Deck plans completed? Check. Permit acquired? Check. Materials scheduled to arrive this week? Check. But one thing still stands in the way of this project moving forward: the old rotting balcony.
We attacked this assignment very methodically. I laid out a bunch of tools (crowbar, sledgehammer, power drill). I lugged over my ladder (for easy climbing up and over the side). I had music playing (see the ceramic pig on the windowsill?). I had Sherry on standby (she was inside watching Clara but ready to lend a hand/take pics at a moments notice). You know, the works. I figured it’d be a very careful process of prying off boards and observing how this previous structure was created, so that I might learn something for my new deck.
Well, methodical quickly went out the window and my demo “technique” rapidly turned into this:
So I pretty much just pulled and pushed back and forth on the railing until the whole outside edge of the balcony started to twist off from the two ledger boards affixed to either side of the house (so it wasn’t scratching the house, just grinding against those ledger boards flanking each side that I’d also be removing).
Before long, the entire thing had flipped over and completely pulled off the house. What you see below is the underside of the balcony floor (the top of the railing has twisted over to be on the ground).
Once the bulk of the structure was out of the way (which took all of 15 minutes – no tools required), my task turned to removing the various boards that had attached it to the house.
There was this ledger board that was bolted into the brick on one side…
…and this other one that seemed to be just nailed into the siding. From what I’ve been reading, this isn’t recommended. For one, you’re apparently supposed to remove any siding that’s in the way so you can attach the ledger boards directly to the home’s rim board. If I’m losing you on any of these terms, this is a helpful chart that has helped me keep things straight.
The other thing that I’ll do differently is install some metal flashing to help keep water from rotting away at the house. This previous installation didn’t have that, so the board and the piece of wood siding were both pretty rotted. But I was able to clear both away…
… to expose the rim board of the house.
Thankfully the new deck will run where that entire bottom strip of wood siding lives (the part that’s good and not rotted to the left of the part above), so it will be coming out. Which means I can reuse it for some of the rotten part above the missing siding strip that you see here. In other words, we’ll be reusing good wood siding that needs to come out anyway. And we’ll be adding metal flashing this time- so none of that nasty rot will plague us again.
Oh, and here’s the progress shot that we shared on Thursday.
This is me tapping the joist loose that sat closest to the house (the other joist came down with the railing). It just sat in the metal hangar, so all it took was a light nudge with the rubber mallet to get it out. No giant sledgehammer required (darn).
In order to remove the ledger board from the house, I broke out my wrench to loosen the hex nuts that kept it screwed tightly into the brick. You can see here that flashing wasn’t used and that this board too has seen better days.
Once I got it removed, you can see the bolts that are still set in the brick. I’m leaving those in for now. If I can’t reuse them, at least maybe I can get some tips for my new bolts by removing them once all of my materials have arrived.
But anyways, by this point the whole balcony was officially gone. Well, actually it’s officially sitting in a trash pile behind where I stood to take this picture. But we’re not thinking about that yet. Let’s just focus on the progress for now. That and our sliding door to nowhere.
I’m a bit anxious / excited to actually start construction. Materials should all be here within the next few days and I’ve got my dad scheduled to come help us get started later in the week. He built the deck on the house that I grew up in, so we thought it’d be helpful to have him around. Hope he doesn’t mind that we demoed without him! So by this time next week we should at least have enough going on back there to report back to you guys. We wish we could say we’ll be back with finished deck pics in three days – but HGTV, we’re not. Haha. We’ll definitely be tackling this project in stages – probably over the next few weeks. But you know we’ll keep you posted! And hopefully by sharing each stage of the process with pics and details it might help other folks out there who are planning to dive into deck-building someday.
Has anyone else demolished something lately? Or do you have a great demolition story? Were you ever surprised by how something was constructed – like a deck floor that flips up when you tug on the railing or rotten wood due to missing flashing?
Mona O | Renters In Love says
This is so exciting! I wish we could build a deck. The neighbors below us might not appreciate it though. :/
Erin says
I’m getting the mega heebie-jeebies at the sight of that rotted wood, but the demo looks like it went smoothly! Here’s hoping the new deck goes up as easily as this one came down!
Azar says
Oh my god, I was rolling with laughter at that second pic of John hanging from the railing. The look on his face! And holy crap at how unsafe that deck must have been to be able to demo it that easily!
