280 sq ft Deck Repair and Repaint in Stouffville

What we built

The before photo on this page is what we turned up to. Deck boards split end to end with gaps you could put a foot through, a corner railing post rotted away at the base, and paint peeling off the skirting in sheets. From the yard it looked like a deck at the end of its life.

It was not. Boards go before frames do, because the walking surface takes the sun and the rain while the joists underneath sit shaded and dry. We pulled the boards that had gone, opened the deck up and checked the framing and the ledger, and the structure held. Once that is established the job changes from a rebuild to a repair, and so does the price.

The rotted post was the part that actually mattered. A railing post that has gone at the base will still stand there looking like a railing right up until somebody leans on it, so those came out along with the rails and pickets attached to them. What was sound stayed.

Then the whole deck was painted. This is the step people skip and then regret. New pressure-treated boards beside weathered ones will never match on their own, however close the stock is, because the old boards have years of sun in them. Coating everything at once is what turns a patched deck back into one deck. The surface, the stairs and the railings carry the same colour, with the skirting and the lower rail picked out underneath.

The louvred privacy screen on the covered section was already there. It was repaired and refinished rather than replaced, which is the right call whenever the frame behind a screen is still sound.