A Fun and Funky Space To Relax! | Ep 9 | Disaster Decks S1

Añadido: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]This half-finished deck is a disaster.

[00:00:02]>> After the hot tub got up there, everything else remained the same. We're going to teach this stubborn man of the house how to build the deck he wanted in the first place.

[00:00:11]>> should have put a railing in, but >> So, you do know that before it's too late.

[00:00:15]>> something right, I'm happy.

[00:00:16]>> You did something right. There's a lot of things you did wrong. What?

[00:00:26]This is Matt. He's a professional firefighter. Hey. Who built this half-finished deck his girlfriend hates.

[00:00:33]And this is his deck-hating girlfriend, Nat, also a firefighter.

[00:00:36]>> Hi. These professional lifesavers are feeling the burn at home. Uh, she says I'm an idiot. It's just a very square box, and that's all we knew how to build. We don't have any stairs around the bottom deck. And all our neighbors walk by and can see our storage area underneath. The stairs going up to the upper deck, the treads are quite short.

[00:00:56]You have to walk down them sideways so that you don't trip and fall down. Matt meant to finish the deck. He really did.

[00:01:02]It works, but it's not done.

[00:01:05]I try not to tell him what to do.

[00:01:08]When are you finally going to get rid of that stuff?

[00:01:11]I kind of just encourage him to do it.

[00:01:13]Time to get moving, pal. Nat's not very happy. She used to walk around the house and and and ask, "Well, you started this, why aren't you finishing this?"

[00:01:21]Once it becomes functional, that's good enough for me, I move on.

[00:01:27]So, Matt built the whole thing? He did.

[00:01:29]>> Okay. After the hot tub got up there, everything else kind of remained the same. Hot tub was here, moved across the yard, threw it on the deck, and and there it is. Matt moved the hot tub onto the deck by himself. From the other end of the yard. From where? To that bald spot over there.

[00:01:45]>> No. The tub went on, you were in the tub, and said, "To hell with the rest of the deck."

[00:01:51]>> That's right. He's good at getting things like 75% there. Right.

[00:01:56]>> And then another male stereotype.

[00:01:58]9 in is really, really minimal. That makes them really, really steep and a little bit dangerous. Tell me what your thoughts on the staircase. I probably should have put a railing in, but >> You do know that. I do know that.

[00:02:08]>> Okay, that's good.

[00:02:09]>> It's just something I never got to. One of the big problems we have right now is there's not a whole lot of privacy for us, so From the deer that are just there constantly staring. All the time. Wow, they're there. Look at them. They're just It's like they're frozen. So, here's the plan. We're going to use what you've done cuz there's a lot here that you did pretty well. There's some things that you didn't do well at all. You know that.

[00:02:31]>> I know that. All right, I will come up with a design. I'll show you guys and uh yeah, the next time I come by we'll be ripping this thing to shreds.

[00:02:39]Matt wanted to build a deck where he and Natalie could enjoy their monster hot tub and entertain in style, but he got lazy.

[00:02:46]We're going to help Matt finish what he started first by showing him how to beef up and extend his shaky deck framing.

[00:02:52]We'll then teach Matt how to lay down some stylish composite decking, build some stairs that are safe to use, and include some eye-catching touches such as privacy screens and pergolas. Time to start tearing things up.

[00:03:08]All right, come on out guys. Say hello to Nat and Matt. Hello. Hello. This is my my my crack team of decking professionals. This is Joey, that's Dave, that's Pat, that's Kate. First order of business is going to be ripping everything apart. And you get this first smash, Nat, cuz I think you've tolerated a lot. It's okay to admit Nat, you should probably move, man. I I was just I'm just I'm just throwing that OUT THERE.

[00:03:30]YEAH!

[00:03:33]WHEN SHE TOOK THE SWING WITH THE SLEDGE AT THE RAILING, UM I was feeling my stomach drop. You know, just to see the hard work kind of destroyed in seconds.

[00:03:40]This is the beginning of something that's going to get started and finished.

[00:03:44]>> Yay! Hey guys, just so you know, those stairs are an absolute death trap, so be careful. I can't believe people have survived up to this point. Sledge!

[00:03:51]Matt, are you watching this?

