What is the easiest way to repair wooden deck if I'm on a budget?

Its a small deck, probably about 30-50 square feet. It looks as if the wood is a bit splintered and warped. Want to fix it so its decent looking, but I'm on a budget. Not sure what is out there for stuff like this. Thanks in advance!

DIY Doc is right on target. I have been building decks for 25 years and you can carefully remove the deck boards and back the nails out. When you remove the nails it will make an unsightly gouge in the board, but if you turn it over you can probably put your new nails into the old holes and not have any unsightly evidence of your repair. If you don't want to buy any new boards at all, you will need to take notice of the spacing between the existing boards before you remove them. Because when they were intitally installed they were placed tight together. Then when they dried out, they shrunk leaving any where from 1/4" to 1/2" gap between the boards. You will want to nail them down with the average gap between them because they won't shrink anymore. You may decide to nail them close together and that is fine, but you will probably have to buy at least one new board and it will shrink after you nail it down. As for spindles, if they are split or bowed, there is not much you can do for them execpt replace them. They are only 0.95 at home depot. Any 2x4's that are in the handrail that are not suitible to keep will also have to be replaced. And I recommend that the top caps on the handrails be replaced any way, they are most likely to have the most damage and wear and will make all your efforts in the repair look great. Missing this step will make your deck look as bad as it did when you started. While you are working on the deck, it is a good time to check the bolts securing it to the house. They will need to be tightened as the age of the deck will make these bolts loosen. I hope this helps!

No offense at all to # 1, but sanding isn't likely to help crazing, cracking, warping, splitting, cupping, crowning, without dergarding the deck even more.

Not knowing at all what the species of wood is, or the thickness, it might be to your advantage to remove a section or two, check the underside, flip it and re-attach. Everyone is on a budget, no offense. It makes little sense to waste time, energy, cash on sanding and treating OLD lumber.

Steven Wolf
AKA: The DECK DOC

A small deck like that you could probably just replace the boards for cheap and it would last for years.

Maybe rent a sander from Home Depot? It's like 50 bucks for 24 hours.

If it's not warped too bad that is. It might make a huge difference without costing too much. Then just buy some deck stain / sealer and viola.

A simple fix is to flip over the warped wood boards. They will be bowed in the opposite direction, but usually flatten out real nice once they're screwed down (done nail them, screw them). After that, it depends on the finish you want, you didn't say what kind of wood it is, or if it's already painted or stained or neither. If its natural or pressure treated wood, I would buy a clear stain/oil that seals the wood and weatherproofs it. I hate when people paint pressure treated wood, it DOES NOT ADHERE WELL, and WILL PEEL OVER TIME. If its not pressure treated, feel free to paint it with some good decking paint.