Outdoor projects – it doesn’t matter if you love upgrading your green space or hate even the thought of picking up a hammer and a few nails, when the time for renovation work comes, you just can’t act like the task doesn’t exist. This rule applies especially to more heavy-duty projects like removing your old decking. Why? Well, to put it simply, a rotting deck is never a good thing because, one, it looks far from pleasant, and two – it’s actually very dangerous.
So, if you’ve decided to remove your old decking by yourself in order to make way for the new one, but don’t have a single clue how to complete the job, Rainbow Rubbish Removals is here to give you a quick fix for the situation.
Ready to find out how to perform a proper deck demolition job?
Inspect the elements of your deck
Before you start tearing out the thing, you need to know what exactly you are dealing with. Most people think that the most time-consuming part of getting rid of a deck is dismantling the actual boards and needless to say, that is a very wrong assumption to make. A deck has a variety of elements that you need to think about, especially when you are calculating the time you are going to need to take apart the structure and the waste that you’re going to produce. So, here are the main elements of a decking:
- Boards
- Rail posts
- Posts
- Cap rails
- Top rails
- Threads
- Risers
- Stringers
- Balusters
- Joist hangers
- Ledgers
- Joists
- Bridging
- Rim joists
- Beasts
Told you that there is literally a lot to think about when it comes to tearing down a deck.
Now that we’ve covered the structure parts of a deck, it’s time to talk about…
Gather the tools you are going to need demolish the deck
In order to successfully and safely remove a deck, you are going to need the following tools and equipment for the job:
- A quality screwdriver
- A heavy-duty hammer
- A sledgehammer
- A pry bar
- A good saw
- A pair of gloves
- Protective eyewear
- Sturdy boots
Some of the instruments you can go without, like the saw and the sledgehammer, however, it’s always a good idea to have them around, because you don’t know what course the deck demolish project is going to take.
Take apart the railing elements
Take the screwdriver that we mentioned earlier and start unscrewing, well, the screws that keep the railing together. You need to begin from one end of your deck and move on to the other to make things easier for yourself. After you’ve removed the handrail, continue with dismantling the balusters. Your best option is to loosen the balusters by rocking them back and forth very carefully. Once you’ve removed the parts, you can proceed with taking apart the bottom rail of the decking by repeating the process.
Next dismantle the boards
Now it’s time for the fun part – to remove the boards of the decking. Remove the screws one by one and then carefully lift the decks. If they are attached with nails, get your pry bar and unleash your inner handyman. As you can already see for yourself, the whole process of removing the boards takes a lot of time, especially if you are dealing with either smaller boards or larger ones that need to be cut down to become manageable. That said, there is no other way of doing this.
After you are done detaching the boards, you can store them somewhere in your garden space for later disposal or directly throw them away in a nearby dumpster.
Carefully remove the steps
This part is relatively easy. Like with the boards, either unscrew the bolts of the steps or use your pry bar to get nails out. If you are wondering if you need to start from the top or bottom part of the steps, the latter is definitely the safer option.
Detach the deck from your home
Needless to say, if your deck is not connected to your property, you don’t need to detach it. Duh.
However, if it is, here is what you need to do:
- Use a saw and starting from the end of the decking, cut the frame off of the ledger board.
- VERY carefully proceed to the other side;
- After you’ve detached the frame of the decking, remove the ledger boards part of the structure.
That’s it – you’ve just successfully detached the decking from your house. We are nearly finished. Next to last of the dismantling project is…
To take care of the decking and rim joints
Take the pry bar for the last time and dismantle the decking joints. If they are giving you trouble, get your sledgehammer and hit them a couple of times to loosen them up. Of course, be extra careful while doing this, so you don’t accidentally injure yourself.
The last step – Pulling out the support deck posts
To pull out the support posts you need to dig up the soil around them. This will loosen them up. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have to break up the concrete base that you’ll find located at the bottom of each post. Get your sledgehammer and start smashing the concrete into little pieces. Finally, pull the posts out.
Congratulations – you’ve successfully dismantled your decking! However, the project is not entirely finished. Because you need to…
Dispose of the demolished decking
You have a couple of options – to drive the waste to the nearest recycling facility; to transport the dismantled elements to a landfill; or to throw away the deck parts in a close by dumpster. The bad news is that all of these options come with specific negatives and probably the biggest one is that you need to do even MORE work. Let’s face it – you are very tired from the deck demolishing job and the last thing you want to do is throw away old timber. Well, guess what? There is no need to break more sweat.
Get your decking professionally removed and disposed of
Yup, you read this right – not only can you get someone to dispose of your deck waste, you can also have them dismantle the thing! And that someone is Rainbow Rubbish Removals. You can count on our professional decking removal services to get your outdoor project completed the fast, easy and most importantly – hassle-free way. All you have to do is give us a call or make a quote request online and before you know it, your old deck will be long gone. So don’t wait any longer and hire the professionals of Rainbow Rubbish Removals now!
Conclusion
While home projects can be a lot of fun, sometimes wasting a whole weekend dismantling a huge deck is just not the way to spend your free time. That aside, the job can also be dangerous, if you are not being careful enough. Still, there is no harm in starting the deck removal endeavour and if by any chance you decide that you don’t want to finish it, you can always rely on the help of a professional disposal team to complete it for you.