[00:04:01]Oops.

[00:04:02]Uh, the pride? Uh, not so much right now. A lot of stuff I did was wrong. How long did it take you to deck this? A good couple hours.

[00:04:08]>> Yeah? Yeah.

[00:04:09]Watch how fast we take this apart.

[00:04:18]Team!

[00:04:20]Well done.

[00:04:21]Now that it's all torn apart with everything undone, um, kind of hard to see it that way, cuz I know he put a lot of work into it, but I know it's a new beginning now.

[00:04:34]Okay, so here we are day one and we've been busy. Now that we've got footings in place, we'll be teaching Matt how to put in saddles and we'll show him how to shore up his framing so this 98-lb weakling of a deck can finally get some much-needed muscle.

[00:04:51]So, Matt, could you do me a favor?

[00:04:54]Can you keep them in line, cuz sometimes I'm busy focusing on other things. Hey.

[00:04:58]Oh, enough. I have a firefighter on my side.

[00:05:02]All right, so we've got the first 45° line off the existing deck. This is kind of really important. Uh, but this line going the other way has got to be 90° like this. So, you're going to go far behind Katie and you tell her which way to push the line and you say when it's 90 and then I'll come and tell you when you're wrong.

[00:05:18]I think that looks pretty good. Is that your final answer? That's my final answer.

[00:05:23]Nice.

[00:05:26]I have this. Oh, thank you. Look at you like an umpire cleaning home plate.

[00:05:37]All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to start, uh, restructuring the, uh, rickety deck.

[00:05:42]>> That use of these before? Yep. I'm good to go.

[00:05:46]>> You don't want have course?

[00:05:47]>> No.

[00:05:53]Feel how much more supportive that deck is now.

[00:05:55]>> Solid now. All it is is solved by a couple pieces of wood. I won't tell Matt.

[00:06:01]So, because of the length of these joists, we're going to have to firm them up and put blocking down the middle of it. So, it's basically just going to stop them from shaking and twisting side to side. They don't have to be flush on the top cuz it's not serving any purpose that way. It's literally just holding the joists nice and strong. All right, to the bottom.

[00:06:22]Whenever we finish tips and we've got a nice level here, it's always great to exit scene by using the elevator.

[00:06:33]There you go. That's right. Uh-oh.

[00:06:37]This is awkward.

[00:06:49]I got to hand it to you. You structured the living daylights out of the lower deck and it's pretty stinking level, too, man, because we were actually able to frame all this up around it and use the existing frame and not have to like adjust anything that you did. I did something right. I'm happy.

[00:07:01]>> You did something right. There's a lot of things you did wrong. Well, uh now that we're done the day, I'm feeling pretty good. You know, I've learned a lot. Can't wait to get going tomorrow, but uh I'm going to need a push. You know, uh I finish projects kind of half, three-quarters. So, this is going to be a good day to actually see something through.

[00:07:19]What I'm going to get you to do is I'm going to get you to make the miter cuts around the edge where the board is going to be fitting around the decking. Have you ever heard of a miter cut? Yes. Have you ever done a miter cut?

[00:07:28]>> No.

[00:07:28]Well, you're in for a treat.

[00:07:40]Matt wants to show his girlfriend Natalie that can build a deck beyond the basics that is safe. You were in the tub and said to hell with the rest of the deck. That's right. Time to get cracking.

[00:07:54]New day and lots to do. First order of business is to finish framing on the lower level, which means moving the monster hot tub. And then it'll be time to really put Matt to the test with a challenge that is definitely going to make him sweat. Okay, Matt. So, we're going to start our decking here. First thing we're going to do is we're going to chalk a line to make sure that this board is nice and straight. The reason we're starting over here is so that we can do the decking and then push your hot tub right up on top of the decking so it has something solid to sit on. If you want to hold that on that line.

[00:08:20]Really, it's just kind of fun. So, what we're going to do is we're going to take the clip, we're going to put it on the end of the gun, push down.

[00:08:30]Using the fasteners today on the composite, it was actually a little bit difficult for me to to grasp it in the beginning.

[00:08:39]Nice.

[00:08:46]I think Matt's doing an absolutely fantastic job. Again, he is just his head is in the game. He's in there. It'd be fun to see if we can throw him off of that.

