I finally got around to organizing the decks blog and here is the most entertaining section… Deck Inspections. Enjoy… and if anyone has their own nightmare photos please send them along. I am happy to have guest bloggers if you are interested. Busy Year… Big HEY to all my old timer buddies and sorry for not being around much!
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Hey Guys
What's the scariest thing you have seen doing estimates... just describe if you don't have photos to post.
If I look hard enough........
I might find a photo of a deck that I couldn't quite tell from the road, how it failed. It was only a foot or two off grade, but driving by it caught my eye-something caused it to sag a whole lot-either way too small band or it fell of a post. Screamed weekend homowner (with absolutely NO talent), but I suppose it could have been done for hire.
Couldn't have been more that one season old...........still looked new from the road.
We've all viewed (for repair) a cantelevered 2nd story walkway that succumbed to water penetration. Usually too late for something cosmetic.
Our neighbor's deck (on the house when they bought it) was recently removed. It had peices/parts framing. I don't know if they had the scrap b/4 or after they set posts.............after I would guess as some of the "added" support was just a 4x4 sitting on a block. This thing did look wavy and when disassembling, you could see why.
The scariest thing I have seen is guys who think end nailing the joists into the rim is sufficient to hold them.
Hopefully they actually have this inspected and the inspector catches it.
Personally I would not build a deck that didn't have everything sitting on top of something so all the loads are in compression (no hangers, no loads in shear). You may end up with a structure that is deeper than some would like but there is no part that can rust out and cause vertical failure. I would only use clips for uplift and seismic forces.
There were several decks that collapsed in the Twin Cities area maybe 10 years back. Seems there was a loophole in the local code that didn't explicitly call for lag bolts between the ledger and the house, so several idiot contractors (they were all regular contractor decks, not DIY) just nailed the ledgers. A couple came down during parties, and some more in heavy snow.