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
You got the Staples easy button in the decking world. That was easy. Ha. I bet you’ll have fun building a deck with your dad. I watched my dad build one when I was younger and I was in awe. My hubby has been working on our roof, tearing off cedar shakes, which were rotting because the 70’s solar panels leaked. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=367970163265505&set=a.367430733319448.86930.120919047970619&type=1&theater He’s still got a long way to go.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- I’m afraid of heights so I’d be crying if John was up there. Haha. Tell Ben to hold on tight!
xo,
s
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
Glad it came apart so easily but kind of scary to see all that rotting wood. At least it was an easy clean up. Can’t wait to see you start this project and see what design you finally settled on!
Robin @ our semi organic life says
If thats any indication of how the projects going to go then you’re totally set! Easy does it.
Allyn says
Way to go!
Did it make you a little nervous that it was so easy to remove?! If I’ve been trusting something to support my weight, I would hope it would put up a fight when getting removed. Yikes.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we haven’t trusted that deck from the start. Haha. If we inched out there to grab herbs from a planter we kept in the corner we were always half expecting to fall a few feet to the ground- surprisingly it didn’t collapse til demo day!
xo,
s
Trela says
Umm, yikes, so not only was the balcony overlooking nothing, it wasn’t even that well put together! Not only is your project a much more logical idea, it sounds like it will be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay safer (and more useful) than the old!
And because you mentioned it — HGTV? What DO you guys watch? My husband quickly exits the room whenever I get near HGTV or DIY or TLC, so the fact that you might actually sit and watch some of those shows amuses me. (And will be fodder for our later, near daily “Sherry and John” conversation which tries to convince him to do something with our place. We won’t mention how long it took him to realize that Sherry and John are out there in the blogosphere, not new neighbors up the street… though that would be WAY cool.)
YoungHouseLove says
Right now we’re watching Design Star (we’re so into it already, one episode in) and we like Genevive’s show, loved Secrets With A Stylist, and really like anything with Sarah Richardson or Candice Olsen. Sometimes we watch pretty-boy shows (you know, like the one with the two brothers) which is pretty fun too since they virtually makeover a house and then actually make it over (it’s like Hidden Potential but there’s an actual makeover at the end).
xo,
s
Emiles says
great to have easy work but scary to think of how poorly it was constructed!
any plans to put river rock or pea gravel under the deck?
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love to lay a weed barrier and spread some gravel under the deck since we hear that’s the best way to keep animals out!
xo,
s
The Mrs @ Success Along the Weigh says
Wow! That is scary how unsafe that was! I bet you can’t wait for the new one to be finished so you can start enjoying it. Speaking of which, that’s what I’m doing now is enjoying (doing my job) all of our hard work for the last full week on our patio. If you want, come on over and take a peek!
Meghan says
Did you use that balcony much before? Hopefully not…I’d likely forget it was gone now and go crashing to the ground – haha.
SO excited for another brand spankin’ new project!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- not very much at all! We always felt like we were about to fall through!
xo,
s
Laura M says
We actually started demo-ing our deck yesterday. But the previous owners used every material possible to attempt to waterproof the area below so about 10 hours with 6 people working we only have the pressure treated wood off, tar paper, sleeper boards and about 1,000 3 inch decking screws that we manually pulled up. Now we have 200 square feet of plywood to get up! Hopefully we get this deck up by labor day
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, hope it gets easier!
xo,
s
Teri says
That is going to be the coolest space when you are done with it. Kinda like a secret garden, it reminds me of a ‘secret deck’, a nice private space. Can’t wait to see it all built and decorated.
Kate says
Oh man. I bet you were thrilled with how easily it came out – but that’s so scary! Glad you didn’t use it!
This is such a great project, I can’t wait to follow along.
Maureen says
i am really looking forward to the play-by-play. We need to replace our deck boards desperately, and I am sure we will find more problems once we get started. Luckily I will have you guys to help me along! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, thanks Maureen. I hope we can help! We can’t wait to get started!
xo,
s
Carrie says
What’s underneath the sliding door? From the picture, it looks completely open, but I’m guessing there is some kind of support under there.
