Bent Tree Deck Reconstruction

October 20-November 1, 2013

On October 20 we drove up to Bent Tree to assess the deck situation. We had engaged Brian Smith to repair rotted boards on the deck, but he had found extensive rotting next to the house and feared that the whole upper deck would need to be replaced. He had ordered in deck boards which can be seen under tarp in front of the car. Total deck reconstruction was something he couldn't take on by himself on weekends.

We planned to spend the night and had arranged for Don Skinner and Terry Robinson to come and look at the situation on Monday. The uphill view from the house shows that underbrush has cleared, but the leaves of the trees hadn't changed much yet. We always enjoy being up there at this time of year.

We love the approach of sunset through the woods. We settled in to enjoy the evening in the mountains. The next morning, Terry arrived and his assessment was the same as Brian's, so we began to schedule for replacement of the top deck.

Monday, October 28, 2013

We went to the Bent Tree house and awaited the arrival of James and Chad Thompson, who were going to do the deck building. Terry and Don had laid out the design and the materials list, and at about 1pm the truck from Home Depot, Jasper arrived with the lumber and a big-wheeled forklift. The lumber was picked up by the lift and he came up the driveway with the lift.

The driver came smoothly up the driveway. This Home Depot has learned how to deliver things in these mountains!

He dropped the lumber and was off. James and Chad were setting up their tools and getting ready to start on the deck.

James and Chad got right to work tearing down the old deck. Chad tosses a piece of the rail off, and then they start cutting the deck in pieces for removal.

By 2pm they had the railing off and were removing the deck platform.

At 2:20pm the guy from Dumpster Depot in Talking Rock, GA showed up with the dumpster. He immediately won my respect by confidently backing the truck with the dumpster up the driveway and dropping it off. Things had really been moving this afternoon after all the communicating and arranging that Don Skinner did.

At about 3pm we had to head out for home, so we left them cutting the deck in pieces to disassemble it. Our heads were spinning a bit with all that had happened since noon, but we were pleased that things were underway. As we headed down Bent Tree drive from the gate, there was a bit more color than we had observed last week.

Friday, November 1, 2013

These were our first views of the new top deck as we walked up the driveway. James and Chad had stayed in the house and worked all week. There were major changes in this new deck to meet current codes. The back support was bolted through the 2x10 front band of the house, it was flashed with aluminum to prevent the kind of rot we had on the old one, the rail had to be 42" tall rather than 36, and the space between deck verticals had to be reduced to 4". It was a lot of hard work!

James and Chad put the final touches on the deck railing. They had already brightened our view greatly with the new glass doors top and bottom. They finished about 3pm.

James and Chad cut their final railing board a little before 3pm and at 4:30 the guy from Dumpster Depot showed up to pick up the dumpster. I had just tossed in my final piece of scrap wood. He was an interesting young guy who ran this service with just he and his wife with 16 of the dumpsters.

Finally all the construction vehicles and debris were gone and we could revert to our peaceful woods and the pleasure of the late afternoon.

We could now sit out on our sturdy new deck and enjoy our favorite time of the day as the late afternoon sun backlit the fall leaves.

Again we got to enjoy the great beauty of the sun through the trees as it approached sunset.

As we headed for home on November 2 we got to see the dramatic change in the leaf colors over the two weeks we have been having the construction done.