[00:09:02]Boo-ya.

[00:09:03]Nailed it.

[00:09:05]Hey, YOU FINISHED SOMETHING. YEAH.

[00:09:08]YOU FINISHED.

[00:09:09]ALL RIGHT. SO, LET'S MOVE A HOT TUB.

[00:09:11]>> Is anyone timing this cuz I want to This would be fun. We had the hot tub sitting on the far side of the yard. Eight hours later by myself, got on the deck all set up.

[00:09:19]We can beat 7 or 8 hours. I think I think I think we're going to beat that.

[00:09:25]Holy monkey. That was pretty easy.

[00:09:29]What's up? And that is how you move a hot tub. What have we learned? My back feels good.

[00:09:34]Friends are good.

[00:09:49]>> All right, time to shake things up and I hope Matt's up for a challenge because I'm about to give him some very specific instructions on how to do a very difficult miter cut. I'm going to show him how to do one and after that, sorry, you're on your own, dude. So, I'm going to get you to make the miter cuts around the edge where the board is going to be fitting around the decking. Have you ever heard of a miter cut? Yes. Have you ever done a miter cut before?

[00:10:07]>> No.

[00:10:08]Well, you're in for a treat. Miter cuts are basically the connection joints between two pieces connecting on any kind of angle. So, the two simplest angles that you can do are a 90° angle and a 45° angle. When Paul told me I had to do the miters, my stomach dropped. Uh I didn't have any on the old deck and there's a reason for it. That's a lot of pressure. It is. And the wood's really expensive, so if you screw it up, then it's going to cost me a lot of money.

[00:10:32]So, what you're going to do is we're going to lay this piece over the top of the other piece. So, you can see where the connection point where they line up, you you go right down on top of it. You can make that mark there and there's your outside cut. Join those two together.

[00:10:45]Okay, and that's going to be a nice 45° angle. Could it be any easier? Yeah, we'll see.

[00:10:51]It's stressful because they're hard.

[00:10:53]It's a lot more complicated than it looks. All right, so lay that in there.

[00:10:57]What we're going to do now is you're going to transfer that line to here. I'm helping you through this one, but the rest of the deck after you do this you're on your own, pal.

[00:11:06]I don't like that.

[00:11:08]Do you shake like this when you rescue people from burning houses? No.

[00:11:11]Should be Should be Should be easy for you, man.

[00:11:17]Moment of truth.

[00:11:18]Aw, who's going to make new friends? You just have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more to do.

[00:11:26]First one went in beautifully, but now he's on his own. There's a lot riding on on cut, man. Yeah, know, think you've already forgotten everything I taught you.

[00:11:38]Slimmest of margins. That's our good friend almost perfect. I think Matt's just in his zone right now. He wants to try to impress us, show us that he has the the abilities to be able to pull this off.

[00:11:48]I know you got a couple lines on that board. Which one is it that you're cutting?

[00:11:52]I hope the right one.

[00:11:56]Matt watching all day, I don't know if it was much of showing off my skills, but I think she knows I'm learning, so she'll be happy with it. I think he's doing well. All the ends seem to be meeting up properly.

[00:12:14]Last cut. We'll see how this one looks.

[00:12:18]You do one angle, you go to the next one, you screw it up, you got to start right back at square one again. So, a lot of pressure doing it, making sure it looks just right.

[00:12:28]Is that your last one? Last one. You're like a mitering master. This is a good day and a bad day for you, cuz you'll never be able to say you can't do this stuff. Awesome. Good work, though.

[00:12:37]Thanks.

[00:12:46]>> So, you and Joey are going to be competing against each other, but Joey is going to have a little bit of a handicap. You're going to be doing it with one eye closed. I still got 20 on Joey.

[00:13:07]Matt wants to show his girlfriend Natalie he can finish what he started.

[00:13:10]What have we learned? My back feels good.

[00:13:13]Friends are good. Time for Matt to step it up.

[00:13:19]Matt's been working hard. We've already got a lot done, including decking the upper level. There's another day of high-intensity action ahead as we show Matt how to build stairs and railings that are safe. Then we'll get him over to the barbecue zone for a little competition he won't be expecting.

