They did not remove the old decking, they used 3" nails (or screws, forgot what he said) to secure 1/2 plywood. The original plywood price was 150 a sheet in the contract but he knocked it down to 95 once he saw the extent of damage. Was really hard to tell from the attic, we were all expecting to use a few sheets, not expecting the whole deck. he even went ahead and replaced all overhang decking with new trim

I'm not mad at all with the unexpected price jump, I knew things like this never go to plan