I built my first deck in 1986 working out of the back of a Jeep Cherokee. The closest thing to a specialty tool I needed was a ratchet with a 3⁄4-in. socket to tighten the lags holding the ledger in place. Fast forward to 2020, and it seems the average deck contractor needs a 3⁄4-ton pickup to haul a trailer full of tools to even the smallest job. In fairness, decks have become an order of magnitude more complicated since the Reagan administration. Back then, we screwed nothing together, and maybe we used joist hangers, and no matter which of the three decking materials we used (PT, cedar, or redwood), it got nailed down.
Still, it seems like there are more tool options out there today than are strictly needed. In an effort to sort out what’s really useful, I talked to a bunch of deck contractors to learn what they haul to the job every day.
Pull Deck Boards
These days, a lot of deck jobs are deck replacements. If the old framing is headed for the trash, most builders cut the decking between the joists with a circular saw and lever out the joists and decking at once.
But if the existing framing is staying, the trick is to tear off the decking as efficiently as possible. Joe Rogers of Advanced Carpentry & Remodeling in St. Louis, Mo., loves the Duckbill Deck Wrecker. Several contractors mentioned Nestorbars. Both tools work on the same principle: Two prongs slip under the decking, one on each side of the joist. With the joist acting as the fulcrum, a long handle provides enough leverage to rip up even screwed-down decking.
Digs Footings Faster
No one likes digging footing holes. Nick Markey of N.G. Markey Custom Woodworks in Charlton, Mass., rents equipment to solve the problem. “Depending on the size of the job,” he says, “that can range from a walk-behind Dingo compact utility loader with a bucket and an auger to a compact backhoe. I’ll also rent a two-to-three-bag concrete mixer, instead of mixing in a wheelbarrow.
Haul Heavy Loads
Speaking of wheelbarrows, Gary Bruzzese, who owns Craftsman Contracting in Norwalk, Conn., has given up on them. Instead, he uses a Rubbermaid commercial cart. He claims, “It has a bigger capacity than a regular wheelbarrow and is very stable with its two wheels. It’s also big enough to flip upside down and cover up hardware or bags of concrete overnight.”
Find Your Lines
One tool that nearly every contractor I spoke with mentioned was a green-light laser. They’re great for laying out footings and shooting elevations, among other things, and their green beams are far more visible in daylight than red lasers. Although he’s a green-laser fan, Bruzzese still uses his stringline regularly: “Lasers are great, but even the green ones aren’t visible in full sun. Plus, it’s easy to knock them out of position. I can set up a string and I know it will stay just where I left it.”
Snap without stains
Instead of marking cuts and fastener lines with red or blue chalk, which can stain or take a long time to wash away, Ethan Biederman of South County Post & Beam in West Kingstown, R.I., uses baby powder, which washes away in the first rain
Source: https://bit.ly/3dZ5Vj2