YoungHouseLove says
That actually sticks out a little bit (maybe a foot or so from the foundation) but it’s completely sturdy. It’s like how a house can be built to have an overhanging bay window or second level (like a split level) so you can stand there and it’s completely reinforced. It’s hard to explain, but we knew the deck was poorly constructed while we had the house checked like crazy before moving in to make sure the actual house/edition was completely sound/to code. Apparently that overhang is normal in instances where someone reinforces it correctly.
xo,
s
Angie @ The Country Chic Cottage says
What is with people attaching decks directly to houses without flashing?? I have just lived through the pictures above but at my house. It was crazy! One thing we did — we had someone come out and inspect for termites. He did not find anything…whew. But recommended that we spray the area where we did demo before we built anything back. So we treated the area for termites as he suggested. Just a thought. We are also going to replace our sliding door. It is also causing some of our moisture issues. Love it when a project snowballs…don’t y’all. Just so you can see how similar our “rot” pics are…here is a post for you. LOL! De-ja-rot I think….
http://www.thecountrychiccottage.net/2012/05/porch-phase-ii-surprises.html
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a good idea! Thanks! Can’t believe you guys had the same thing!
xo,
s
bridget b. says
this is probably a silly question, but what is underneath the sliding door/living room area. in these pictures, it looks unsupported, like you could walk under the house right there.
YoungHouseLove says
That actually sticks out a little bit (maybe a foot or so from the foundation) but it’s completely sturdy. It’s like how a house can be built to have an overhanging bay window or second level (like a split level) so you can stand there and it’s completely reinforced. It’s hard to explain, but we knew the deck was poorly constructed while we had the house checked like crazy before moving in to make sure the actual house/edition was completely sound/to code. Apparently that overhang is normal in instances where someone reinforces it correctly.
xo
s
Laura @ Unpunctuated Life says
My parents built a second-level deck onto the house I grew up in when I was about 5, and I definitely remember the door to nowhere stage! I’m sure they were terrified I would walk out it. :-) Excited to see yours as it comes together!
Taya says
Can’t wait to see the finished product! Happy building!
Laura says
I laughed out loud when Sherry said, “You’re so strong,” and John responded with a simple, “Well, you know.” haha. I can’t believe that came down easily! That’s sort of scary.
Melissa says
I hope the deck construction goes as well as the demolition!
We have a second-story deck off our kitchen (walkout basement…everything off the back of the house is basically second-story). Whoever built it failed to install flashing too, so we have had our fair share of rotting house siding replacement as well…though “we” (read: my husband) decided to do something that led to the discovery of approximately 8 to 10 feet of rotted-ness (and then a hole that big) a couple weeks before Thanksgiving…in New England…long story short (too late!), we/he made the necessary repairs, insulated and patched the hole in record time.
Giulia says
Wowza, aren’t you glad you got rid of that now before it collapsed on it’s own? The new deck is going to be so much nicer.
We demolished our fireplace tile recently, the tiles came off with ease and we were all happy and then it turned into a little reno nightmare. Removing mortar from brick is not a fun endeavor. We are still scarred from that project ;)
http://www.fishlynews.com/2012/04/to-be-prepared-is-half-victory.html
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that looks like a crazy amount of work!
xo,
s
Spencer says
My first house had a screened in porch that needed new screens. I figured it would be a piece of cake. After taking off some trim boards the project turned into a complete rehab of the entire porch. The previous owners nailed new trim boards over the obviously rotten and ant infested edge joists. The 3 main posts that supported the roof had these decorative boxes build around them.. I popped one of the corners off and discovered that there was no actual post inside, just an ant chewed stump of wood. To top it all off the metal column beneath the floor in that same corner was broken just balanced in place. There was no way the inspection could have found these issues. Since then I’m always worried about pulling boards off to see what is underneath. It all turned out fine, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the structural integrity issues.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man! What a frustrating discovery!
xo,
s
Jennifer says
We are finishing up a patio made of pavers! We were going to do a deck but you all took too long so we changed and followed your patio instructions instead, haha. We had to take some time off for the thunderstorms – thanks Beryl!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- good luck with the patio!
xo,
s
Traci says
I can’t wait until you guys start building. It’s going to be such a quaint little dining area.
Reenie says
WOW!! That was easy…..let’s hope the rest of it goes as smoothly :)
Amy @ this DIY life says
Woo hoo! Isn’t progress great?!?! I have dreams of adding a wrap around porch onto our house. When we do that, we’ll be taking applications for unpaid internships…in case you’re interested :)
Stephanie says
Wow. That could not have been a very safe deck if it came down that easy. Can’t wait to see you guys build this though.
