Old wood has been removed, thanks to an ad on craigslist where someone removed it and hauled it away for free. I'm going to re-use the existing joists/posts from the old deck.

I'm halfway done pulling nails and expect the fasteners to arrive tomorrow. I'm thankful I found the hidden fasteners that I did because the fasteners made specifically for my decking would have run almost $700. The brand I picked up was $180.

Now, who would be interested in a free beer/cigar build-a-deck herf at my place on Saturday? :-):-):-)
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Very nice man. Whats the spacing between the joist right now?
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16" for the most part...some are maybe 12" just depending on how they framed around the crawl space. I think I'm gonna make a spacer for each joist to give me additional stability though. The joists are spanning 18-20' and move quite a bit. I think adding a single spacer about midway to tie each joist to one another will be a good idea.
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Thats a good sized deck!

And even better someone tore it apart and hauled it off.... FOR FREE!!???!!!! WOW!!

Putting them down is going to be the easy part. The measuring and cutting is the toughest part, and its not all that tough.
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Great looking project, I have done a few of those myself...
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Looking Good, Brother!:-)
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It's not a big start, but I'm starting to get the hang of it now. I'm using Camo Fasteners and it's taking just a bit of a learning curve to get this all figured out. After about 3-4 more boards, I'll be able to start using full length 12', 16', and 20' boards which will do wonders to speed things along. Probably done working on it until Wednesday as I have an exam on Tuesday to prepare for.

One thing I'm doing is butting up new 2x10's on some of the joists that seem to be about 1/4" - 3/8" low. It's a lot easier to just set a new joist than it is to raise a joist nailed in place.

Another huge plus will be once I get enough of the deck complete, I'll put a table with the compound miter saw on it so it's a whole lot less going in and out of the garage. That and I'll have a helper all day Friday. :-)
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I'm getting too old for this...
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Very nice work Duane.
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Awesome project...looks real good for an old guy
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What was wrong with the deck that was there:-)
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20 year old deck from treated pine-didn't want the hassle of waterproofing/staining and it was rotting in some areas. The decking is Timbertech XLM-it's a PVC coating, thus the maintenance you see with wood is gone. :-)
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Never got around to posting the finished pics. Well, technically it's not finished until I put the rails in and the bench seating all around the outside, but that's going to wait until next fall. I want to get some post caps, skirts, and covers to match, but just not in a position to shell out the extra $1k to do it until I get back to work. The hardest part is out of the way at least.

Trying to figure out my plan for landscaping around the deck. Think I might rip out the tall grasses and other misc crap and start fresh with rose bushes in the spring.
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Looks good Duane. :-) :-)
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most excellent!
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Very nice, wish I was handy like this.
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Nice job! :-)
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Looks good, love doing projects that you get to see and use the end result yourself.
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Sweet!!!:-)
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Gotta love a big deck!
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