[00:13:41]All right, Matt. You remember these?

[00:13:43]Oh, yeah. You remember what Nat hated about them? She seemed to think they were a little steep. You actually did a pretty good job building them. You cut them out, right? Now, the stair tread, a little small, especially if you're stumbling up after a hot tub. You want to make sure you got a nice big tread.

[00:13:57]So, I've already cut one out for you cuz obviously you knew what you were doing with that. This is going to be 11-in tread. It's going to have two boards on it. That way it's going to make it a lot safer going up. All right. So, if you want to use this as a template and go cut out, say, five more of them. Okay, I can do that. Awesome.

[00:14:13]With the old stairs, I made them a little steep. So, today I was showing how to build them a little longer.

[00:14:27]Keep them flush with that top there. I can do it. You can do it. Look at that attitude. You're so positive now. You can do it.

[00:14:33]>> Wait till you see the result.

[00:14:38]Matt's doing a great job with the new staircase. I think he's happy that he's getting redemption on this.

[00:14:43]Really stick it to Nat, you know.

[00:14:48]What's going on, Matt?

[00:14:49]Good.

[00:14:50]Look, it's a staircase where no one's going to get hurt, but there is one missing element.

[00:14:55]>> Railings. You're getting it. You're understanding. Uh yeah, so looking good.

[00:14:58]Finish these up. Okay.

[00:15:00]Nat's going to be very happy that the stairs are a little safer now. That was her biggest complaint.

[00:15:07]All right, done.

[00:15:13]Okay, so Matt. Yep. We're going to be constructing the barbecue tables, but we never do anything normal around here.

[00:15:20]So, you and Joey are going to be competing against each other, but Joey is going to have a little bit of a handicap. You're going to be doing it with one eye closed, and you have to drill with your left hand. Wow.

[00:15:30]>> And you can just do it regularly because >> happening. I still got 20 on Joey.

[00:15:35]Go.

[00:15:36]I can't even SEE THEM.

[00:15:39]JOEY'S GOT THE FIRST SCREW IN. Pat's not far behind. Surprisingly difficult.

[00:15:47]I think you actually have a leg up on Joey.

[00:15:48]>> I might have him beat. Yours is looking a little bit better than his is, too.

[00:15:53]We might have to take this apart and reassemble it.

[00:15:56]I know everybody's hating on Joey right now.

[00:15:59]Patrick, don't you be cheating. Uh-oh. I can't get the screw head INTO THE SCREW.

[00:16:08]ALL RIGHT, ONE MORE TIME. HERE WE GO.

[00:16:11]OKAY, there it is. See?

[00:16:17]Done.

[00:16:18]Good job. The pirate >> loses. Yarr.

[00:16:23]Even though I beat uh one-eyed left-handed carpenter, you know, uh I'll take a win. A win's a win.

[00:16:32]So, we have our railing system here.

[00:16:35]Connectors that we screw into the bottom rail, drill holes for the top rail, take our trusty baluster, slide it through the hole right on top of our connector.

[00:16:44]Done.

[00:16:46]We've done a few days. I'm pretty excited. We're at that point where I didn't pass last time. So, it's nice to have the push, kind of get things done, and get it all trimmed out. Pretty excited about that. And that's definitely going to be happy to see it finished.

[00:17:02]What do you think, Pat? Looks great, man. I would have GONE WITH BLACK.

[00:17:12]AND IT KIND OF LOOKS LIKE A LADDER. I thought the theme would be cool considering See how that works?

[00:17:17]>> Yeah, yeah. See I tie these things together with design.

[00:17:20]Hey guys, come check it out.

[00:17:34]Matt had a triumphant day and won his first building challenge. Done.

[00:17:38]The pirate loses. Yeah.

[00:17:41]Time to finish what he started and make Matt proud.

[00:17:45]It's the last day here and the pressure is on to get finished. While we put Matt to work on some final details, landscaper Jeff Sardi is busy adding his touches around the edge of the deck.

[00:17:55]Then it'll be time to kick Matt out so our talented stylist Heidi Richter can bring this deck to life. It's going to be one smoking finale.

