Deck plans finalized? Check. Permit secured? Check. Materials scheduled to arrive this week? Check. One obstacle still stood between us and the new deck: an old, rotting balcony that had to come down.
We approached the demolition with a plan. I lined up the tools—crowbar, sledgehammer, power drill—set up the ladder for access, put on some music (see the ceramic pig on the windowsill?), and had Sherry on standby to watch Clara and take photos as needed. I expected a cautious process: pry off boards, examine the construction, and learn how the previous deck was built so we could do it better.
That careful plan didn’t last long. My methodical approach quickly gave way to brute force. I started tugging at the railing until the entire outer edge of the balcony began to pull away from the two ledger boards bolted to each side of the house. It wasn’t scraping the siding; instead it was twisting off around those ledger boards—which I was going to remove anyway.
Before long the whole structure flipped over and detached from the house. The photo below shows the underside of the balcony floor; the top of the railing had twisted down to the ground. What I thought might be a long demo turned into about 15 minutes of mostly hands-on work.
With the bulk of the balcony gone, the next step was removing the boards that held it to the house. On one side a ledger board was bolted into the brick, and on the other side the ledger appeared to be only nailed into the siding. From what I’ve learned, fastening a ledger directly into siding is not recommended. Best practice is to remove the siding where the ledger will attach and fasten into the home’s rim board for a secure connection.
I also discovered that the old installation lacked proper metal flashing, which led to rot where the ledger met the house. Both the ledger and the piece of siding beneath it were compromised and had to be removed. Clearing them away exposed the rim board of the house.
Luckily, the new deck will align with a lower strip of siding that is still in good condition, and that siding will be removed as part of the new deck installation. That means we can reuse some of the good siding to patch the rotted area above. More importantly, we’ll install metal flashing this time to prevent water intrusion and future rot.
We shared a progress shot on Thursday—see our earlier update. In that photo I’m tapping loose the joist closest to the house; the other joist came down with the railing. It was held in a metal hanger, so a light nudge with a rubber mallet freed it—no dramatic demolition required.
To remove the ledger bolted into the brick I used a wrench to loosen the hex nuts. The absence of flashing and the weather exposure had left the board in poor condition. After removing the ledger you can see the bolts still set in the brick; I’m leaving them in for now. If they can’t be reused, I’ll pull them once the new materials arrive and use them as a reference for the new bolts and installation.
With the balcony fully removed, the debris now sits in a tidy pile behind the work area. For the moment we’re focused on the progress and the open sliding door that now leads to nowhere. I’m eager—and a little anxious—to begin actual construction. All materials should arrive within a few days, and my dad is scheduled to come help later in the week. He built the deck on our family home, so his experience will be invaluable. Hopefully he won’t mind that we started demo without him.
We don’t expect to finish the entire deck in a weekend. This will be a staged project over the next few weeks, and we’ll share updates with photos and details as we go. Our goal is to document each step—removal of the old balcony, proper ledger attachment, metal flashing installation, and new deck construction—to help others planning their own deck projects.
Have you demolished something recently? Do you have a memorable demolition story, or an instance where missing flashing or unexpected construction details surprised you? We’d love to hear how your projects went and any lessons learned about deck removal and construction.