Again? Already?! If you’d asked me ten months ago whether I’d be doing deck work again so soon, I would have given you a look that said, “If I were the punching type, I’d punch you.” Fortunately I’m not, so instead I rolled my eyes and got to it.
I enjoyed building the original deck during a hot summer, but I wasn’t eager to repeat the whole process. Thankfully this time it wasn’t a full rebuild—just a focused repair. You may remember the gap that was left behind when we had to remove that huge tree. The crew did a fine job removing the tree, but the bench that surrounded it was sacrificed in the process, leaving a hole and a pile of bench scraps.
Rather than reconstruct the bench, we decided it would be more practical to cover the opening so the dining area could sit centered on the deck. Leaving the hole would have pushed our outdoor table off-center and cramped the space. My main concern was matching the width of the new deck boards to the older, weathered planks. I tried to salvage full boards from the scrap pile but came up three boards short.
A trip to the hardware store solved the problem: the new boards matched the existing width, so I bought supplies and headed home. I grabbed:
- Seven 8-foot deck boards — $42
- One 8-foot 2×8 board, cut in half for joists — $9
- Four metal joist hangers — $4.50
- TOTAL: $55.50
I started by cutting the 2x8s to the width of the hole and securing them with the hangers, using decking nails left over from last summer. The opening was just over three feet wide, so a single joist might have sufficed, but the old stump had been cut at an odd angle. That meant I couldn’t place a joist dead center, so I installed two in a slightly unusual layout. Function beats perfection, and as long as the boards stayed supported I was happy.
To make the patch look more natural and to add stability, I wanted the new boards to extend beyond the hole so they could rest on existing joists at either end. That required trimming a few of the surrounding planks to fit the new pieces in. Instead of prying up entire boards, I used a Dremel Sawmax to score a deep cut so the boards would snap cleanly where needed. The cut didn’t go all the way through, but it was deep enough to control the break and avoid tearing up the whole deck.
This approach saved time and effort—only the sections that needed removal were pried up. When it came time to size the new boards, I simply laid one across the gap and marked it with a pen. No tape measure required. Using the stairs as a makeshift sawhorse, I cut each board to fit with a circular saw.
Assembly was straightforward: puzzle the boards together, then secure them with screws. I was glad I’d kept the leftover screws from the previous deck project—those saved me a trip to the store and a few dollars. A small comfort when a job sneaks up on you unexpectedly.
The result isn’t a magazine-worthy after photo, but the new boards cover the hole and make the deck usable again. One of the old planks cracked while I was prying it free, so I ended up patching a little more than planned—hence a long replacement board on the lower left. It’s functional and solid, which is the priority.
Next on the list is a thorough cleaning, stripping, and restaining of the entire deck so the new and old boards blend better. Eventually we’d like to open up the back of the deck by adding extra-wide stairs down to the yard—probably a Phase Two project. We also added two gates later to keep the dog from escaping.
For now we’re just glad the deck is safe and usable again. The repair only took an afternoon, which made the surprise project much more tolerable. Has anyone else handled an unexpected home project lately? Sometimes the surprise jobs turn out to be quick wins.