DIY Life

I rebuilt my back deck about three years ago, doubling it in size, pouring new footings, enlarging and reinforcing the support structure, adding a steel roof, and making provisions for a future screening job. At the conclusion of the work, I coated the wooden parts with what I thought was a high-quality finish in order to repel water and maintain the color.

Instead of lasting for the better part of the five year warranty, it made it about a year and, although it never evidenced failure by peeling, checking, or overt color loss, it just kind of went down hill. The consequence is that it's been sitting there for the past two years, baking in the north Georgia sun, while I was otherwise occupied.

Take a look at the gallery to see what I did to rehab the deck and, after the jump, press ahead for the details. Thanks to my DIY LIfe colleague, Kelly Smith, for other information on refinishing a deck.

Gallery: Construction Chronicles: Stain, seal, and protect your deck.

As a DIYer, you likely feel comfortable tackling any number of projects. Depending on your experience, you may satisfy every conceivable code requirement in effect today (or not). This feature will touch on the most common construction violations.

Clearly, codes vary depending on your particular neck of the woods; as a bonus feature, they are constantly in flux, so sometimes it's difficult to know where you stand with the local building code folks. On the premise that it's better to do the right thing, especially concerning safety, here are some no-no's and some helpful hints. If you have a doubt as to what you are building is safe, check with someone who knows.

Look at the gallery to get a leg up and we'll get started. There is no particular order, rhyme, or reason to the situations depicted, aside from the fact that they might possibly give you fits and, certainly, delays in getting your final occupancy certificate. Forewarned is forearmed.

Gallery: Construction Chronicles: Common building code violations -- a primer.