Wanna predict the hottest time of the year? Let LG plan to do deck work.

[LinvilleGorge]

I don't know how I do this, but every time I do deck work it's guaranteed to be hotter than the devil's taint. When I rebuilt my front porch and built the patio in CO it was the hottest stretch of weather I endured in my 14 years out there. Mid-90s at 8000 feet elevation.

Now here my ass is again out here slaving away on the low-90s but absolute swamp ass humidity. Not as involved this time, mostly just power washing and re-staining. Replacing a few decking boards and rebuilt the front steps. Sweating buckets. Had to take a break.

Ignore my awful mess. The back deck doesn't have steps so I'm just working around everything instead of hauling it all through the house. As Matt Rhule would say, it's a process. I promise it'll look good when I finish. I'll pile everything over to one side to stain half, then pile it all on the other side to stain the other half then put it all back together.

One  board on the steps in the pic below is stained for the wife's approval. The front porch is just 10 year old raw wood that's never had anything out on it.

[jayboogieman]

Too bad you doing deck work doesn't bring rain.

[CamWhoaaCam]

Stop complaining about the heat it looks like you have plenty of shade around your home. 

 

 

Looks pretty good though.

[Brooklyn 3.0]

My highs for the next 10 days: 75/72/77/78/75/75/75/78/76/77.

Enjoy your deck.

[cookinbrak]

I'm gonna replace the boards on my deck. In October.

[LinvilleGorge]

I could've replaced all the uncovered decking boards but with lumber still high I just spot replaced boards. None were rotting. I just replaced a few that were cupping or curling. I replaced the front steps be sure they were in considerably worse shape than the covered porch and with it being raw wood I wanted to use a transparent stain. If I was using a solid stain on the front porch like the back I would've let them ride.

[Paa Langfart]

5 hours ago, jayboogieman said:

Too bad you doing deck work doesn't bring rain.

You got that right .  surrounding areas to myself are below normal rainfall now, unfortunately my little piece is on our second year of abnormally low rainfall and in a drought by my measure - about 25 inches less than normal over the past 24 months.  I have a small farm pond I have been running well water into several times a day just to try to keep the wildlife going.  

 

55 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I could've replaced all the uncovered decking boards but with lumber still high I just spot replaced boards. None were rotting. I just replaced a few that were cupping or curling. I replaced the front steps be sure they were in considerably worse shape than the covered porch and with it being raw wood I wanted to use a transparent stain. If I was using a solid stain on the front porch like the back I would've let them ride.

I replaced some deck boards just a few weeks ago -  treated lumber , syp,  specifically,  is such crap compared to even 20- years ago.  Just plain crap.  It curls, twists and warps like a mf once the sun hits it.  Rots in random spots for no apparent reason in just a few  seasons and is full of knots.  And that is the good stuff you pick though at the lumber store to find.  I still have to replace the treads on my front entrance steps but am thinking of going with one of the composite products at this point.  And not going to do it till cooler fall weather. 

I spent  the majority of  today working in the garden getting ready for fall crops.  Holy crap it was hot and humid and the sun this summer has seemed to be particularly brutal.

[LinvilleGorge]

11 minutes ago, Paa Langfart said:

You got that right .  surrounding areas to myself are below normal rainfall now, unfortunately my little piece is on our second year of abnormally low rainfall and in a drought by my measure - about 25 inches less than normal over the past 24 months.  I have a small farm pond I have been running well water into several times a day just to try to keep the wildlife going.  

 

I replaced some deck boards just a few weeks ago -  treated lumber , syp,  specifically,  is such crap compared to even 20- years ago.  Just plain crap.  It curls, twists and warps like a mf once the sun hits it.  Rots in random spots for no apparent reason in just a few  seasons and is full of knots.  And that is the good stuff you pick though at the lumber store to find.  I still have to replace the treads on my front entrance steps but am thinking of going with one of the composite products at this point.  And not going to do it till cooler fall weather. 

I spent  the majority of  today working in the garden getting ready for fall crops.  Holy crap it was hot and humid and the sun this summer has seemed to be particularly brutal.

Yep, pressure treated lumber went to poo when they stopped using CCA to treat it. That was about 20 years ago. I've seen stained or painted pressure treated lumber rot out in 6-7 years if it's uncovered in a heavily shaded area. UV smokes it too. I've seen raw wood decks splitting all to hell within 5 years on uncovered south facing lots in CO.

[jayboogieman]

8 hours ago, Paa Langfart said:

You got that right .  surrounding areas to myself are below normal rainfall now, unfortunately my little piece is on our second year of abnormally low rainfall and in a drought by my measure - about 25 inches less than normal over the past 24 months.  I have a small farm pond I have been running well water into several times a day just to try to keep the wildlife going.

We aren't in drought where I'm at but we're drier than normal.

[Paa Langfart]

9 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yep, pressure treated lumber went to poo when they stopped using CCA to treat it. That was about 20 years ago. I've seen stained or painted pressure treated lumber rot out in 6-7 years if it's uncovered in a heavily shaded area. UV smokes it too. I've seen raw wood decks splitting all to hell within 5 years on uncovered south facing lots in CO.

The new treatment  concoction eats up fastenings too

[Lame Duck]

Late August and early September are the worst.  Very humid and hot.  

[LinvilleGorge]

24 minutes ago, Paa Langfart said:

The new treatment  concoction eats up fastenings too

I'm not sure if it's the chicken or the egg. I do know this new pressure treated wood oftentimes rots out around the screws. That might be what's eating up the fasteners. The wood starts rotting and retaining moisture and that corrodes the fastener.

[hepcat]

Nice work. I've been doing a bunch of repairs on my house every weekend since July to get it ready to list next week and I've been getting up at 6:30am to get outside before the temps reach near 110. I've legit gotten early stage heat exhaustion a few days. Painting facia boards on a ladder when it's pushing 100 is something I don't ever want to do again but I will say the house is looking amazing. It's a shame we gotta sell it. 

[LinvilleGorge]

34 minutes ago, hepcat said:

Nice work. I've been doing a bunch of repairs on my house every weekend since July to get it ready to list next week and I've been getting up at 6:30am to get outside before the temps reach near 110. I've legit gotten early stage heat exhaustion a few days. Painting facia boards on a ladder when it's pushing 100 is something I don't ever want to do again but I will say the house is looking amazing. It's a shame we gotta sell it. 

Yeah, that's brutal. My business partner lives in College Station and he sent me this on Sunday when I was bitching to him about the "heat".