We have 25 yr old house with deck off the second floor gameroom--about 5 deep x 12 long uncovered--that sits on top of the longer, covered porch along the rear wall of the house...this has southern exposure and gets tremendous amount of sun during the day and also lot of rain

the deck boards orginally were redwood with a redwood railing...there are gutters along the first floor composition roof below the balcony deck

we had the deck replaced about 4 yrs ago and the wood used was not redwood but supposed to be good quality preserved pine--the guy who did the deck did not replace the railing saying it was in good condition but looking back it probably should have been done as well...

The wood did not hold up to the weather even though we used wood preservative and stained it--I think the builder put the initial preservative on it too soon--before it had chance to dry out...

the roof was replaced a couple of years ago and they did not say anything about finding water damaged fascia boards at that time

anyway--some deck boards have started to pull up from whatever they are fastened to (they were nailed/not screwed) and now the balcony really needs replacing...

the porch underneath shows no sign of water coming through that we can see -- had a contractor out saturday to estimate replacing the deck/balcony.

I asked about a solid surface--like using Hardiplank panels but he said that there would be more water weight with something like that and he was not sure about the slope/drainage situation or what type of framing the balcony deck had...that he had never done a solid surface as a remodel in situation like this...

that he would have to take the wood off and check the water proof layer underneath...

(if there is slope it seems like the water would run off BETTER with a solid surface since it would not be falling through to the area underneath it and then going to the roof section...)

We are not sure exactly what type of water proof layer that might be BUT should that also be replaced given the age of the house and the increase exposure the underlayer has gotten?

can anyone point us to good web site with info about re-doing this type of balcony deck--

want to make sure this time that we know what to look for when the contractor does the work...

and besides aluminum is there any type of solid surface that could be used like one of the Hardiplank siding panels?