Did you ever wonder what made your deck so sick? Have you ever felt your deck gave a 'give'? Do the deck boards seem like falling apart, and having gaps? Well, these are clear sign you are in for a must-deck-repair! Although deck repair is not an easy task, and requires a proper inspection after which you or your professional deck service provider.

Possible Ways of Improving the Deck

Here are some ways of making your deck better both in terms of its visual appearance, strength and reliability:

1. Lag screws in Ledger Board

Sometimes the deck falls off the house, and we wonder what happened. Usually with do-it-yourself type of decks, the lag screws aren't properly fastened, which make the side of the deck that's against the house pretty weak, and that makes the deck fall off from that place. What you can do is to check on the lag screws in the ledger board, and see if the screws are properly driven or not. Driving the screws in the ledger with a drill speeds up the process.

2. Joist Hanger Nails

The joist hanger in the deck has many nail holes, as you know. But most people don't know that if nails are not driven in all the holes, the joist hangers may fall loose. Plus, the joist hanger nails are especially designed. These are short, fat and galvanized nails and only these nails truly hold the joist hanger properly and help bear heavy loads. Any other types of nails actually do not tightly the joist hanger as the joist hanger nails do.

3. Rotted Posts

Rotted post is the worst of all problems. You can maintain your deck's health simply by keeping the posts dry. If there is any water seeping into the posts, they are definitely going to rot. The posts should be covered by a base bracket, or should be pressure treated so that water does not seep in and soak the posts. If the rotted post is already there, you can improve your deck by replacing the posts, with base brackets and by getting the deck sealed.

4. Post Connections

Simply using nails can't help keep the post connections strong. For a strong connection, your deck posts need carrier bolts which can tightly hold the rim joist with the posts. Plus, some people make the mistake of just driving a couple of nails to connect posts with the deck. Nails alone can't bear the weight. So, check out your post connections and improve your deck if it doesn't have carrier bolts already.

So the bottom line is, your deck's health is in your hands! If your deck isn't crying already for repair, it may be a good idea to check out all the connections, and improve it before it cries for help!