All I did was kill a bug in my bathtub this weekend. It was gross and huge but still. You guys are overachievers. :)
Ashley Jensen says
Oh man. That would be no bueno if you guys were hanging on the deck and it went toppling over! Good thing the wood isn’t too badly damaged and you would have to do even more repairs! I must have missed why there is a sliding door to nowehere because the deck surely wasn’t build at the same time as the house right?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re not sure when the door and balcony were added. The previous owners mentioned they had always planned to extend it and add a hot tub, but never did it.
-John
Anu says
this looks good progress. are you still building the pergola on it ?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, that’ll be a phase two thing that we’ll add down the line (we want to live without it to make sure we don’t think it’s too dark, in which case we’ll pass on the pergola and just swag outdoor lights above the deck).
xo,
s
Lindsay says
We recently demo’d our old deck and are in the process of rebuilding. The original builders didn’t install flashing and our entire rim board was rotting and needed to be removed along the entire length of the house where the deck was attached! We had to replace the board before starting the new build, but luckily, we were able to do all of the work ourselves. Our house also wasn’t wrapped before the siding was installed, so we covered that portion of the house with tar paper and added flashing. Our new cedar deck is coming along nicely now, and it’s comforting to know we took extra precautions to ensure we wouldn’t run into the same issue again! Good luck with your build!
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
If this is any sign of what’s to come, building your new deck should be super easy! ;) Can’t wait to see it come together!
AshleyB says
We demoed our back deck that the previous owners constructed to put their hot tub in (they took the tub, left the deck with the giant hole). Unfortunately, when we demoed it, we disturbed a resident … a black widow! Glad y’all didn’t find anything so scary. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yikes!
-John
katalina says
you probably talked about it but –that is strange layout– was an addition built to the left to have that narrow part?
It is good feng shui to fill in any pieces missing from the house to make it more like a square.
It would be a nice place for a long diving board to your yet to be built pool… but that would not be safe for Clara or Burger.
YoungHouseLove says
Yep. We think it’s so they could preserve the windows and natural light on that side of the house (which we’re glad they did) but it did create this funny space that we now have to fill.
-John
natalie says
Wow! It’s almost scary how quickly and easily that came down!
Are you guys planning on doing anything to the brick? I’ve never had to deal with moss on brick before and I doubt it’s anything more than a visual issue versus a structural issue, but I didn’t know if you were planning on cleaning it off on the space where the deck met the wall.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah, I think eventually we’d love to de-moss the brick. We also talk about painting the siding someday (most likely a medium gray that ties into the mortar between the bricks so it’ll hopefully balance and unify the alley. Someday!
xo,
s
Kimberly says
Just want to harp in and say, I look forward to Monday mornings just to see what you are up to…weekend Young House Love withdrawls…
Keep up the awesome work and very entertaining blog!
A huge fan!
Kimberly
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kimberly!
xo,
s
jimbeam says
That’s actually rather scary that it came off so easy!
John, did you dread/worry about this demo? I ask, because I am trying to teach myself that sometimes I worry for 3 days about a job that actually takes me 1/2 hour! What a dumb trade off.
Just do it! Good work, John!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, yes! And conversely, sometimes when we budget about half an hour for a should-be-easy project it never fails to take us two frustrating hours! Haha.
-John
Lindsey says
Oh my gosh, Holmes Inspection on HGTV last night had a deck where the sliding was removed and the ledger screwed directly to the house wihtout any flashing. Of course water found it’s way into the house because they removed the water barrier of the sliding. Water damage is a scary thing!
YoungHouseLove says
Eeeks!
xo,
s
Sheila says
I saw that episode too! Of course I feel asleep before I saw how they fixed it so I guess you’ll have to research the answer yourselves. ;)
molly says
I watched the marathon of that show last night and that porch was so dangerous! It may totally be worth checking out if you guys have some spare time (between everything else you guys do).
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tips guys! We’ll be following everything to the letter when it comes to code out here (the inspectors will be checking for everything we need to keep the house free of water and the deck securely standing). I’m sure the previous deck was built secretly without a permit, which is why they skipped so many important steps!
xo,
s
Karen F says
it’s kind of scary that the old balcony came apart that easily!! good luck with the build, guys! It’s going to be awesome!
