I had been keeping this deck alive for several years with an occasional replacement board, some sanding, a little deck stain. I even trimmed the ends of a section of the cantilevered deck boards.

Nailing a loose floorboard into the joist below should eliminate the rattle or squeak. But even if it doesn’t, we’ve got you covered.

Decking comes with trade-offs depending on which brand, material, and species you choose. As a rule, wood tends to resist flexing better than composites. Composites, on the other hand, generally ...