Rebuilding a Garden Deck

We were hired to rebuild a garden deck that had become completely rotten and very dangerous. We tore it right back to the footings, and even moved them around to accommodate more appropriate joist spans. The old deck had been framed with site milled fir and over the last 20 years had just turned to mush.

We re-framed it with pressure treated 2x8s, and redecked it with site-milled Western Red Cedar that had been sawn to a full 2x6 dimension. We rounded over all of the edges with a router before laying the decking down. A border board closed the deck and hides the end grain of the decking.

The upper deck was rebuilt with a post-and-beam feel to replace the closed in motif that was there previously. Less closed in space will allow for better air flow and the material will dry much more quickly.

We used an extra wide decking board to frame the
 water feature in the left side of this picture.

Any pressure treated framing was hidden by a cedar
facing board.