Ply

Then I put a new plywood floor and screw it to the beams. Getting the plywood sheets in place wasn’t very easy since the sheets are wider than the clearance between the wall and the railing, but I devised a cunning system that worked pretty well.
I attached two ropes to the front of the balcony, just under the place where the new floor will be. I attached the other ends of the ropes to the poles that hold up the roof. Then I carried the sheet of plywood upstairs and slid it into the coils of rope. By loosening the ropes I could then lower the sheet so it was oriented horizontally. Then it was fairly easy to slide it under the posts of the railing and slide it into its final place. Of course this description doesn’t include the swearing when things got temporarily stuck, or the near misses when I lost my balance and almost fell down three stories. Well, that last thing didn’t happen, it was actually quite straightforward. Screwing the sheets down took longer that getting them in place.