Smartyy

My wife and I are going to look at some Pergola designs for our patio. Planning on having it cover (11ftx25ft) of the patio so we need to look at how much (and what type) of lumber to go for!

Also need a grill cover. Need to get that fired up!

WEBlue

We need something like a pergola too. The husband broke down (our kids worked on him!) and bought a grill at the end-of-summer sale, but this spring has been so rainy that we have yet to try it out.

Actually we need a patio too...so not certain which to work on first. Right now we have the grill ready to go on a flat part of the back garden where we sit on lawn chairs...but the weather hasn't allowed for either sitting or grilling!

tom169

The idiot before me decided to anchor the pool cover with nails... in concrete. Now they are a pain in the ass to pull out, so much so that I have yet to be successful.

Pulaski

Welcome to the world of home ownership. That is only the first stupid thing you have found.

FWIW I suspect the nails were driven in with a framing nail gun. They may have subsequently corroded. I recommend drilling the head off each nail, and then, after removing the pool cover, cutting the nails off flush with the concrete using an angle grinder.

tom169

Yeah, I'm sure I'll find plenty more questionable things.

I'll give it another go with some more leverage, but if that fails, I guess what you said is the only solution.

Pulaski

Be careful, I put quite a chip in one lens of my glasses a few years ago when a nail driven into a concrete floor finally let go.

ddsrph

Like you suggested I would cut them off and grind smooth. It is very likely that when they are pulled out a chunk of concrete will chip off.

Pulaski

I remembered that too, and was just coming back to post it.

Another thing about grinding the nails smooth is that it provides a good excuse reason to buy an angle grinder. You can't have too many power tools!

tom169

Dad always said that too. Guess who now owns an angle grinder?

Will report back with how it goes.

Pulaski

Steerpike

There have been a few references to nails vs screws in recent posts here. Wanted to post some of my own experiences.

I had a very expensive redwood deck rebuilt back in 2004-ish. Like, $30,000 expensive. I asked that they use screws rather than nails to attach the deck boards, thinking that made the whole deck more 'serviceable' (need to remove a board? unscrew the screws ...) and also prevent 'nail pop'. Well, recently I needed to do just that - access the area below the deck - to my dismay, the screws almost all snapped rather than unscrewed. They all snapped at the point where the screw entered the joists below (which were pressure treated lumber). So now I'm stuck with a screw shaft embedded in the joist. Maybe this could have been avoided had they used better screws, but trying to unscrew a screw that's been exposed to the elements for 13 years maybe expecting too much. I seem to recall hearing that pressure-treated lumber is very 'grippy'.

On the original deck, which was nailed, the nail heads had all pretty much 'risen' by themselves, making removal quite easy. I used to go round every year or so and knock them all back down.

In retrospect, I'm thinking nails were more practical!

Sheepdip

Pool starts going in on Friday

ddsrph

They may have used the wrong type of screws. For pressure treated wood they should have a coating to protect them from the chemicals in the wood. The package should specify if suitable for PT wood.

Pulaski

I was about to come back to say basically the same thing. .... PT lumber is corrosive - it is basically infused with mineral salts that will rust any iron or steel that it comes into contact with.

Personally I am sceptical that the "coating" on screws rated for PT lumber will do anything but slow down the rate of corrosion. So after 13 years I suspect that most screws are going to be badly rusted whether or not they are coated.

You can also get stainless steel screws, which are significantly more expensive, but even stainless steel isn't entirely resistant to corrosion and rust, but stainless steel screws are probably the best option if you don't mind paying. .... Of course even stainless steel screws would comprise a miniscule fraction of the cost of a deck.

tom169

Nice! In or above ground? What type of filter are you getting?

I've just drained the pool at my new house after it not being cared for in years. The thing smells so bad. It took days of draining as it was much deeper than I anticipated - about 10ft in the deep end.

My wife counted at least 150 large dead tadpoles after I dumped a gallon of chlorine in. I think they were only a few weeks off maturing into full bull frogs.

It's that horrendous that I'm paying a friend to take care of it. He can stomach more than me.

My good deed of the day was saving a small mole that managed to find its way into the drained pool. It started raining and it had no chance of getting out alive.