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Summary: The best idea for attaching the deck to your home is to use ledger boards and joists hangers, as the independent structure will prevent any leaks and would never fall down due to rotting. Attaching the deck to the posts or columns is a vital step and appropriate measures need to be taken to ensure proper installation, as the harsh forces are likely to damage the structure if not properly constructed.
Question - Approximately 6 years back I bought a house with a large deck in the back. Few days back I have noticed some moisture marks on the back wall which is attached to the deck structure. When I further examined it, I found that the wood had rotted many places and the flashing which connected the ledger board to the house were missing. Do I have to tear off the deck to repair it? Are there any suggested measures which I should take for the repair task?
Answer - no doubts you are facing a serious problem, however it is lucky that you have been able to discover the issue in the early stages because in later stages the deck could have been cracked. Each year number of decks have been reported to collapse under the harsh pressure of nature leading to a lot of injuries and loss of life. Though the lots of factors are responsible for the collapses of the deck structure, the most common reason is decay of the wooden parts where the deck ledger boards are attached to the structure of the house.
In most decks the ledger board is the main support for the beam, which is connected to the home with the use of joists that fasten the ledger board and the house with the use of specially designed metal joists hangers. Towards the further end of the deck another beam is often place by the builder parallel to the previously installed decks joists. The ledger board of the deck bears over fifty percent of the weight accumulated by the people dancing, sitting, or standing, the furniture and the weight of the deck structure. The weight of all these objects and people combined together is referred to in metric units, referred to as “tons”.
You necessarily do not have to tear down the deck to accomplish any repairing task over it. If you think about the solutions of this problem, there are number of different solutions which would be offered by different carpenters. However the solution that is provided here would most probably not be in the minds of many carpenters. My best possible solution would be to make the deck an independent structure connected to the house. Once the proper structure is constructed and the two structures (house and decks) are properly separated it would not be visible that they are two different structures. If seen from below two different supporting posts will be visible at a distance of several inches from the wall of the house.
I have experimented attaching the deck ledger boards to the house and took proper precautions for the process. Flashings were installed and holes were caulked to unable to bolts to pass through the side walls of the house. However I wasn’t completely satisfied of the expected results of the caulk of the bolts holes even though the caulk manufacturers claim that life span of the caulk may very from twenty to fifty years, it is hard to ascertain this claim.
As there is no fear of any leakages or deck crashes because of wood rotting the independent deck structures offer great mental peace. The process is quite similar to that of a beach house construction which is built on the piers. For simple understanding the structure is quite similar to that of an ordinary table or a dining table lying in your dining room or kitchen.
When you are planning to build a freestanding structure a lot of vital factors need to be considered like the ways in which the deck has to be connected to the columns or the posts, because if these are not properly structured, it would lead to deck crashes.
A lot of times physical activity on the deck like dancing, sways the structure forth and back, and at times this may again lead to deck collapses, this is also referred to as “racking”. For preventing such disaster special diagonal bracing and metal connectors, which are available at reasonable prices, have been recommended by the residential structural engineers. These are simple and saved designs for connecting the posts to the beams and the joists of the deck.
You can also consider retrofitting of the deck if you choose this structure. The present house footer would serve as an excellent base and support for the columns. You need to ensure that the deck ledger boards are placed at two inches away from the outer house wall, which will ensure sufficient space for the water to drain through the two structures.
The additional wood which will be purchased for the retrofitting of your deck would appear to be quite similar to the pre-existing wood used for the deck but they would contain various chemicals which may be highly corrosive to some metal framing connectors and nails. Most manufacturers now a days produce metal framing structure connectors which are extra galvanized to resist the effect of water and chemicals over them.
The fasteners used to connect the wood and the metal connectors also play a vital role. Such nails, bolts and screws should also be corrosion resistant along with the treated wood bolts. Another option would be the use of stainless steel fasteners, which can comfortably resistant the effects of the natural forces. Your engineer should be able to identify the requirement in terms of numbers, types and sizes of the connectors required for the construction process.
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