Deck Demolition Derby!

After cleaning my deck it was time for the deck demolition derby. John, Alex, and their crew worked hard on a 90° sunny day to tear everything out. Pretty impressive how fast it goes when you are knocking stuff down. Nothing too interesting was "hiding" under the deck - just a coke can and fork. The joists weren't looking too good, so I was happy we didn't go with the option of just replacing the decking with Trex-type wood.

One issue (there are always a few!) that popped up is that the kitchen stove fan vent pops out from the basement underneath the deck. This would be covered in concrete, so that's not going to work. One option would be to extend through the concrete, but I'm a bit reluctant to have a large diameter pipe/void through it. Or optionally I could re-route in my unfinished basement ... but that would be a bit of work. Since I saw basically no grease underneath it (the filter at the stove top should trap everything) and it's basically just a vent for the air to flow, I just dead-head'ed it in the basement and put a trap there which seems to work fine ... although when we make bacon you can sure smell it down there! ;-)

It's going to be sad to see two of the shade trees go as they were a lotta work do to the Summer/2002 when we had no water - see these satellite pictures - but I guess it was "version 1" that just didn't work out too well.

Deck Demolition Derby - Gentleman, start your engines!

deck demolition derby start

Get pick-axe under decking

And then just pry up the boards

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Side shot of the demolition process

And then just keep moving down

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Deck Demolition Derby - First Lap!

deck demolition derby 1

Deck Demolition Derby marches right along

demolition derby 2

Joists are pried loose from hangers

Work 'em back and forth with a lotta leverage

deck joists 1 deck joists 2

Deck Boards are all gone

demolition derby 3

Sledgehammers demolishes joists

These pieces of wood are heavy

demolish joists 1 demolish joists 2

Wheelbarrow is one way to move 'em ...

... but these guys were pretty tough

demolish joists 3 demolish joists 4

Deck is gone - but more demolition to go

demolition derby 4


Go back to the stamped concrete patio index or on to the next step which was laying the concrete forms.