by Patch Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
First up. Buy some beer. Invite some friends over. Offer beer for labor and clean up all the clutter. Spend an hour or so trimming that tree up. Get it back to shade for your yard, instead of taking over your yard.
I can't see how the footing are put in. If they are concreted or, just blocked. If they are in the ground, I wouldn't remove any of them at this point. You can reuse some of them with your new layout and remove the ones you don't later. That's the most labor intensive part so wait and see what you want to use, before you remove any or add any.
The steps you have on the deck will probably work on the house. Just put a header under your door once you remove the deck and attach the old steps. Replace any rotted wood on the steps will be easier than starting from scratch.
Take everything else out (except the footings) Take it apart as carefully as possible and remove nails or screws.(so it lays flat) You want to keep what you can. The best boards will probably be the frame underneath. Separate it by type. Even a bowed board might come in use on the rebuild. You could still use part of it. Throw out the stuff that is rotted through,but salvage as much as possible. Cut rot off of boards if there is still some good board remaining. The lattice looks to be in pretty bad shape. Not sure if it's worth keeping. You won't be able to match it to replacement stuff, but it might make from some nice fire pit kindling.
That should get you started and give you stairs to the back door. It looks "L" shaped in the pictures. I'd go back with a full square. and put steps off where it makes sense. It may be a driveway on the side by the mower, I can't tell from the pictures, but if it doesn't block the drive, I'd go there. If it would then I'd put a wide set off the end and rail around the rest of it.
It looks like the wood is painted, which limits what you can do with it, depending on what you want your new deck to look like. You should be able to use it for framing. The other option would be repaint when you finish, or lots of sanding (time consuming )
You can probably salvage enough to get a great start on a new deck. You need to find a dry place to store it, to keep what you save, from bowing or rotting. After that lay out your design and start buying a new lumber a little at a time. I spent a few months collecting wood for my back porch remodel. Once I got enough to get going I knocked it our quick.
Did I mention, trim that damn tree?
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