So you deck is so dried out, split and cracked up that you’re scared to walk on it and you get splinters everytime you touch the railings. What to do? There are basically two choices when you are at this point. Resurface or rebuild the deck from scratch. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.
Resurface - We get asked a lot about resurfacing decks. By this I mean tearing up the deck boards and railings and replacing them while leaving the main deck structure intact. It would seem on the surface that you’re going to save big. You’re only doing half the work right? Well, not really. If you’re hiring a professional deck builder to do the work for you the savings in materials will mostly be lost the extra time it takes to carefully remove the decking without damaging the framing below. Demolishing a deck takes very little time compared to disassembling it.
This deck is fairly new. The framing was done so poorly that it collapsed at the house. There wasn’t even concrete in the post holes when we pulled them out. This was an easy decision to completely replace.
There’s also the time and cost to bring the framing up to todays much more stringent codes. It just doesn’t make sense to rebuild a deck on a bad foundation.
Rebuilding - Tearing it all down and starting over not only ensures it will be built properly but it gives you a chance to change the size and shape if you you would like. You’ll also have peace of mind that your entire deck is new, built to code (or preferably even better than code) and with proper care and maintenance should last another 15 to 20 years.
Before
After
