What can we do about our deck?
July 1, 2020 1:10 PM   Subscribe

We have a large deck in our big, mostly lovely back yard. It's an eyesore. What can we do about it?

We have a large-ish deck in our backyard.

It's ugly. It was painted brown at some point before we owned the house, and now the paint is peeling all over the place.

The deck boards are in bad shape, with some of them rotting away. I've replaced a few here and there but it probably needs, at minimum, to be resurfaced. It gets covered in tiny little leaves from the locust tree in our yard and the maple trees in our neighbour's yard. I don't know about the footings—one landscaper we had in last year said he thought it looked structurally sound, but he didn't do a close inspection.

There are also raccoons living underneath it. (We have somebody coming to estimate on putting in a one-way door and blocking off the other entrance points this weekend). That's about all we know about what's under it, but I assume there's probably a lot of random debris.

We don't particularly like our deck. But replacing it is an investment we're not exactly keen on, financially speaking. If money were no object, we'd probably replace it with a nice stone patio.

We'd like it as a space to sit and eat in the summer, but right now, we just try to avoid it except as the thing our barbecue sits on.

What are our options here? Is there something we can do short-term while we budget and save for a longer-term solution?

We are in southern Ontario.
posted by synecdoche to Home & Garden (17 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Pressure washing can strip paint while rejuvenating the look of wood. Paint it or stain it afterwards and it will be a lot less of an eyesore for a few years.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:20 PM on July 1, 2020 [8 favorites]


They have interlocking tiles you can put down that should handle the main surface. Paint the rest.
posted by pyro979 at 1:36 PM on July 1, 2020


If the foundation is sound, it's relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive to pull up the existing boards and replace them with new wood, and pull off the existing railing and replace it with something newer from a big box store. You can then stain it or paint it as you see fit, and it will look like a brand new deck.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:43 PM on July 1, 2020 [8 favorites]


I've pressure washed a painted deck and again when it had an opaque stain. The degree to which it didn't do shit cannot be overstated.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:43 PM on July 1, 2020 [7 favorites]


Sorry, meant to add: cheap way to make it okayish for a year or two -- just get an outdoor rug for the Sitting There Zone.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:45 PM on July 1, 2020 [3 favorites]


I'm in Buffalo, so similar climate to you. Behr Deckover paint is made to fill in large cracks in the wood (it's VERY thick), but I recommend against it. It only lasts a couple years before it starts peeling up in sheets. I imagine our extreme temperature fluctuations don't help, but there are tons of comments and reviews online about what a crappy product it is. And once you've used it you're kind of stuck, unless you're able to completely strip all of it away.

You may have a similar problem that we're having here: everyone is out of treated lumber. My sister needs to replace some boards on hers, and everywhere we've checked is out of pretty much any decking for at least couple more weeks.

So, if you're not concerned about longevity, and plan on replacing the deck in a couple years, Deckover should do the trick, and it may be the only quick option if you can't find boards to replace your bad ones. It does do a nice job and looks fine for the short amount of time it lasts.
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:46 PM on July 1, 2020


Deckover only lasted six months on my deck (luckily I'd only painted a couple boards as a test). But pressure washing plus Valspar opaque deck stain made an amazing difference, and didn't take a ton of time or money.
posted by metasarah at 2:07 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


We had a weathered deck when we purchased our then-nondescript house. Power-washing was really blowing off anything loose and paint prep. All flat surfaces suffer the worst. We painted the sides and rails in two complimentary contrasting colors, as well as the floor, which brightened it up considerably. The floor and top rail surface get touch ups and were repainted twice in 15 years.

That outdoor rug suggestion is great for our space, we use the deck way more often for dining variety with Covid staying at home, but if we had not improved it, it would only be accessed for grill use.
posted by childofTethys at 2:29 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


"If the foundation is sound, it's relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive to pull up the existing boards and replace them with new wood, and pull off the existing railing and replace it with something newer from a big box store." - hmmm, maybe if you're a talented carpenter, yes. But if not... we paid a carpenter to do this, for our 10x10 deck, keeping the foundation, removing and replacing all the wood, rails and stairs - $8K I think, a few years ago - and another $1K or so to stain. Decks are great but they are not inexpensive.

