"Roger Taylor" wrote

I've handled this situation by sawing a foot or two off the deck -
assuming
yours is not cantelevered off the house - and pulling off the siding, then
structurally tying the deck joists to the house, and flashing and
re-siding.

This is interesting. If your deck was hung on a ledger, and you sawed a
foot or two off the deck, it will fall. So you would've had to set some
kind of bracing in order to do this. If you set adequate temporary
bracing, you would've been far ahead of the game to set a few posts with a
set of double beams approx. 18" from the structure to make a free standing
deck. Do away with ledger/flashing all together. Cut away rotted joist
ends, sister adequate length joists to existing, add flooring and you're
done.