Deck Repair in The Quad Cities
If you are looking to have some deck repair work done and you live in the Quad Cities area, Big River Handyman can help.
Decks can be an attractive addition to your home while also adding value to it. Whether you use it for a place to relax outside after a hard day at work, or a place to entertain your family and friends, they can be used for a wide range of outdoor living space ideas.
With all of the different designs and material available these days, the possibilities are almost endless. While there are some homes that may have maintenance free decks built with material like vinyl, the majority of homes that have them are built out of wood which means they must be maintained.
Instead of having your deck repaired, you may be considering having it replaced? Even with proper maintenance, over time they can start to look bad, out dated and even deteriorate to the point to where they are unsafe to use. However, in most cases, it is not necessary to have your deck completely replaced.
The problem is your decking, railing and steps take most of the abuse from a lot of things, but most importantly, the weather. If your decks foundation is still intact, you can save a lot of money by simply refurbishing it.
If you have some loose or rotting deck boards you can just replace the ones that are bad. The same thing goes for the railings and steps. Just make sure you use the proper screws when doing any repair work on your deck. I've seen times when the wood has actually outlasted the screws where the edges of some of the deck boards have curled up because the screws rusted and broke. If that's the case just screw them down with new screws.
If you are going to do any repairs to your deck you will need to know what kind of wood your deck was built with. While you have a lot of options of wood to choose from, the most common are cedar and pressure treated. To find out what kind of wood it is, first check out the wood for imperfections. Pressure treated lumber will show more imperfections like more splits and knots. Cedar tends to have less knots but can still have splits in it over time.
One way to know for sure is to remove one of the bad boards and cut a piece off. Then smell it, you can smell cedar while treated lumber won't have much of a smell to it. If your deck is cedar you can replace the wood and stain it right away depending on the weather of course. If it's pressure treated you will want to allow the lumber to dry out because it has chemicals in it that causes the wood to be wet. I've heard anywhere from a couple of months to a year.
If you're not sure if the wood is dry enough, just sprinkle a little water on it. If it beads up, it's still too wet. If it soaks in, it's time to stain it!
With today's lifestyle, people are busy and it's easy to put off some of the things that really need to get done.
If you need to have some deck repair work done, the problem is it's only going to get worse. Don't put it off to the point where it becomes a safety issue.
