Balcony Restoration
 

I'm hoping to get some opinions on how much work is likely involved to restore the balcony in terms of the amount of work involved, cost, and etc. I am no handyman by any means so it's likely that we will have to hire someone to do all this, unless people think this is DIYable.

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Floor tiles - I suppose the whole flooring would have to be replaced? Or can the gluing between the tiles be refinished without having to replace the tiles? The condition of the tiles seem fine and they are just really dirty.

Fence - The fence isn't in its best shape and somewhat wobbly so I think there's a safety issue, which I think could be fixed by re-bolting it down and not replacing the whole fence.

Stairs - Honestly not much clue about stairs. I think they are also wobbly and pose safety risk. I'm thinking they might have to be just re-done completely.


If I were to hire someone to do all of this, how much do you guys think it will likely cost? Thanks in advance.

You could power wash the tiles

I could but I'm afraid it will inevitably strip away more of those fillings in between resulting in more leaking. I forgot to mention that water has been leaking down although not too serious at this time yet.

What's underneath? Carport/garage? Can you pry up any of the tiles with a flat screwdriver?

I'm just guessing here but it looks like the grout failed, allowing water to get to the plywood decking. If that's the case, it's likely the mounting screws for the railing aren't fully secure.

If I just wanted it to clean it up, I'd wash the deck thoroughly, give it a few days to dry, replace the railing fasteners, making sure everything was weather sealed, then re-grout and seal the entire deck.

If I wanted to do it properly, I would pull the railing, demo the tiles (which I hate in this application BTW), pull the plywood, inspect and replace any structure, then rebuild from there.

What do you want to achieve?

If it is to prevent leaks, maybe try looking into installing a patio cover?

I guess what I'm trying to do is to keep the work minimal while properly fixing the issue with leaking and some rigidity. I suppose I could take ICE BOY's suggestion and find a nice weekend to clean it and replace railing fasteners. And re-grouting and sealing the entire deck.

There's a small storage underneath that only occupies a portion of the deck. For the rest of the area there's nothing underneath, sort of acting as a covering of the entrance for the basement.

power wash it and see how it looks after

for the railing fasteners the wood the screws are going into are probably rotten now....it MIGHT be possible to put in new backing underneath but i doubt it