• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Backyardscape

Backyard Living Ideas

  • Home
  • Fence
  • DIY & Projects
  • Outdoor Lighting
  • Hot Tubs
  • Fire Pits
  • Landscaping Tips
  • Decks
You are here: Home / DIY & Projects / How to Redeck A Trailer

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Redeck A Trailer

Last Updated September 15, 2021 By Christina

Do you need to redeck your trailer before your hauling your next load of gravel, mulch or wood for your next backyard project?

Utility trailers are so versatile for so many tasks. Hauling a golf cart, lawn equipment, lumber, laying mulch in your backyard, demolition materials, you name it.

After a while your trailer decking will start to look pretty bad and you’ll need to replace the boards. If you wait too long and your boards start to rot, then you’re in danger of compromising your trailer deck strength.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to redeck your trailer.

Our trailer is a 2006 5×10 single axle open trailer. The pressure treated lumber from 2006 was starting to rot considerably. There were no through holes yet, but I didn’t want to push it any longer so I decided to redeck it.

trailer before

Tools and Materials Needed

First step is to figure out what size lumber you need and what hardware you need to connect it to the metal trailer frame.

Popular Stories Right now
7 Ways on How To Hang String Lights in Backyard Without Trees
Can a Hot Tub Sit on Gravel? (And Why to Use It)
What to Feed Squirrels in Backyard

If your boards are still intact, you can measure what size they are (width and length) and how many there are on the deck and do a one for one swap.

In our case, we had (8) 2x8x10 boards. The nominal measurement is 1.5 inches x 7.5 inches x 120 inches.

The boards were so badly damaged that I could barely see the screw heads that connected them to the metal frame.

To connect wood lumber to metal, you need a self tapping screw that is meant to go through wood to metal.

The side boards were connected with through bolts with washers and nuts. I used stainless steel since the previous ones were badly rusted.

The size was ¼ thick, hex head 1 ½ long bolts. Now that you know what you need, pick everything up from the local lumber store.

Old Flooring Demo

Now that you have the lumber and hardware, you’re ready to demo the old boards off your trailer. Depending on how bad they are will determine how much work it will be to get them separated from the metal frame.

The side boards came off easy with two wrenches. If yours is rusted, spray it with PB Blaster. It seems to work better than WD-40 in my opinion.

Popular Stories Right now
Are Backyard Fire Pits Legal?
Best Mosquito Repellent: 10 Plants That Mosquitoes Hate
How to Mulch: The Definitive Guide

removing side boards from trailer

If you can see any of the screw heads from the wood deck boards, you can try to unscrew them. I got some to unscrew but most were pretty stuck and I was using my dewalt impact driver to get enough torque to get them to budge.

I ended up using my dewalt cordless circular saw to make three passes across the boards. Make sure you look underneath to verify where the metal bars are located and if needed make a mark on the wood to note where they are.

using a cordless circular saw to remove boards

Last thing you want to do is hit one of those as you are trying to saw through the wood. You won’t be able to get through the first and last board with the circular saw but we’ll get to those last.

Now that I had 6 of the 8 boards cut through, I was able to pull the pieces off pretty easily. I used my large pry bar with a hammer to get underneath each small piece to pry the wood off the screw. The pry bar gives you enough leverage to pull the wood off, even if the screw is still attached to the metal rail.

Popular Stories Right now
8 Best Outdoor Towel Warmer for Hot Tub
Hot Tub Dangers: How to Prevent Getting Electrocuted in a Hot Tub
How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants in Trees

The wood was so rotten around most of the screws that the wood boards pulled right up. I did have two pieces that would not budge so I decided to use a drill bit and drill around the screw to loosen the wood.

I made four or five holes around the screws and finally the boards came loose. For the last two boards, I pried on the inside of the board all around and they both finally came free.

drilling around difficult screws to remove boards

Now that you have all the wood off the trailer, you need to knock down the screw heads still embedded into the metal frame.

At first I used the angle grinder but that was taking too long so I took my hammer and hit the side of each screw several times and they broke at the same height of the metal frame.

using angle grinder to remove nails from frame

If any of them broke with a little bit sticking up, I hammered it down flush with the metal.

You’re now ready to clean up your bottom metal frame before you put the new boards back on.

I used a metal wire brush attached to my drill to clean up all around the bottom metal paying attention to any rust. My metal frame was in good condition other than some surface rust and dirt and debris.

using wire brush and drill to remove surface rust

Once I was done with the wire brush, I used my blow gun sprayer with my compressor to blow out any remaining debris or dust.

