First off, the deck doesn't get much sun thanks to the forrest growing in the backyard, so the wood was covered in moss and decaying leaves and slime. And it was slick! I was the only one to take an actual tumble, but there was a whole lot of sliding going on.
Second, because there was a hot tub on the deck, they used 2 x 6's for the deck planking instead of the more standard 1 x 6's. And, while the joists and posts were rather rotty (is that a word?), the decking was in great shape (aside from the green slimy covering). I wasn't outside for most of the demolition, but I do know that it took 8 guys with sledge hammers and crowbars about 4 hours to get it all torn down.
Oh, and did I mention the hot tub that had to be moved? Yeah. It was heavy. And awkward. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but in order to get it off the deck, the men first tipped it up on one side (after draining the mosquito nursery that was under the cover), then placed 4 aluminum poles next to the tub and lowered it carefully onto them. At that point, it was fairly easy to roll the hot tub to the edge of the deck while removing the poles as they rolled out from under it. Then, Valerie and I stood on one edge of the tub while all 8 guys positioned themselves along the sides of the tub before carrying a short distance to a couple of pallets we had waiting on the ground. It all went rather smoothly, except for the part where I slipped on some mud and fell, giving myself a muddy backside and a sore bottom.
We all felt a little bad at having to take the deck down, at least at first. It turns out it was in better shape than we thought, but since we need to regrade the yard next to the house to keep water from coming into the basement, the deck had to go. As we got further and further into the removal, however, it became clear that we needed to take the deck down.
The first clue that all was not as it seemed came when they had removed the decking up to the first row of posts. Turns out those posts were just sitting on the ground. Not in a hole. Not in a concrete footer. Just sitting on the dirt. Then the boys noticed that the joists were held to the posts only by a few nails. No hangers. Just tacked on. As they worked towards the house, it got better. The joists began to get progressively more rotted to the point that when Alan stepped on one, it disintegrated. And then they got to the edge of the original deck. Here, the posts were sitting on concrete footers, but they still weren't attached in any way to the footer. It was at this point that our friend Chris decided the deck should have been called the table. And he was right. It was really just a giant table sitting next to our house. With a really heavy hot tub sitting on it.
So, as it turns out it was a good thing we had to take it down. It was dangerous and, it was really only a matter of time before someone got hurt. Now that it's out of the way, we can work on dismantling the disgusting swamp of a pool. It is one of the more disgusting things I've ever seen (and possibly home to the Loch Ness Monster or the Creature from the Black Lagoon). Once it is out of the way, we can waterproof our foundation and work on getting the grading right so that water can't get into our basement any more. Yay for dry basements and friends with hammers!
A couple of videos of the guys at work:
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