Tearing down an old wooden deck may seem like a simple task. However, it can become difficult for a person who find themselves with a hammer in their hand but an old wooden deck that will not budge. The pressure-treated lumber can become as hard as concrete with time, and the rusting of the decks nails can make them weld with the wooden boards.
Furthermore, each wooden board seem to have a mind of its own and refuses to move from there position. Using the appropriate tools will make it possible for a person to tear down the old wooden deck in the course of a weekend. However, using the wrong tools or no tools at all can turn this task into a difficult month-long struggle.
The correct tools will protect a persons back, save their hands from calluses, and keep them from making dangerous mistakes. The following information details the tools that will make the tear-down of an old wooden deck a successful and easy task. The tools that will be discussed are not the flashy gadgets that can be purchase from a home improvement catalog.
These tools are the items that professional crews will have on their trucks when they are ready to tear down an old wooden deck. Each tool will have a specific job to perform to ensure that the job is done properly and safely. A demolition pry bar will be found at the top of the list of tools that should be used when tearing down an old wooden deck.
Essential Tools For Deck Demolition Projects
1. Demolition Pry Bar
This tool has a forked end and a flat blade that will allow it to gently pry open the deck boards to extract the nails that hold them in place. Furthermore, the long handle of this tool will provide the leverage necessary to complete this task without putting strain on a person’s shoulder muscles over the course of a weekend teardown. Additionally, most demolition pry bars also has a nail puller slot in the middle of the pry bar to remove the remaining nails from the boards once the boards have been freed from their position.
For these reasons, a demolition pry bar cannot be skipped during the tear-down of an old wooden deck. A heavy-duty hammer will be required to complete the removal of the old wooden deck. A framing hammer will not be effective in removing the nails that are embedded in the wooden boards of an old deck.
2. Heavy Duty Hammer
A demolition hammer will have a straight claw that will allow it to remove those nails, and it will weigh at least twenty ounce to help loosen the nails that have been embedded in the wooden boards for years. A demolition hammer will be kept beside the pry bar in case some areas of the deck present challenges to removal with the pry bar alone.
3. Circular Saw
A circular saw will be necessary when dismantling the wooden deck. The depth of the saw can be adjusted to come just past the thickness of the wooden decking planks. Using the circular saw will allow the person to neatly trim each wooden board into three-foot section that will be easier to extract from the wooden deck using the demolition pry bar. Furthermore, a circular saw can also assist the person in cutting through rotten deck joists that have become embedded in the wooden deck posts.
Using the circular saw in this fashion will allow the old posts that were difficult to move with a pry bar to be moved in smaller sections.
4. Reciprocating Saw
The corded saw will last longer than a battery-powered saw because the work will require the saw to run for several hours a day over the course of the tear-down. A reciprocating saw will assist the person with any difficult jobs that could otherwise become frustrating and leave a person wanting to quit the job.
For example, reciprocating saws can cut through lag bolts that are as thick as railroad spikes. Furthermore, reciprocating saws can also cut through metal hurricane ties that might be embedded in the decks wooden planks. Another reason to use a reciprocating saw is to cut the deck posts flush with the concrete footings that hold them in place.
The reciprocating saws blade can dive into the wooden posts without damaging the posts because of its wide blade opening. Furthermore, spare reciprocating saw blades should be kept in case the saw blades wear down during the removal of the wooden deck. Though the tool is loud, vibrates alot with use, and creates a lot of wood dust, a reciprocating saw will remain the fastest tool for a person to tear down a wooden deck.
5. Cat’s Paw Nail Puller
A cat’s paw nail puller is a tool that will assist in removing nails from wooden boards without damaging them. This tool has a curved end that can be tucked under the nail heads of the wooden deck boards. If the wooden boards are torn apart slowly by rocking the tool end over end, the nails will release from the wooden boards without splitting the wooden boards.
This tool has been used by generations of carpenters and will continue to be used for its one specific job. A cat’s paw nail puller will be most useful on the wooden decks railings and stairs because the boards are at odd angles that prevent the use of a demolition pry bar.
6. Safety Gear
Safety gear is included in the list of tools for tearing down an old wooden deck even though they are not tools in the sense of cutting or prying. Steel-toe boots will protect the persons feet in the case that a wooden board drops on their feet. Heavy gloves will protect the persons hands from getting infected by the splinters in the wooden boards. Safety glasses will prevent the persons eyes from getting irritated by the sawdust created during the tear-down of the wooden deck.
Furthermore, a dust mask will protect the persons lungs from the tiny wood fibers that are created during tearing down an old wooden deck. These items of safety gear will be necessary to protect the person who tears down the wooden deck, or they will regret the decision of what tools to use to tear down the wooden boards.
7. Eight Pound Sledgehammer
An eight-pound sledgehammer will be required for removing stubborn wooden deck posts that are set into the ground. Using the eight-pound sledgehammer will allow a person to break the bond between the wooden post and the concrete that sets it into the ground. However, the sledgehammer should not be used to destroy the footing of the wooden deck posts because the hole will be needed for the placement of the wooden posts again. Furthermore, the person should swing the sledgehammer with both hands to utilize the weight of the sledgehammer in the process rather than using the muscles of the person tearing down the wooden deck.
After the wooden deck posts are removed, the sledgehammer can be used to remove the remaining ledger board screws that are set into the wooden posts.
8. Cordless Impact Driver
A cordless impact driver will assist a person in removing moddern wooden deck screws that was installed using pneumatic guns. The high torque of the impact driver will spin each screw in seconds rather than using a drill that could damage the screw heads.
Bits that can withstand the impact will be used in the impact driver instead of the cheap bits that are used in a drill. Furthermore, the impact driver will also have a reverse setting that will assist a person who would like to reinforce any wooden plans prior to the final teardown of the wooden deck.
9. Wheelbarrows and Tarps
Wheelbarrows and tarps will be necessary to load the lumber that is removed from the wooden deck. Using a wheelbarrow will allow a person to move the lumber to the trailer or the curb. Tarp products that are of considerable weight should be laid on the job site where the wooden deck is located. These tarps will catch any nails that fall from the wooden deck and allow for the cleanup of the job site at the end of each workday.
The lumber that is removed from the wooden deck can be loaded onto the tarps to allow for the easy sorting of wood that will be composted or used as firewood.
10. Flat Shovel and Broom
A flat shovel and a broom will prepare a wooden deck for the next phase of the project. Once the wooden deck is torn down, the wood chips and concrete dust will have settled on the ground. A shovel will be used to clear the debris, and a broom will follow and clear the remaining pieces of debris that have come to rest in the grass. Though these tools are the least glamorous of all the tools that will be used in the tear-down, they are the tools that will determine whether the next phase of the project takes place in a yard that looks like a construction site or a blank canvas for the next project. Every wooden deck has a history.
When that history becomes old and it is time to remove the wooden deck, these tools will make the process easier. By carefully selecting these tools and properly using them, the old wooden deck will dissapear faster than anyone could ever imagine. Once the wooden deck is removed, a person can stand in the cleared area and begin to imagine the next project.
Then, they can begin to build it.
