X-post from /r/homeimprovement. I hope that's okay.I'm kind of at a loss of where to start in fixing my deck issues. So I'll just label them one at a time, I'm sorry in advanced for the length.I think the joists are over spanned, they are about 23" apart. I don't even know if this is an issue, but my inspector mentioned it when I purchased the home.I know there aren't any joist hanging brackets connecting to the rim joist. I plan on fixing this issue.My inspector also said that the deck header is only connected with nails and not lag screws. How on earth do I go about fixing this without destroying everything?A brick is the only thing that is protecting one support from being on the bare ground, how would I go about fixing that?Two of the support beams are below ground level, getting dirt and water to sit on the concrete, how would I fix this?Three ends of the corners of the deck (meaning that the ends farthest away from the house slope towards the house, while one ends closest to the house slopes away from the house). The center of the deck doesn't seem to have any slope. What would cause this and how do I fix that it doesn't have a slope, and should I flip the boards to counter-act the bowing?I would like to take off the paint that's currently on there and refinish with a nice stain. I was leaning towards Sikkens Wood Finish, but this says it's transparent, does this mean it has no "stain" to create some color in the wood like regular stain does? And do I need to put a sealer over the stain, or is the stain fine for decks as it is?For the refinishing process my general plan is to power wash, deck strip, deck brightener, sink the nails and sand lifted grains, and then stain! Is this a generally good plan?Here is an imgur link to give some visuals for the issues I'm talking about: http://ift.tt/2mvYSrT, thank you for your time, there's so much going on, it's hard to keep my head straight. I'm pretty new to the wonderful world of home repair and maintenance, so please explain things too me like I don't know what I'm doing! :) via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2naVEHm