Amelia R. says
When we bought our house a few years back, it had a little 1960s aluminum awning over the front step that we decided to remove because it was in terrible shape.
My husband was around the side of the house working on something else. My brother was up on a ladder to see about removing it. I was on the front step to hand him tools. Apparently, only a single load bearing nail was holding the thing in place, because it scarcely took any touch before the entire thing came crashing down in one big sharp-edged piece . . . missing me by inches.
When people say “they don’t make things like they used to!” I don’t think they’re referring to your old deck or my old awning.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- it’s true!
xo,
s
Carol says
Hubby has accomplished 2 demolitions-the scope of which seems small compared to the word!
We (he) removed the wall between our kitchen and dining room back in February. Project still in progress.
We had a poorly constructed covered pergola (again, the word is much greater than the structure)outside the back door. That came down Saturday and the fascia board repair occurred yesterday. Still have to replace the vinyl soffit and some metal. Of course, we now have to rebuild a cover, but like everything else here, it’s a work in progress.
I am desperate to remove our bottom cabinets (they are like the ones you inherited in your previous house)so we can replace them and the countertop so we can add a dishwasher. Washing dishes by hand twice a day is a drag.
Good luck on the deck project!
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds like you guys have been busy!
xo,
s
Dawn says
We replaced our second story “deck” (technically a balcony because it’s 15 feet off the ground) a couple of years after we moved into our house. The inspector (and I use that term loosely) hadn’t reported that the joists supporting the deck that also we part of the house, were rotten. When we finally got down to good wood, our 8-10 feet long joists were between four feet and one foot long. Rotten! The previous owners had cleverly painted the joists so the rot was not visible unless you poked it with a screwdriver. However, we’ve been enjoying our safe deck for the last 10 years. (We also had two sliding glass doors to nowhere – 15 feet in the air and two kids under 3!)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! How frustrating! So glad you have a safe deck now!
xo,
s
Krystle @ ColorTransformedFamily says
Don’t you wish all projects started off that easy? I can’t believe it came off in one piece. Good thing y’all didn’t use because it looked pretty unsafe.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- yes! It was certainly a nice surprise. I think it definitely goes both ways (some things are waaay harder while others seem to be a lot less trouble than we expect) so we’ll take it wherever we can get it!
xo,
s
Lauren H says
It looks like your electricity meter is on that side of your house….do y’all need to keep that open/accessible to the electric company guys for when they come out to read the meter? Just wondering!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually called and in our area as long as they have access to it (even if they have to crouch, which will be the case) it’s fair game. But in some areas we have heard it has to be at eye height without any crouching allowed- thank goodness that’s not the case or our deck would be a no-go!
xo,
s
Jessica says
One major lesson I’ve taken away from your blog is that you can make something or a space look better by just removing the stuff that needs to go. It might not fix the entire problem, but it definitely helps!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jessica! Never thought about it that way, but it’s true! Once a landscape expert said she made mulch beds around her house with nothing in them (she was planting slowly over time, so they were all bare) and everyone said how good it looked- even though they were empty- just because they were cleared and ready! Haha.
xo,
s
Karen J says
It seems like it shouldn’t have been so easy to take down (but I’m no deck expert). I think there are a lot of improperly if not actually shoddily built decks in the world! We were at someone’s house a few weeks ago that had a second story wood deck overlooking a pond. Unfortunately the deck had pulled away from the house on one side, the support posts looked seriously undersized and were crooked and rotted to boot. I pulled our kids aside and told them that under no circumstances were they to go out on that deck. It was scary!
Windy says
$herdog-I must say J-Boom is looking pretty hot with the shades, haircut, and muscles! (And of course, Sherdog is quite the hottie too!)Can’t wait to see the deck.Peace.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- don’t I know it. I’m his biggest fan!
xo,
s
Amber says
Looks good! Guess you’re glad you didn’t spend much time out there huh? ;) have fun building!
Karla says
We demoed our bathroom recently (nice quick renovation at 28 weeks pregnant). It took forever, like everyhing in our house does… and we found rotting walls and black mold.
So far, the tub and shower walls are in, the tile floor and grouting begins on Wednesday!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! You can do it! Send us pics for sure.
xo,
s