[00:18:04]We are about to put up our fancy little custom pergola and it kind of looks like a ladder. I thought the theme would be cool considering. See how that works.

[00:18:12]>> Yeah, yeah. See I tie these things together with design. Lifty lifty. And fiffy.

[00:18:16]>> And spinny's penny.

[00:18:18]Awesome.

[00:18:21]Oh my gosh, it's a railing. What do you think? Looks good, buddy. Is that not better than the steep staircase with no railing that was risking people's lives?

[00:18:29]Matt's going to be happy.

[00:18:29]>> I think she is, man. Heidi's going to be showing up. So we want you to get out of here so it's uh what she does is a surprise for you. See you in a couple hours.

[00:18:40]All right, so here near the hot tub I want to put in these really nice cedars that are going to make a privacy screen for the hot tub. Uh cedars are a great choice for a privacy screen. They're going to grow together, require very little maintenance.

[00:18:59]Now it can be really easy to get caught up in matching colors and patterns too closely, but to give it a more eclectic and personal feel it's nice to mix it up a little bit. So here we've got a botanical, we have a paisley, we have a stripe, but when you see it all together it actually works quite nicely.

[00:19:13]Matt's first deck was a classic example of a man with a plan to build a cozy outdoor private retreat, but what he built achieved none of those elements, and he also didn't finish, which left some parts of the deck looking ugly and other parts unsafe, so not so good.

[00:19:26]Not only did Matt finish what he started, he took it to the next level.

[00:19:31]Matt's not going to believe her eyes.

[00:19:34]Hey, you guys.

[00:19:35]Come check it out.

[00:19:41]I'm stunned. It's gorgeous. Seeing the deck today for the the first time after Heidi and and Jeff came out, you know, I'm totally shocked. It looks like a brand new deck again.

[00:19:49]>> First thing I'm going to point out, we got a barbecue zone. It's awesome. Nice little prep stations on the side. And now we don't have to look at everybody.

[00:19:55]We've got some privacy up there. Privacy issue that we had with the deck before was pretty huge. And you know what this reminds me of? The red and the steel. I don't know. Fire engine. The firefighter motif was subtle. It's pretty cool. We like it. Now, you'll notice the two tables on either side, he actually was in a competition with Joey, and he kicked his butt like all over the place.

[00:20:15]>> handicap? Joey was blindfolded and and had to use his left hand.

[00:20:18]>> A win's a win.

[00:20:19]>> Well, it was just one eye. Just did just You know what? Everything's beautiful, and the fact that Matt had a hand in everything kind of makes it that much more special.

[00:20:26]Did you help put up all these beautiful pergolas? I did. You were something. If you'll notice, we got ourselves a staircase here that is not only more safe than the one that was here originally. And we have a railing.

[00:20:37]>> We got a handrail. See, I love you.

[00:20:39]Pretty good, baby.

[00:20:40]Okay, I got the lower level. It's beautiful.

[00:20:43]We've got somewhere to eat, somewhere to relax, and somewhere to hot tub.

[00:20:47]Seeing Matt's reaction that she was happy was relief. You know, it's been a big stress knowing this deck has kind of been held in limbo. So, to see her happy that it was done, you know, made me feel really good. You look around this entire project, and your fingerprints are on everything, man. That's got to feel pretty good. It does. You guys taught me a lot along the way. I'm really proud of him for doing all this. I'm sure he learned a ton, and he can apply it to other things now.

[00:21:08]>> I'm sorry, man. Look what you did.

[00:21:10]>> She knows. She knows too much.

[00:21:12]>> I think this is going to be a great place for you guys to chill out. Thank you. You guys are very, very welcome. It was our pleasure.

[00:21:18]When I started doing the deck when the crew showed up, it was embarrassing. As the days went on, you know, I became a little more proud of the work we were doing, and and they taught me a lot, and, you know, I'm proud today looking at the deck that I was able to help complete.

[00:21:33]Well, I was pretty happy with their work. I thought they were pretty pretty professional up till now. I'm starting to question what's going to happen here today. Find out if we can expense $200 to pay Jeff Sardi to eat a earthworm. Uh affirmative.

[00:21:45]>> Affirmative?

[00:21:47]Attaboy. Attaboy. Attaboy. Oh, man.