Deck Repair: Patching a Hole Left by a Removed Tree

Again? Already? If you’d told me ten months ago that I’d be doing deck work again less than a year later, I would’ve given you a look that said, “I would be punching you in the face right now if I were the punching type.”

I actually enjoyed building the original deck in the heat of summer, but I wasn’t eager to repeat the whole process so soon. Fortunately this time it was a simple patch rather than a full rebuild. Remember this hole?

This gap was left when we had to remove a large tree. The crew disassembled the bench that surrounded it—well, “disassembled” is generous; they basically demolished it to get the tree out. That left a pile of bench scrap and a pretty sizable hole in the deck.

Instead of rebuilding the bench, we decided a clean patch would make the deck more functional. Covering the hole lets us center a dining table rather than crowding it off to one side. My main worry was finding replacement deck boards that matched the unknown age and width of the existing decking. I tried salvaging full boards from the scrap pile but came up three boards short.

A quick trip to Lowe’s with an old board in hand revealed that they sell the same standard width, so I was in luck. Into the car went the supplies:

• Seven 8-foot deck boards — $42
• One 8-foot 2×8 cut in half to use as joists — $9
• Four metal hangers for the joists — $4.50
• Total: $55.50

First I cut the 2x8s to span the width of the hole and secured them with the hangers, using decking nails we had left over from last summer.

In hindsight I probably only needed a single joist, since the gap was just over three feet, but the tree guys had cut the stump at a strange angle so I couldn’t run a joist straight across. I ended up with this odd spacing and that was fine as long as the new boards had solid support.

For both stability and aesthetics, I wanted the new boards to extend past the hole slightly so the patch would look more natural and the boards could rest on existing joists at each end. That meant cutting back some of the adjacent planks so the new boards would sit flush and hide the repair.

I used a Dremel SawMax to score a deep slice along the boards to be removed. The cut didn’t need to go all the way through—just deep enough to make the board snap cleanly where I wanted it, which explains the slightly rough edge.

That approach saved me from prying up the entire length of each board. Instead I only had to pry out the sections I planned to replace.

When fitting a new board, I simply laid it in place and marked the cut line with a pen—no tape measure required. Then I used the stairs as a makeshift sawhorse and cut each board to fit with a circular saw.

After cutting, I assembled the pieces like a puzzle and fastened them down. Luckily I’d saved leftover deck screws from the previous project, which spared me an extra trip to the store and kept costs down.

Here’s the finished patch. It’s not a flawless “after” photo, and the boards don’t match perfectly, but it’s a major improvement over a gaping hole. One of the old boards cracked while I pried it up, so I had to patch a little more than I originally planned—hence the longer board on the bottom left.

Once we give the entire deck a thorough cleaning, stripping, and restaining, the new boards should blend more naturally with the old. Or at least the whole deck will look refreshed and more uniform.

For now, we’re just happy to host friends without worrying that someone might step into the old hole. That’s Sherry’s chair bravely sitting right where the hole used to be—she took the photo, which is why she’s not in it.

Next on the to-do list is a deep clean, stripping, and stain/seal for the whole deck to revive the finish. Down the line we’d like to open up the back of the deck with extra-wide stairs that lead to the yard—something like the wide-step look that creates a more open flow. That will be a Phase Two project.

We later added two gates to the deck to keep the dog from running away, which made the space more practical for everyday life.

Has a surprise project landed on your plate recently—something you didn’t plan but ended up solving quickly? As much as I didn’t look forward to more deck work, I’m grateful this repair only took one afternoon and made the space usable again.