Out With The Old, In With The New

I ‘m having a new deck built at my home. My son and I built the old deck 16 years ago, so it was time for a new one. I asked the contractors to prepare their bids under the assumption that I would take down the old deck, and thus they could anticipate a clean construction site when they showed up to start the project.

I was involved in building the old version, so I should be able to take it down, right? The technical term is “demo,” in case you’re wondering. I can do demo. Done if before on other projects. At this point in my life, I can do demo better than I can build anew.

Well, I just spent the past several days up to my backside in the fine art of demo. Crow bar, sledge hammer, claw hammer . . . those are the technical terms for the tools we use in demo. There were lots of boards, lots and lots of exposed nails, and once everything was on the ground, those same boards (with those same nails) had to be transported to the dumpster. The thought crossed my mind more than once that a visit to the ER would easily negate the project savings I was otherwise hoping to realize. Besides, I really didn’t want to demo a body part, vital or not.

Two spider bites, three bruises, four skin tears, and several thousand Advil tablets later, I’m happy to report that I upheld my end of the bargain. I did it. I took it down. With no ER trips, no loss of body parts.

The contractor showed up this morning, and by the end of the day the new deck was framed and boarded. They loaded their nail guns with magazines of nails, much like a rifleman. Bang, bang, bang, and soon the deck’s up. My son and I had no nail guns. We did it the old analog way.

And I took it down the old analog way. Nothing new-age about it. Leverage, pressure here and there, throw it on a pile, and walk it to the dumpster.

And a hot bath afterwards.

Kinda thinking now that any future request for bids might not include me doing the demo.