Deck Stairs & Nail Punching

I have an 8 year old deck which I am doing some long overdue maintenance on.

I have repunched all the nails with the exception on the ones running along the outside of the deck as they sit directly under the balustrade. There is only a 75-100mm gap, which doesn’t leave me enough room to get the floor punch and hammer lined up at a steep enough angle to drive the nails properly. Is there a tool that can get which would fit in this space and punch the nails? I wish to avoid removing the balustrade as I’m afraid of damaging it in the process, and my life would not be worth living if I did.

I also have some stairs from the deck which I need to sand and repaint. The timber treads sit on steel stringers and are easy enough to remove. When I replace the treads after painting, do I need to install anything to keep the timber tread separated from the steel? The stairs are exposed to the weather and I was of the impression it was not good practice to have the timber resting directly on steel.


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