deck repair

[thedink9]

Happiness
You probably don't want to hear what I'm going to say , but here it goes anyway. The cracking and flexing in both areas is due to delamination of the top skin (and probably bottom skins) with the wood between them. The wood has absorbed water and probably should be replaced. This is not a major job if you limit it to just the areas shown on the pictures, but neither is it the best way to proceed. The entire deck probably needs to be redone in the next few years. I had only a few soft spots in my deck and when I began to remove the top skin to investigate, I found the entire deck to be soaken wet, so I went about replacing all the wood, with a combination of marine ply and foam core. Since you want to wait a few years to tackle something similiar, here is how I would proceed.
I would start by taking a sounding with a rubber mallet to try to determine the extent of the delaminated area. I would follow this with a 1/4 drill with the bit taped off so you only drill down to 1/2" deep. Drill a few holes into the delam. area and see how wet the wood it. If it is really soaked, over a large area, the top skin should be removed and the wood replaced. If it is only damp you could try drying it out over a period of a few weeks with a combination of heat lamps and a few fans pointed at the holes. You could then inject thickened epoxy into the holes and apply a layer of wax'd paper over the holes and a few cinder blocks to weigh it down and you'll be good to go. Downside to this approach is that you will not be addressing a delam. of the wood to the bottom skin,so the deck might still flex, once your done, nor will you be addressing the cracking shown in your pictures on the top skin. If you need to remove the skin, mark off the area where the textured deck meets the smooth edge along the gunnel and take a circular saw with the blade set to not more that 1/4" and cut the top skin off. You will quickly find out how badly the wood is rotted. Remove the rotted wood, allow the area to dry with the help of a heat lamp, epoxy new material to the bottom skin, let it set up, then you can set the top skin back down, after you have applied at least one or two layers of 6 oz. mat over the entire inside of the skin to fix the cracking that you see on the pictures. Once this is done you could then sand the skin and epoxy it back down. Sounds like a lot of work and it is if your talking about the entire deck, but if your only talking about 2 -2x3' areas it should not take you too long. Good Luck Dink