I used a flat black Rustoleum spray to go over all exposed metal. The metal frame looked almost new after the Rustoleum application. Let it dry and you’re ready to install the deck boards.

adding rustoleum to trailer frame

Next step is to install the deck boards. My trailer had an angle iron lip on top and bottom and measured a little over 120”.

That meant I didn’t have to cut any of my 120” long boards. The lip was over an inch on each side which kept the boards securely on the trailer but would make it extremely difficult to get the last three boards in.

The first five boards were easily slid underneath the lip by angeling them and then tapping them to the sides with a rubber mallet since I didn’t want to mar the wood boards.

adding board at an angle

Then I realized I couldn’t angle the boards anymore to get under the lip. I had to call a friend with a hydraulic jack. Essentially we had to bow the boards enough to get each end under the metal lip.

getting hydraulic jack ready

The safest way to do this is to jack up the board from underneath the trailer. The problem is that most jacks don’t go that high by themselves so you need to add some wood to the jack to lift the board high enough to bend it under the lip.

stepping on board to bow it under trailer lip

Once the board is under the lip on each end, release the jack and the board will come down. On the last board, just make sure whatever board you use on top of the jack is less than 7” wide so that it doesn’t get stuck in between the jack and the trailer deck.

Once that last board goes down, stand back and admire the new deck boards on your trailer.

If you have side and end boards on your trailer, install the end boards first. Start with the bottom, verify the diameter of the hole in the metal frame then use the same drill bit to go through the wood board.

adding side boards with bolts

I actually installed the bottom boards with my through bolts, washer on each side and nut. You want to place a washer on each side so that your bolt head or nut doesn’t crush through the wood fibers. Repeat this step for each side board.

Last step is to screw through the deck boards to the metal frame below. This was the most difficult part of the whole job, minus the hydraulic jacking the last three boards. If there is any spacing between all your boards, try to get the spacing even all the way across by using shims to hold the boards in place.

Once they’re set where you want them, install the self tapping screw through the wood and into the metal frame. I used my impact driver to give me more torque to get through the metal.

The screw will go through the wood easily and you will be able to tell when it hits the metal. I had to put my full weight behind the driver to get the screw to go through the metal.

Unfortunately the screw head is phillips so if you’re not holding it tight, your bit will slip and strip the head. After about 30 minutes and only getting in three screws, I decided to start predilling a pilot hole for the metal so that my screw had something to catch on.

I used a smaller titanium drill bit to go through the metal. I actually bought several bits since they dulled out quickly but with the predrilled hole, the screw went in much faster. The predrilling took about a half hour and the screws went in less than 15 minutes.

You’re now done re-decking your trailer. In all I believe this took 5-6 hours and the total costs were $100. Be sure to checkout our articles for more projects such as building a fence, as well as a small deck perfect for a grill!

redecked trailer and how it looks

PinLikeTweet

Filed Under: DIY & Projects

About Christina

Hey there and thanks for coming to our site. We love doing projects in our backyard. We do many of the projects ourselves and it's always a work in progress.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jeffery Fowler says

    March 22, 2021 at 8:30 am

    Your tutorial helped me to understand how I have to fix my trailer, when the time comes to replace the boards. You said the boards fit lengthwise, so I’m curious why you needed the saw. You said you didn’t have to cut any of the boards.

    Reply
    • Christina says

      March 22, 2021 at 8:42 am

      Great question. We used the saw to cut out the old boards. It was easier to cut them out since the old bolts were rusted in place.

      Reply
  2. billy says

    July 24, 2021 at 1:21 pm

    I have done my deck on a 16+2 dove tail equipment trailer (2 decks in20 years) when I started.
    I cut a 10 inch piece, out of the center towards the front, of the angle iron that holds the deck down.
    I then took a 12 inch piece of angle iron and bolted to it. Last time I used sawmill red oak 2×8 and had to angle both ends to slide under the hold down. Made changing out boards a lot easier.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

About Us

jena and christina at beach

Hey There. Thanks for stopping by. You're probably wondering who in the world is writing all about backyards. We're Jena and Christina.  Our friends call us the Inas and now you can … read more about About

  • Best Termite Resistant Mulch
  • Garden Fence Ideas: 13 Inspiring Designs for Your Yard
  • How Do I Choose A Nail Gun?
  • 7 Creative Pool Fence Ideas for Inground and Above Ground
  • What Gauge Nail for Fence Pickets?

Footer

  • Pinterest
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.