How to protect wooden decks
Q. I have a medium-size pressure-treated wood deck and stairs at the back of my house that had Behr's DeckOver applied about five years ago. During the last couple of years small sections of the coating has peeled off and this year larger sections peeled off. At this point I would like to find a more "permanent" answer so I don't have to scrape and sand it all down and reapply a new coating every couple of years. The deck boards and supporting joists themselves are in excellent shape. I am wondering if a feasible solution would be to have a carpenter cover those boards with Trex boards or Trex-type boards (screwed down and/or glued down) rather than replace the boards that are currently there.
This deck suffers from a near lakeside exposure which is particularly hard on paint, stains, etc. I will say the DeckOver product has held up very well on my mostly covered front porch, just not the rear deck.
A. The coating is lasting better on the covered porch than on the open deck because the deck is exposed to the elements while the porch floor is protected.
I have heard from a number of readers over the years that Behr's DeckOver didn't last on open decks and there is a good reason for it: Solid coatings of any type do not work well on pressure-treated decks because this type of wood is not a good base for them.
Pressure-treated wood is southern yellow pine with a type of grain that responds to various weather changes. It absorbs moisture, and solid coatings will peel.
Pressure-treated deck boards are best left alone to weather or, if you insist on applying something to change their coloring, the only thing that has any chance of lasting is a transparent stain.
If you decide to change to Trex or any of the new synthetic deck boards available on the market, you should remove the existing boards and not top them with the new boards.
Q. Can you tell me how to dig a dry well to stop rain from flooding in through my basement window? I have written to you in the past regarding plumbing problems and your answers have given me excellent results.
A. You must first determine where the water is coming from. If it comes from outside the window well and enters it where the well is connected to the foundation walls, grade corrections should be made to close any low spots - a common problem - and ensure a gentle slope away from the foundation.
If the grade against the well is also negative (sloping toward the well) or too flat, raise the grade to obtain a gentle slope away from the foundation.
If the well needs to be raised in order to be able to raise the grade, you may find extensions that fit your well in building supply, hardware and big box stores.
An attractive way to raise the grade at window wells, as long as it does not exceed 4-inches, is to set up paver bricks in a trench dug outside the well and bury the bottom 4-inches of the bricks in it and tamp the soil firmly against them. The bricks can be set "soldier course" or flat against the well.
If water is coming from the roof or the sky, plastic well covers work well.
The soil inside the well may also need corrections. If the backfill against the foundation is granular and absorbs water well, all that may be needed is to dig the soil down at least one foot, add 6 inches of stones and leave 6 inches clear of the basement window sill.
If the backfill is made of clay or silt, and a window well cover is not possible, it may be necessary to dig deeper than one foot and increase the depth of the stone fill.
Q. Our finished basement got water in it for the first time in 13 years during the last heavy rainfall we suffered. It was just enough water to wet the entire floor and ruin the carpet and pad. We threw all of the carpeting out and are down to cement floor. People I work with suggested tiling the floor and just using throw carpets that can be rolled up the next time we get so much rain. Is this a good solution to this problem? Installing a sump pump seems like a waste of money if we are only going to get water when it rains so heavily in one week.
A. What you are proposing is fine if you are satisfied with the possibility that such an event is unlikely to occur any time soon. But with the climate changes we are experiencing, these events are predicted to be more frequent.
It may be that the backfill against your foundation is made of material good enough to absorb more normal rainfall, but becomes overwhelmed by unusually heavy precipitation. So the solution is to make sure that rainfall will not be allowed to build up close to the house and percolate down to the foundation.
Consider investigating the grade around your house. The grade should slope gently away (2-inches per horizontal foot is ideal), and grow a healthy stand of grass or lay sod on it.
If needed, add loamy soil, not sand or too granular material, to obtain that slope. Be sure to keep any soil a few inches away from any wood unless it is pressure-treated.
But if the existing grade is sloping gently away from the foundation, there may be other culprits, such as flower beds and mulched shrubbery beds that trap and hold water. That's trickier to handle and it may not be practical to do so.
Appendages (patios, walkways, driveways, etc.) that are too flat or have a negative slope make it difficult for proper water management.
The soil under open decks has often settled over time and can collect rainfall that can create problems. If at all possible, soil should added to fill that depression and it should also slope gently away from the foundation. It may be advisable to cover the added soil with black plastic anchored with landscape staples or stones.
In your circumstances, corrective measures to appendages and depressions under decks may be too expensive to make it worthwhile.
• Henri de Marne, a former remodeling contractor turned columnist and consultant, is the author of "About the House with Henri de Marne" (Upper Access Publishing). He continues to take questions from readers for this column and his website, www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to aboutthehouse@gmavt.net.