Hey guys I am new here but I wanted to ask and get an opinion on this as we aren’t very handy ourselves.
My fiancée and I are finishing a lofted apartment area above a garage. We hired a family friend’s husband as our contractor and so far we haven’t made it far into the process.
He has torn down the old deck and put up a new extended one, which looks okay from what I can tell. However there are a few points on the stairs, especially the bottom step, that have splits in the wood. I am concerned that this may lead to loose boards or repairs needed later on.
Based on my one wood shop class in high school, I didn’t think this looked good, but like I said I am not very handy so I want a second opinion. Is this something I should have them fix or is this to be expected?
How much did you pay for that? Im not experienced in this but what exactly was the purpose of those screws going into the wood from an angle? Why not going from top down?
Looks like he should have done some pre bore here.
They put the screws in like that to hide the screws. It works when they lay the boards as deck boards, although, they should use the clips that are part of the system, but doesn’t work going into the stringer end, which is obvious to you and me, but apparently not to the “handyman” who built this.
I do recall seeing some black clips under the tread when he only had one board across each step. Based on this and some other comments these boards don’t seem to be intended for steps, just for the top of the deck.
Hide the screws and the penetration won’t channel water directly into the wood from above. But otherwise a shit execution.
Honestly I am not sure as to the purpose of the angled screws, I was hoping there would be a reason, but based on the comments I am not sure there is. I kind of thought he needed to pre drill some holes, but I am pretty inexperienced so I didn’t want to assume.
We hired him majority of the work so the contract was for more than just the deck, but I believe the amount listed for the deck and stairs was ~7k.