SomeGuy wrote:
To make a long story short, we got screwed by a contractor installing a deck
in my back yard.
We used a wood composite called fiberon for the decking itself. The two
biggest problems that we can see right now with the deck is 1) The spacing
on the supports is 18" center to center instead of 12 ( like the directions
say) and 2) the board ends are all splitting, because the guy overtightened
the fasteners and didn' tpre-drill.
So, my questions are - Can I reuse the boards that do not appear too
warped? What I was thinking was to pull them up, and cut the cracked ends
of, and reuse them. That would save me some money, because quite a few of
the baord still appear to be good.
I'm planning on putting additional supports in the framework to meet the
12"...

If the boards are face screwed, won't you have holes in the middle of
nowhere when you relocate the joists onto 12" centers?

Since the existing joists are 18" OC you'll probably find it easiest to
add one in between. 9" OC is ridiculously close, but it'll be the
easiest thing to do. If you have access underneath, you won't have to
pull up the deck boards. If you're lucky, and the split ends are all
at the edge of the deck, you could add another doubled joist just
inboard of the rim joist. Cut back the split ends and install a deck
board running perpendicular to the existing deck boards. In furniture
that would be called breadboarding - not sure if there's a term for it
in decking. The width of the decking will determine the exact location
of that doubled joist so that it picks up the cut ends and also
supports the edge board.

R