c/backyard-projects

Still debating whether to demo my 12 year old deck or just resurface it again

Last month the inspector said the joists are fine but the top boards are rotting, so I priced both and demo plus rebuild runs about $4,200 while resurfacing is closer to $900, but I know 3 years from now I might be right back here. Anyone else gone the cheap route on a deck only to kick themselves later, or is patching it up actually worth it?

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michael669•2d ago

Warning: that $30 solar fountain pump is lying to you, got 3 weeks before it died

Bought one of those cheap solar fountains for my pond in Austin last month and it worked great for 3 weeks, then just stopped mid-afternoon and wouldn't restart even in full sun. Anyone else found a budget pump that actually lasts more than a season, or is this just the standard for anything under $50?

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parkerbrown•4d ago

My old rain barrel cracked after 11 winters, got 70 gallons of mess in the backyard

The plastic split right at the spigot seam during that cold snap last month, and I woke up to a mini swamp around my cucumber bed. 11 years of freeze and thaw finally won, I guess, which is honestly not bad for a $40 drum from the feed store. I drained what was left into buckets, patched the crack with some epoxy for now, but I'm shopping for a metal one this time. Anyone else had luck switching from plastic to galvanized, or should I just build a wooden stand to keep the weight off the ground?

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linda_dixon49•6d ago

The price tag on cedar lumber made me do a double take last weekend

I stopped by the lumber yard in Tacoma on Saturday to grab a few boards for a raised garden bed, and nearly fell over when I saw 2x6 cedar going for almost $14 a piece. My dad and I built our first deck back in 1998, and I swear we paid like $3.50 for the same size. I spent a good ten minutes just standing there in the aisle, trying to figure out if it was inflation or just the crazy demand from all the new builds around here. Ended up going with regular treated pine for the bed and saved about half, but the cedar smell is one of those things I miss from growing up. Has anyone else noticed prices on specific woods jumping way more than others this season, or is it just cedar going nuts in the Pacific Northwest?

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charles_mitchell•8d ago

Corner stakes are pointless if you skip batter boards

Spent last weekend squaring a 12x16 shed pad and kept chasing the string line every time I nudged a stake. After 3 re-measures I built simple batter boards out of scrap 2x4s and set the corners once. Anyone else ditch string lines for the board method after fighting them for an afternoon?

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the_wyatt•9d ago

My drip line drove me insane until I ripped it ALL out

Three summers ago in Austin I kept patching that cheap 1/2 inch drip line every other week, weed whackers and squirrels kept tearing it apart. Last month I finally trenched 90 feet of 3/4 inch PVC with pop-up heads instead, cost me about $180 in parts, has anyone else ditched drip entirely for regular sprinklers in a veggie bed?

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jana_jones•12d ago

Took 3 weekends with a bow rake, finally rented a power screed

My backyard paver patio kept coming out wavy no matter how careful I was with the hand tamper. After my third frustrating Saturday in Austin, I rented a power screed from Home Depot for about $60. The difference was night and day, the base was level in two hours instead of two days. Has anyone else found that spending a little on rental equipment beats the free sweat equity approach for grading?

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linda114•13d ago

My raised garden bed turned into a squirrel olympic event

Built a 3 foot tall cedar bed last spring with that fancy wire mesh under the soil. Within 2 weeks the little jerks dug a tunnel from the fence line straight into my tomato roots, bypassing the mesh completely. Has anyone else had success with those motion activated sprinklers or do I need to surrender and start growing nuts instead?

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nathan901•18d ago

TIL my compost pile hit 1,000 lbs and it only took 4 months

Weighed my finished compost bins last Saturday after hauling out 12 wheelbarrows for the garden beds, and the 4x4x3 pile in my Fargo backyard came to 1,043 pounds, which surprised me because I started it in June with just kitchen scraps and maple leaves, so has anyone else tracked their pile weight and found the numbers way higher than you guessed?

