashing

Here is a few framing shots

The latter joist framing for the center seam board

Octagon framing

Next comes the decking installation.

Below you can see the single picture frame border board

that covers the fascia/framing gap and hides the end grains of the decking.

Railings up next

Pocket hole post/rail attachment

We pre-stained the 2x4 rails with Sherman Williams Deckscapes that the homeowner choose, but the color did not come out right so the homeowner decided to leave the grey colored stain on the rails and keep the rest of the deck stained with a natural colored stain