The craftsmen who built our deck and then modified it years later to accommodate the white oak that replaced the red oak that we lost to oak wilt made a proper cutout for the tree’s trunk. The cutout was actually made from individual deck planks cut perfectly to accommodate the trunk. It wasn’t a work of fine woodworking, but it was nonetheless functional, symmetric and quite attractive. That was years ago, and I have had to widen the cutout every year or two in order to suit the needs of the growing tree. I think I have done this twice in the last few years.
This year, the tree has found itself in need of more help to keep it from becoming girdled. I removed the puzzle pieces around the tree’s trunk about a week ago and announced to Susan, “It’ll take me at least a week to get this done.'” It was 90F and humid outside, and I was sweating profusely. Here’s how the tree trunk looked.
True to my word, I think it took ten days to fix the deck accommodation. I probably spent 45 minutes total working on it, but I spread those minutes over more than a week to beat the heat, buy some needed parts, recharge the lithium battery for my drill and scroller saw, etc. Oh, I had to fix a failing Irwin clamp in the midst of all that.
The finished product is not as symmetric and elegant as the original, but it is functional. Besides, this deck is destined for replacement in another year or two.
We’ll done!!
Thank you. We each do according to our abilities -lol. I’ll need to talk to Eric about a new deck sometime in the next 24 months after the market recovers somewhat, and we get other priorities addressed.