Repairing a Deck for Under $50

My friend bought a home with a deck this winter. Well after going through winter and spring. We discovered that his deck was coming apart in a corner. Since he doesn't have the money to completely replace it, we decided to repair it until he can replace it. I will show what was wrong, and explain how and what we did to repair it.

Step 1:

We Identified the problem by inspecting the deck and seeing that the front right corner was coming apart. Whoever built the deck did not know what they were doing. Here is why I think that:

1. The floor joists are about 4' apart.
2. Part of the deck is screwed down and the other part is nailed.
3. After closer inspection, I found that the floor trusses are not the same size.

Step 2 :

I figured out what would be needed to fix this current problem and make it safe for the family. I had my buddy go and get a box of 3" deck screws and 2" deck screws. After that we gathered up our tools to do the repair.  

Tools needed:

Cordless Drill
Phillips Head Bit
Drill Bits
Safety Glasses
Level

I want to show some of the things that I found wrong before I go too far. This outside band only had 2 screws per post. You need a minimum of (3) 3" screws. There are a total of (8) 4x4's on the outside of this deck.











Step 3:

I started where the band board was still mounted to the deck solidly and added 2 screws. I drilled 2 pilot holes so that I would not split the wood. After I  drilled all my pilot holes I went back and put screws in the holes, starting from the house and working my way out to where it pulled away from the 4x4's. I put a minimum of 3 screws per inside 4x4 and 5 on the outside 4x4's. After going around the whole the deck we use a small box of 50 screws.

Here are pictures of after we finished with the deck. It's solid and not moving which is what you want when finished.