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James

Client mistakes ,

Question

I have a client who I restored there house two years ago . They did a lot of research and had many different solutions to remedy there house and picked me to strip and restore the cedar siding . Some contractors said it could not be done but it came out great and they are extremely happy. During the restoration the deck was not part of the house restore because they were going to replace it . They were under the impression it could not be saved. It was it great shape but had 3 coats of powder blue paint and I said I could save it. They wanted to do it the next year and make some minor changes. They called me to check on the changes a builder had done and they where brutal. The wood was terrible and the work was shoddy . Rain prevented from doing the restore last year.

I get a call a few weeks ago that they replaced there deck and there almost ready to have it finished and come take a look. They had a Doug fir tung n groove 15 by 32 floor all exposed to elements and a 5 by 12 off the master bed room the same all kiln dried. The rail system is a beautiful design of doug fir 2 by 4 green and sappy with a pt top rail. The floor butts up to the cedar siding.

What a maintenance nightmare ! How do you tell someone this is a disaster . They sit with a builder / designer and come up with a flat deck with no drainage in New England. With a wood used for a porch with cover. So the water has to travel fifteen feet at a minimal pitch. I already saw standing water.

I tried to approach the issues of maintenance but it started to come out that this is a mistake and stopped. I just said this has to be done yearly and see how it goes.

How wood you approach this relationship? The deck it built.

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They may have had a contractor, but I doubt that they had a builder. There is a difference.

I would expect that you'll be able to make it beautiful for short periods of time, followed by you doing it over. Then they'll get tired of that routine and start all over with a new deck

Do what you can and suggest to them that future decks of success will involve the man who maintains them, hopefully at the design stage.

Edited by Timo
Too many thats.

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I would just be honest with them that the design of the deck is going to cause serious problems for maintenance. Explain the problems that no drainage and standing water will cause. Inform them that what they have is something very unconventional in the way of exposed decking. Let them know you don't want to be responsible when it goes the way you think it will, and explain to them what that is. Then add a clause to your contract about it and have them initial it.

The problem is that even after all of that, they might blame YOU for not getting it right! They'll never think the wonderful guy who built this mess was responsible for it. I've seen this before where the homeowner blames the guy tasked with caring for their mess, rather than the guy who made the mess. In their eyes the structure "looks" just "fine", so it must be the fault of the guy who couldn't help maintain it right.

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My neighbor was building a deck. I told him you can't build with no spacing. He did it anyway.

A lot of the Trex decks (Trex-dex) problems are due to this as well.

It's the lack of drainage, not the product.

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This will be filed under top ten blunders. I'm going to sink some copper juice into it and go from there. Let them observe weather issues over the next two years and then have a deck with poka dots ( drill holes ).

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No photo but it's Doug fir tung n groove for a porch no roof over head about 15 by 32. It's like looking at a interior great room floor. Look at your hardwood floor and think of it outside at around 500 sqftage . Butted up against 32 ft of cedar on one side and 15 on the other.

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Oh.....that sounds worse than I was imagining at first. Holy smokes!

Edited by AAPaint

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Diamond Jim,

My only thought is for the home owner to go back to the deck builder and ask them to preserve their work. I would walk on this shipwreck.

Jake

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