The boards are the last thing we look at

Shallow water leaves a tide line

A dock on the Estero River or the east side of Estero Bay stands in water that comes and goes. That leaves a band on every piling and every low member that is wet, then dry, then wet again, all day, in salt. Add the hard growth this bay is known for and that band ends up being the hardest working part of your dock and the part you can see the least of from up on the deck.

Which is why the boards tell you so little out here. Full sun over open bay water finishes a deck on its own schedule, whether the structure under it is sound or not. A grey, splintery deck can sit on a frame that is perfectly fine. A handsome deck can sit on pilings that have gone thin right where the tide crosses them. The only way to know which one you own is to get under the deck and put eyes on the waterline.

So that is the order the work happens in: sound the deck, read the stringers and the frame, clean and check the growth band on the pilings, and only then talk about boards. The owner makes that walk himself, free. Old material leaves by barge and new material comes in the same way, inside the tide window, so nothing heavy crosses your yard in either direction.