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miles_burns•18d ago

My $30 soil blocker beat the seed trays after one season

I almost didn't try it because it looked gimmicky. But after three rounds of leggy seedlings in plastic trays, I picked one up at a garden swap in Boise. The cubes hold water way better and the roots air prune naturally, no more transplant shock. I planted 80% of my starts last spring and ended up with sturdier tomatoes than ever. Has anyone else switched and noticed a difference with their brassicas?

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rowan_thomas84•21d ago

The neighbor's one sentence about my fence line stuck for 5 summers

Built a cedar privacy fence back in 2019 and I was proud of those posts. My neighbor Bill watched me set them for an hour then said 'you're gonna fight the frost heave with those shallow footings.' I ignored him and sure enough by spring two posts were tilting like crooked teeth. Pulled all 12 posts last summer, dug down to 42 inches, and poured concrete collars around each one. Cost me an extra $180 in concrete but that fence has been dead straight through two hard winters now. Anyone else learned the hard way that depth beats width when it comes to post holes?

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the_mary•21d ago

That fancy composite decking at my sister's place in Denver looked awful after 2 winters

I visited my sister last month and she spent nearly $9,000 on one of those high end composite deck brands. It looked great in the showroom but up close the boards were fading unevenly and there were these weird chalky streaks all over. She said she power washes it every spring but it still looks worse than my treated pine deck that I stain every other year. The color was supposed to be a warm brown but it turned this weird grayish tan. I mean, I get that you don't want to maintain wood, but paying that much for something that fades like a cheap t-shirt seems off. Anyone else seen composite decking go south after a few seasons, or did she just pick a bad brand? Is there a trick to keeping that stuff from fading, or is it just marketing hype? I'm about to redo my own deck and now I'm second guessing the whole upgrade.

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william_harris•22d ago

My paver patio leveling took 3 weekends, not the 6 hours the video promised

I followed that popular paver base tutorial and thought I'd have my 12x10 patio done in one Saturday. Nope. The sand kept washing out every time it rained, and I had to redo the entire base layer twice because I didn't compact it right the first time. By the third weekend I was using a 4-foot level and a rubber mallet at 9pm with a headlamp, adjusting individual stones one by one. The finished patio is dead flat now, but I honestly think the video left out the part where your yard is never as level as theirs. Anyone else find that online paver guides skip the mud and frustration part?

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miller.rowan•23d ago

The day my retaining wall plan got roasted by a neighbor in Boise

Tbh, I thought I had this wall figured out after a bad week of rain in April. I put in 3 feet of gravel backfill and thought that was plenty, but my neighbor Bill came over and pointed out the drainage pipe was pitched wrong. He was right, the water was pooling right at the base and I'd have had a blowout by summer. Spent a whole Saturday digging it out and fixing the slope, then added a second pipe like he suggested. Has anyone else had a neighbor save their project from a dumb mistake, or was I just lucky?

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the_jake•23d ago

Unpopular opinion: I was wrong about pouring concrete, and my patio paid the price

For 6 years in Austin, I insisted on mixing my own concrete by hand because I thought hiring a truck was lazy and overpriced. Last month, I finally caved and got a 3-yard delivery for $580, and the difference in finish quality is night and day. The tipping point was watching my cousin's slab crack in 4 spots within a year while mine had pitting everywhere, all because I was too stubborn to pay for proper mix ratios. Anyone else held onto a cheaper method that actually cost them more in the long run?

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avery219•25d ago

My raised bed is 14 inches off the ground and my back still hates me

Built this thing last month in Tulsa, followed every plan online to the letter. Treated lumber, weed barrier, the whole deal. But I swear, whoever designed those plans must be 5 foot 3 or something. I'm 6 foot 2, and every time I go to pull a weed or check the soil, I'm bent over like a folding chair. My neighbor walked by and laughed, said 'nice planter box' but then he showed me his setup. He just stacks cinder blocks two high and calls it a day. Way cheaper, way easier to reach. Now I'm sitting here staring at my fancy tall box wondering if I should just tear it down and copy him. Has anyone else built something 'ergonomic' that ended up being worse than just doing it dumb and simple?

