I moved from Phoenix to Minneapolis this winter (bad idea, I know) and bought a house built in 1986. The house is in good shape but needed a lot of updating etc but the winter was perfect for interior work. Now that spring has sort of sprung, I'm making a list of repairs on the exterior. One of the things that needs repair is the deck.
There are planks that are obviously damaged (holes) and rails look crappy. About 15% of the nails popped and needed to be reset so one can walk without tearing their foot. A few of the planks adjacent to the home are heaving and a few if not all of the hand rails are gray/dry rotted maybe. I have to be 100% honest, I am not used to working with rotted wood and can not determine what is 'normal aging' and what is 'rotted' so I'm looking for a hand. Or eyeballs. My intention is to make the required repairs so I can wash the crap out of the deck and either stain or paint the structure when temps rise therefore any repairs would have to sort of blend in with the others.
So my questions are
1. What causes these nails to pop?
2. What is causing the rood to seemingly rot?
3. What is causing the green color on the the bottom of the deck?
4. How do I determine which pieces of wood are rotted?
5. Should I jump of the railing?
6. Any ideas what causes the wood to heave and how to fix that problem
Please take a look at the attached photos and give an opinion.
Any input is encouraged...short of 'tear it down and start over'
Thank you
There are planks that are obviously damaged (holes) and rails look crappy. About 15% of the nails popped and needed to be reset so one can walk without tearing their foot. A few of the planks adjacent to the home are heaving and a few if not all of the hand rails are gray/dry rotted maybe. I have to be 100% honest, I am not used to working with rotted wood and can not determine what is 'normal aging' and what is 'rotted' so I'm looking for a hand. Or eyeballs. My intention is to make the required repairs so I can wash the crap out of the deck and either stain or paint the structure when temps rise therefore any repairs would have to sort of blend in with the others.
So my questions are
1. What causes these nails to pop?
2. What is causing the rood to seemingly rot?
3. What is causing the green color on the the bottom of the deck?
4. How do I determine which pieces of wood are rotted?
5. Should I jump of the railing?
6. Any ideas what causes the wood to heave and how to fix that problem
Please take a look at the attached photos and give an opinion.
Any input is encouraged...short of 'tear it down and start over'
Thank you