Thursday, October 21, 2010

Replacing the deck. Part I: composite decking?

I didn't expect replacing the back deck to be an odyssey. May I share?

You may recall that my outdoor greening-up projects must deal with the shade. Dappled shade to deep shade, partly due to being on the north side of a hill. Not gloomy to us but rather forest-flavored. However, with conifers all around, the large existing deck required a lot of maintenance.

Maintenance to forestall rot, and more chores for safety, to knock down the slippery moss a couple of times a year. Scrubbing, reaming needles from the gaps,* and the first few years, painting on a preservative stain. Don’t think that no gap between decking boards would be better—we inherited that erstwhile design and ended up going to some trouble sawing in gaps.

And in the end, the landfill. We did save some beams for a future foot bridge. But as an aspiring green householder, I wanted our next outdoor living space to last and not end up in a landfill once again.

Our idea was, Let’s have a patio instead. A greener solution, permanent, and easier on us. That was June. As of October 21, it is still not done. But we’re closing in on being done and I’m over my latest anxiety attack about it, so it seems a good time to share some notes.

We were going to need to scoop a level spot from the slope that the deck papered over, put up a retaining wall, decide on patio “flooring” material, and decide how to get down from the door level to the patio level—more decking after all?

For stairs we had used Trex before, and were happy with the material (turned upside down to avoid the stamped woodgrain pattern) and happy with the recycling of plastic that is integral to their material. But time marches on in decking products, and I was surprised to learn that composite decking competitors have jettisoned the recycling idea and are using virgin plastic. Such a charming term, virgin plastic. Tell me, what is the point?? I’m not using enough petroleum in my Toyota, you want me to use petroleum to make more plastic so I can install it in place of wood? Sorry, no thanks. I had just assumed the composites all used recycled plastics. I’m glad I happened to check on it, when the carpenter based a bid on a more popular composite, and found the shocking facts. And they are not content to make more garden-variety plastic; in the interests of consumer demands, they are even using PCBs on the newer versions. You see how things drift.


* We did find a simple tool that was a great help. A couple of nails in a special fitting and set up with a long handle for upright work, and up comes the gunk.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Greener vacation: Beach sweep

On the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State the beaches are varied and beautiful at any time of year. Early March the beaches just north of Kalaloch were also sparsely visited, making for expansive strolls lengthened by lots of warm clothing.

I wasn't surprised to see some plastic bits in the surf and further up the beach. Plastic is forever, right? Well, yes and no. While it can stay intact for decades and is responsible for a swirling mass in the ocean worthy of a good cry, I learned last year the damage doesn't stop there.

It does break down, but is toxic even at the molecular level. I'm not sure whether my brain wraps more easily around immediate danger to today's sea-dwellers or around long-run toxins in our foods and scary changes in ocean ecology and climate. It just seemed a fine thing to do to pick up some of the larger pieces, and soon my hands were full.

Beach walk number 2: Up to Beach 4 (did they run out of names?). This time I came equipped with a bag. This beach looks pristine and very interesting. Up closer, however, I see lengths of rope, the cheap yellow polypro you can get anywhere, as well as green, black, and red. Some half buried, and too much for my little bag. But my husband is joining in, and this is as much fun as any other beach combing I've done looking for agates. Truly. I'm not going all Tom Sawyer's fence on you.

Beach walk number 3: Ruby Beach. Gorgeous rock towers off shore, remnants of the headlands that once were. This time a little stronger larger breadbag. When they collect our garbage, our cabin housekeepers are going to wonder what we've been up to.

We collected a diabolical wad of filament with hooks, and some larger and smaller plastic fragments in a rainbow of colors. I seem to remember someone in the Beachwatchers organization saying that blue is the worst, or maybe it was the most plentiful as least likely to have been mistaken for food and ingested. I could brush up on it, but not right now.

This was plenty absorbing, just the spotting and picking up. And for meeting people this was like walking a dog. A man took notice of our haul and chatted with us about it. The long bread bag filled up to bursting. Is this coming from ship cast-offs? Some items seem like beach party detritis, but not most of it. Most of it is faded, the broken edges starting to round, been in the sea for awhile.

There seems no need to think deeply about all this. I'm content with our catch. But my aching back over the next days, whew. Next time? I'm bringing one of those long-handled reacher-grabbers!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Pay-off at last

Well, it got done and I'm happy about it. It took two more sessions and involved more measuring (the room is not quite plumb) and difficulty attaching the wires to the screws, which were snug against the housing. I ended up doing a cheat--a short length of lamp wire, softer and more maneuverable. Still difficult for me, but done, January 2.

The fun part was playing with position and beam direction of the three light fixtures. I may add a fourth sometime. Yes, this worked out great!