Maybe you spent part of Memorial Day weekend sitting on your
deck, sipping your morning coffee or enjoying a cold beer (or two). If so, good
for you! As for me, I spent five hours of my holiday demolishing a pool deck that
looked like it belonged on the set of The Brady Bunch.
Ever since last summer, when my youngest came close to scaling
the deck for our aboveground swimming pool, I've been worried about the wooden monster
in our backyard. Yes, the pool deck was ugly - in a 1970s Southern California kind of way. But more
importantly, it wasn't safe.
Nails protruded from boards whose redwood stain had turned
gray. The decking wasn't pressure-treated and dry rot was evident. The
wobbly gate was beyond repair. Worst of all, the railing used flimsy planks that
were oriented the wrong way (horizontally instead of vertically, as the picture above shows). For a child
who is strong enough to hoist himself onto the edge of the deck and smart
enough to start climbing, such a design is what we grownups call a "ladder".
Compared to some of the stuff that frankd20 does in this blog, my demolition
project was a trivial one. But an errant cut could have pushed the deck into
the swimming pool or flattened the 120-VAC conduit for the pool filter. How's
that for drama? (And just try explaining that one to your wife.)
Fortunately, my DIY demolition project took only five hours.
Even better, the tools I needed were simple ones: a pry bar, a reciprocating
saw, a hammer, a sledge hammer, and an extension cord. My neighbor offered his
Kubota to pull the deck away from the pool, but his tractor was in service
at the cemetery.
Before I begin with the play-by-play, I'd like to give my
personal seal of approval to a $35 (USD) Ryobi variable-speed reciprocating saw
(model RJ162VP). Weighing just 6.3 lbs., this demolition tool has a stroke
length of 1-3/16" and 6.5-amp motor. The industrial reciprocating saw blades
that I used were pretty good, too. Made by a company called Blu-Mol, they bent
but never broke.
Two dogs ran around the backyard during this project, but no
animals were harmed in the making of this blog-entry. Unfortunately, the author
can't say the same thing about himself. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, and I really
would like you to click here for Part 2.
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