Hitting the deck

In my Killer day post, I showed the beginning of the deck rebuild.

As a reminder, the shot above shows the view from the back door, more or less, after taking up the high part of the deck. The brick pillar to the left houses a drinking fountain that has been inoperable since the first winter, when the pipe froze. Moomph!

Running diagonally through the picture, a line for the sprinkler system. It leaks, and we’ll replace it. We’ll replace it, in fact, in a way that provides future access without having to tear apart the deck, just in case it needs to be replaced again someday.

Here’s a second view from the back door, the lower level, but with the boards removed only where I wanted the drywell.

And the drywell, after a day of hard work. The concrete protruding into the hole is the apron around two of the piers that support the joists. Its presence complicated the excavation.

How the drywell looks today, dug another foot deeper (thanks to the gardener) and filled with light gravel salvaged from the roof, with a perforated tube running down its center and connected to the rain downspout.

Today’s view from the back door, drywell at the far right. The high part of the deck has been reinforced with new joists because the deck surface will be 1-inch manufactured lumber, rather than 2-inch redwood. In the background, holes for the concrete piers that will support joist interleaving for the lower deck. We’re doing the deck in two phases because it’s good to have access to the part just outside the door as soon as possible.

We cut off the pipe to the drinking fountain.

Where it froze, lo those many winters ago. The temperature was probably into the upper 40s, F. In the rebuild, we will insulate the pipe.

I invited the gardener to dig out the holes for the piers, and he did a great job. This is hard adobe soil, filled in some places with rock and scrap concrete from when the house was built, and is a lot more work than it might appear at first glance.

I’ll undoubtedly update the blog with at least one progress report.

Tags: Deck construction, Drywell