Cedar deck and pergola replacing a failed deck in Apex

The scope

A raised deck off the back of a 2004 house in Apex, original to the build. The boards had cupped and splintered, the railing moved when you leaned on it, and the owners wanted to know whether it could be sanded and stained rather than replaced.

We looked first at repair and refinishing, because that is the cheaper answer and it is sometimes the right one.

The challenge

It was not the right one here. Once we pulled two boards the framing told the story: the ledger was nailed rather than lagged and had never been flashed, so twenty years of water had run behind it and into the rim joist of the house. There was rot in the rim, rot at three joist ends, and the fasteners were the old galvanised type that modern treated lumber eats.

A deck that has to be rebuilt from the ledger out is not a refinishing job, and telling the owners that on day one cost us a small job and won a large one. It is also the single most common failure we find on Triangle decks of that vintage.

The second challenge was the pergola. The owners wanted shade over the dining end, and a pergola loads a deck in a way the original framing was never sized for, particularly in wind.

What we did

Full demolition to the footings, then a rebuild. The rotten rim joist section on the house was cut out and spliced before anything new touched it. The new ledger is lagged into solid framing with structural screws and properly flashed, which is the detail that decides whether this deck is here in 2046.

New framing at reduced spacing to carry the cedar diagonally at the dining end, every joist top capped with butyl tape, and stainless hardware throughout. Cedar decking, hidden fasteners, and cable railing with the posts through-bolted rather than surface mounted.

The pergola posts land on the new beam positions rather than on the deck surface, so the load goes into the footings rather than into the boards. The rafters are notched over the beams instead of screwed to their faces.

Details of how we build these are on the deck building page.

The outcome

Three weeks, one of which was waiting out a wet fortnight before the footings could be inspected and poured. The owners get the shade they wanted at the dining end and full sun at the other, which was the point of putting the pergola over only half of it.

Cedar in this climate needs a coat every second or third year to hold its colour, and it will go silver if it is left alone, which the owners know and have chosen. Finished 2 May 2026.