Can you get an estimate on any of the alternatives? Dismantling it might be the best option, then just use small gravel as a patio floor until you can budget for your ideal stone? Here's Bob Vila's take on pea gravel patios
posted by j810c at 3:10 PM on July 1, 2020


That DeckOver stuff is crap in a can. We used it on our deck a few years ago. We're rebuilding our deck this summer. (Cleveland, OH)
posted by kathrynm at 4:03 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


Pour ammonia under the deck and the raccoons will leave. They kept digging new ways in under my house and ammonia got them to leave and not come back.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 4:10 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


we paid a carpenter to do this, for our 10x10 deck, keeping the foundation, removing and replacing all the wood, rails and stairs - $8K I think, a few years ago - and another $1K or so to stain. Decks are great but they are not inexpensive.

You may have paid $9K for that, but it is not a $9K project.

I redid a substantially larger deck last year for under $2K and 1.5 days of work. It could have cost significantly less, but I went with Canadian cedar over pressure treated lumber.

synecdoche, you can do this yourself with nothing more than basic tools and rudimentary knowledge. You won't be doing anything more complex than basic cuts into the wood, and then screwing or nailing them in place.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:17 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


We tore down a rotten deck at my last house, hauled away most of the vast pile of pea gravel underneath, and put down pavers. It was relatively inexpensive and we ended up with a nice looking space. In our case the deck was beyond repair but it sounds like yours might not be? The only really bad part of that project was the pea gravel.

I would strenuously recommend against a pea gravel patio. It's heavy, it's not all that nice to walk on, it gets everywhere, it's there FOREVER or until you shovel it up and haul it away. Trees grow in it. If you ever drop anything sharp, bits of it will be mixed into your pea gravel forever. It's good for playgrounds but I never want to have it in my backyard again.
posted by beandip at 7:26 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


Southern Ontario here, exactly the same problems. My deck needs to be replaced at some point, only just not yet. The foundation is OK, it's just the top layer.

I just finished a project where I replaced some obviously-bad boards, power-sprayed the rest, loosely sanded everything, did two coats of Thompson Water Seal on it. It looks really good again, although it's not a permanent fix.

I'd say my investment was $300, plus maybe 20 hours of my labour. My deck fills most of my backyard.

As for the raccoons, I do preventative racoon deterrence in the spring by spraying access points with coyote urine (available on Amazon or TSC). But seeing as raccoons are already there, just removing boards and making their space open to the elements might do the trick. As for ammonia, it can't hurt to try.

I've bought a few more years with my reno, which is fine by me.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:36 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


If there's enough space underneath for racoons, the rotten boards may break suddenly and leave someone with their leg broken or lacerated. (In my case it was a significant sprain that took three months of PT to heal - the deck was high enough that I ended up with one leg entirely in the hole up to my hip, and the ankle on the other foot way overflexed.) I'd stop using it entirely until it's fixed.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:45 PM on July 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


My last house had a deck that was in sad shape when we moved in. I pressure washed it, replaced the bum boards and gave it a thorough coating of Thompson's water seal. That lasted 5 years. And another 5 years right before wee moved. The lumber was pressure treated. You can also stain and seal which lasts a few years (I have a pergola at my current house and the stain/seal on it has lasted about 5 years).

As for the raccoons - that's a separate problem. If it's a mom, in the summer evenings she'll take walks with her kits. That's the time to seal up everything (if you can) and she'll likely not come back. That doesn't apply to males so much. Otherwise, you're looking at trap and relocate.
posted by plinth at 6:07 AM on July 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


I used whatever Home Depot recommended on the back deck. It lasted maybe 2 years. On the front deck, I used something oil based from the ReStore store and it has held up well for 3 years. I hope to re-apply this fall. If you power wash, use a fan to help it get really dry; wet wood doesn't accept product well. Wood is PT, but 25 years old. I'm considering flipping the boards, and discarding any that are damaged, in part because the boards were not spaced properly and it gets standing water.

Gravel is a pox on any landscape.
posted by theora55 at 8:24 AM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


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