Tore down the deck

[jedimaster]

Well that last big snowfall brought down part of my parents deck so I had to go up to there place and help clean up. Now I am not too sure how you are supposed to do it, but this worked out pretty good. A little notch on the posts, and sledge hammer. Now I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it like this but it sure came down.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hvHS1IjDB4

[BillM]

Should have had a come-along instead of trying to pull it down with brute strength. Could have avoided being underneath it when it fell, lol. At least the sledge had a nice long handle on it!

[irishfield]

We talk about that gene pool here often....

 

Considering the brick didn't come off the wall... glad you didn't have a big party on that deck!

[Fisherman]

Well now you have a rotten lower level deck.

[mukluk]

Might want to watch that first step ( where the woman and child made an appearance) at the sliding door as well.

[glen]

Mike Holmes would cry if he could see what you did to his deck.

[jedimaster]

Put up some stairs by door after, new deck is going to be put up when the ground dries a bit. A come along would have been good if I had one. Sometimes you just gotta make do with what you got. Was pretty amazed at how rotted the cedar got after 15 years.

[Dara]

Location says Toronto...not suprising

[lookinforwalleye]

Thanks for posting the " how not to dismantle a deck video"

 

None of my business but given the deck is elevated I would suggest a professional install and a building permit.

 

Glad it missed your head

[jedimaster]

Why what's wrong with knocking the deck out the same way the rest of it fell? The lag bolts were pulled prior. So no worries about the bricks being ripped out... even though they didn't rip the bricks out when the snow knocked the rest of it out.sure it would have been nice to have some more pulling power but it needed to come down and was far less safe to let it sit like that up. I guess it would been nice if it was possible to get say a skid steer or something but given the location its not possible to get in the back yard.

[jedimaster]

As for the build it was put up by contractors and the new one will also be put up by contractors.

[Old Ironmaker]

I hope you don't hire the same contractors.

[mr blizzard]

For a second I thought your postings were doing to end at 3,094.

 

I guess cat's are not the only one's with 9 lives, glad you are still around.

[jedimaster]

Yah, honestly it looks a lot closer than what it was. Just standing I was about 4 feet away from it. I think I should have just lobbed a big cinder block at the leg instead. I was a bit surprised at how fast it came down though. I hope if anyone takes anything from this, they should go check out there deck this spring before the summer season starts. don't take any chances. The top can look good but underneath can be rotted to sponge. Half of it as mentioned came down under the load of snow. Fortunately no one was hurt when it came down.

Obviously I told tem to use different contractors than from the first time. I never hear of using 4x4's on such a big tall deck. Anyway. I told them to just build a smaller one with 8x8's. I guess I have a few weekends of cleaning up now for me unfortunately.

[ch312]

LOL @ some of these safety nazi replies. it's a deck the man was taking down, not the whole friggin house. considering the height and how rotted the deck was i'd say that bringing it to the ground to rip it apart was far safer and faster than dismantling it piece by piece as it stood. rigging up a fall arrest system to dismantle it or having a crane come in to lower the deck to the ground would be safer, neither method is practical for this.

 

 

i guess i was the only one that was excited to see that your plan worked out?

 

 

did you remove the lags from the ledger before doing this or did the contractor skip that part?

[jedimaster]

Thanks CH, I wasn't too surprised that some folks here were offended by a guy doing some demo with a sledge.

Pulled the lag bolts out first, all that were left holding it to the wall were concrete nails. I guess a giant crane might have been able to lift it up, but wow what a price tag. Stripping it apart would have been far more dangerous imo as going on it with only two 4x4's hold it up that were in questionable condition was not something I wanted any part of.

[John]

There are thousands of new homes still being built today with walkout basements and elevated decks "supported" on 4" x 4"'s. Very scary that this is actually code.

[Twocoda]

Not really a fan of your demo process...but ...building decks is the most fun you can have with your clothes on and some solid wood