Whew!! A deck do over.

Well the time came.... Our poor back yard deck had definitely seen better days and it's been on the list of things to do for quite awhile. 

 

I think the problem started back when we didn't know any better and when we were having the house fixed from the flood - the guy put his water tile saw.... you guessed it.... on the deck.....  water.... wood.... equals DUMB!!!  

 

 

 

We now know better.....

 

Well this is Bob's deck.  Looks pretty good....

 

 

 

 

4 years later...... dilapidated wood rot! We aren't committed to the "grand plan" for the back so what do we do.... do we repair/replace deck, remove completely and add pavers... pour cement.... UGH

 

 

We opted to repair and treat.  My amazing Mother-in-law spent about 2 weeks with wood, 3 boxes of nails, hammers and saws out there repairing the underneath for stability...the top for the pieces of wood that were beyond all possible hope..... seriously - she's amazing.

 

 

 

After the repairs, we power washed it within an inch of it's life..... and waited a few days for it to dry.

 

 

Seriously - look at those grooves in the wood.  I found a product that is a "gap filler" kind of paint.... it is supposed to fill the deep crevices in the wood and prevent any further damage.

 

 

I rollered the paint on and Mikayla came behind with the brush to fill the gaps.

 

 

 

it took awhile to get the result we wanted on the first coat.

 

Let me tell you, the deck is probably heavier by about 500 lbs of paint that we put on it to fill those gaps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on a Kirsten calculation....we needed mayyyybe 4 gallons of paint to do two coats of paint on it.  Well...in the picture below...the paint tray is empty....all four gallons that I bought are empty...the only paint I have left is what is on the roller to finish the first coat.

 

 

whew, made it.  We ran to get some lunch and then pick up two more gallons to put on for the second coat.  Thank goodness the store had it!!  My dad had special ordered me the four gallons because the store only had two gallons in house..... I cleaned them out! 

 

 

 

 

Seriously AMAZING!!!!!  It's totally brand new out there!!!  Plus MIL was able to see her labor all the way to the end.  So now we wait for two weeks for the paint to fully cure before we will put any furniture back on it and spruce the rest of the area up.    WHEW, this was a satisfying project!  All of us keep going to look at it.... the old deck was in really bad shape.... wood would fly up as you walked on it if you didn't know where to step.  It was totally dangerous.