So update time!
In the spirit of the reason I originally posted, we have a new tool set! 6 piece that came with several batteries. It's a Ryobi and I'm very pleased. I know it's not as well regarded as DeWalt/Milwaukee and the other nicer professional level sets, but it's a solid set, and there are enough good reviews out there that for the DIY level we needed, the set hit the sweet spot of reliable/strong enough/cheaper (got it on super sale for daddy day). And I am keeping the corded cheapy circular saw from Harbor Freight for rough cutting because it has been a real champ taking that stupid deck apart.
Bad deck is gone. Picked up by our lovely awesome trash company (who will take wood as long as it's had the nails/screws removed or covered over so they don't pose an injury hazard) and we broke up the deck into easy to lift/haul sections and put it out each trash day for a week and a half so as to not be total assholes. We are VERY lucky our guys will take heavy trash EVERY trash day.
Only thing they won't take was concrete/brick or similar as it will break their equipment, but I found a city recycling center that was FREE for residential dropoffs, and they really do recycle it by crushing brick/concrete to use for surface/roads/watershed areas. So dropped the 3 bench posts off and felt a huge sense of relief.
We happily are able to save the rest of the deck that was semi-protected from being under the porch roof. We used a car jack to get it up high enough to look under (again, sitting on the @#!#@ ground!) and other than some minor rot issues where the joists were in direct contact with the dirt, it's in excellent shape and they built it with extra struts/support and there were NO TERMITE ISSUES. We had the house area where the deck came in contact professional treated about 2 or so years ago, so maybe it saved it or maybe they were just satisfied with eating on the easy deck and were planning on moving on to this part when they finished it.
In any case, we decided to give it a try to keep it for the short term, and that required raising it to getting a minimum of 6 inches of clearance, removed all the leaves and build-up, put in thick concrete footers every 3 feet, and cut off the outside joist that was touching the bad deck and had lots of damage from being rained on/rotting. The remaining deck is SOLID, and it just cost us some aches and pains and about $10 in materials.
We're not planning on leaving it forever; we'll be adjusting it or removing and putting down poured concrete or pavers in a year or two. Or whatever, but this is a good compromise for now. We're actually pretty shocked at how well this worked out.
Next step is to get the big gun termiticide (the kind used by pros that does a slow kill/non-detectable so the take it back to the nest and lasts 5+ years) and we'll be treating ALL the deck soil ( I can access everything under the remaining deck as well as inspect the house's foundation now!) and doing a perimeter trench treatment around the house. We have examined everything carefully and the little jerks were ONLY in the bad deck, so we may be lucky enough to take them out of our yard/house area completely. We have neighbors on either side that have gobs of rotting wood all over their yards, so I am pretty sure that's where they came from. Sigh.
Then we're going to cover the bare dirt where bad deck was with some nice sod and move on to the next fire to be put out home project... cutting out the rotting porch posts and putting in real concrete pier support footers.
I'm kind of excited about this as we hired someone to do this back a dozen years or so, and they put them in exactly the same way - dug hole in ground, poured in a little concrete, set post into it, poured a bit more concrete, dirt covered up and touching post - so of course they rotted out again (and are likely super attractive to termites) so I did my research and know the real way is rebar/concrete form/sink an anchor footer that is then attached to the wood post. Already located/priced the stuff, so just have to finish the deck/termite junk. We don't have to worry about frost heave since we don't freeze, and the porch itself is low weight so this should be an easy/satisfying project.
Then it's onto gutters, replace porch roof, get a leaky shower fixed that is beyond our DIY skills... home ownership is just a series of spending/trying to keep things from falling apart. I think you have to be a bit of a masochist to think home ownership is a great idea. ;)