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wood.faith•25d ago

My neighbor's drainage pipe size was the real issue, not the slope

Tbh I spent 3 weekends regrading my side yard for water pooling, then my neighbor pointed out my 2-inch pipe was way too small for the runoff. Swapped to a 4-inch pipe last month and the bog is gone after every storm. Anyone else check pipe diameter before messing with slopes?

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sage308•27d ago

Thought my patio leveling was a weekend job, took 6 full weekends

Started leveling the pavers in my backyard last spring because the low corner was pooling water near the foundation. Figured I'd whack a few sand bags under, maybe re-tamp a couple spots, done by Sunday night. After 6 straight weekends, I finally got the slope right, but only because I bought a transit level from Harbor Freight for $80 and re-did the whole base with crushed stone. The issue was the existing soil had settled unevenly for years, so every spot I fixed made two other spots sink. If you see any kind of dip after rain, do the full excavation now because spot fixes just delay the real work. Has anyone else fought a "simple" paver fix that turned into a full base rebuild?

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the_alice•29d ago

Using rubber mulch under my playset stopped the mud pit problem for good

After 3 straight weekends of re-spreading wood chips in the Seattle rain, I switched to rubber mulch last month and the drainage is actually working. Has anyone else tried this under swings or slides, or do you stick with the cheap stuff?

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sage_green•29d ago

My DIY pallet compost bin turned out way too small, the math on that surprised me

I measured out a 3x3 foot bin last weekend and then looked up the actual volume of kitchen scraps my family of four makes, turns out it's like 4 times bigger than I thought, anyone else undershoot their first compost build?.

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parker_palmer44•1mo ago

Took me 4 years to figure out I was planting things wrong

I always dug holes the same size as the root ball. Last spring my wife dragged me to a nursery workshop in Spokane. The guy there said to dig the hole 3 times wider than the roots. I thought he was full of it. Tried it on some shrubs and they took off like crazy. All those trees I lost over the years probably just choked themselves out. Anyone else have a basic gardening habit they learned late?

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lewis.finley•1mo ago

My neighbor's soil advice cost me a full backyard redo

Last spring, my neighbor Frank told me to skip the soil test and just mix in cheap topsoil from the big box store before laying sod. I trusted him because his lawn looks great, so I spent about $300 on bags and laid 800 square feet of fescue in mid-April. By July, half of it was brown and patchy, and a local nursery finally tested my soil and found the pH was way off and the clay was compacted. I dug it all up and started over with proper amendments, but I wish I had just paid the $25 for a test first. Has anyone else taken yard advice from a neighbor and immediately regretted it?

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tara642•1mo ago

The hose reel hack that saved my back after 4 failed setups

I spent three weekends last spring wrestling a wall-mounted hose reel that kept jamming every time I pulled the line out. The thing would kink up halfway across the yard and I'd have to unspool the whole 50 feet by hand, cursing the whole way. Then my neighbor Gary came over and said 'why don't you just mount it on a swivel base?' I grabbed a $15 lazy susan bearing from the hardware store off Route 9, bolted it to the fence post, and screwed the reel onto that. Now I can pull the hose in any direction without the reel fighting me, and it spins smooth as butter when I wind it back up. Anyone else got a cheap fix that beat a $200 commercial setup? What's your weirdest backyard workaround?

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luna_wright•1mo ago

Deck stain failed after one winter, pressure wash or strip first?

I sealed my cedar deck with a nice semi-transparent stain last September in Portland, and by March it was peeling in patches. I know some folks swear by just pressure washing the loose stuff and recoating, but others say you have to strip it all down to bare wood or it'll fail again. Which side have you landed on after dealing with this yourself?

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stone.lisa•1mo ago

Hit 200 bags of mulch in one season, but my soil test says otherwise

So I spread 200 bags of black mulch across my backyard beds this spring, figured I was doing everything right, then my soil test came back showing a pH of 5.1 and almost no organic matter. Mulch adds structure but it doesn't feed the soil the way compost does, and now I'm wondering if I wasted all that time and money just to make things look pretty. My neighbor swears by wood chips for everything, but my buddy who gardens in Ohio says compost is the only thing that matters. Has anyone else hit a big project milestone only to realize it didn't actually fix the underlying problem?

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