The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-28)

11

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THE

WASHINGTON

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SATURDAY,

MAY

28, 2022

work together to keep deck

ledger boards, and the primary

connectors, as dry as possible.

The one trick is to use fire

cuts on the joists, something

master carpenters figured out

well over a hundred years ago

when they installed floor joists

in solid brick buildings. As cities

got bigger, brick buildings got

taller and fire fighting became

more professional, it became

crystal clear why firefighters

were getting killed when brick

walls collapsed. The walls of the

buildings that didn’t have

angled fire cuts on the ends of

the joists tipped outward,

crushing firefighters when the

floor joists burned through and

broke in two inside the

buildings. This can be adapted

to deck construction. The second

trick is to use a kick-out on the

all-important flashing that

covers the top of the deck ledger

board.

I’ve prepared a full-color

illustration to show how I’d

install your deck ledger so it

doesn’t rot or pull away from

your home. This document also

contains links to the best deck

hardware and fasteners, the all-

important special connecting

anchors and the absolute best

treated lumber to use when

building your deck ledger board.

You can get all this here:

GO.askthebuilder.com/145 1.

Subscribe to Tim’s free newsletter at

AsktheBuilder.com. Tim now does live-

streaming video Monday to Friday at

4 p.m. Eastern time at youtube.com/

askthebuilder.

time it rains on your deck, a

toxic brew is created. The rain

leaches copper from the treated

lumber. This liquid attacks any

exposed steel or iron. If your

deck was built using inferior

fasteners with a paper-thin

coating of zinc, they might be

corroding as I type this. This

same corrosion can be

happening with any of the joist

hangers and other structural

framing connectors.

All of this is exacerbated if

your deck is located in a marine

environment. Sea salt is also

corrosive. I went on my first

cruise a few years ago and

attended a talk given by the ship

captain and his top two crew

members. I’ll never forget when

they were talking about the

constant battle they face with

the seawater. The captain said in

his heavy Eastern European

accent, “The sea eats iron and

men.”

You need to up your game

should your deck be exposed to

marine conditions. If it were me,

I’d use as much stainless steel as

I could find when it comes to

fasteners, bolts, connectors and

so forth. Whatever isn’t stainless

steel should be double-dipped

hot galvanized metal. I’d also do

annual inspections of the deck

to ensure corrosion is minimal

or nonexistent.

Over the years, I’ve discovered

a foolproof way to stop deck

ledger board rot. I’m not the

only one who has worked in this

area, but my method is the only

one I’ve seen that incorporates

two different techniques that

treated lumber can and does rot.

I’ve witnessed it myself. Each

day when I go out for a walk, I

pass by treated-lumber guardrail

posts that are as rotten as logs

lying in the forest just 50 feet

away. Keep in mind that not all

treated lumber has the same

amount of chemical

preservatives. What’s more, how

do you know if the wood was

properly treated? Any number of

things could have gone wrong at

the treatment plant. Inferior

products of all types are made

all the time. This is why there

are product recalls on an almost

weekly basis.

Do you, by chance, recall some

of your high school chemistry?

Did you do any lab experiments

about galvanic reactions? Each

the furniture that’s on it, and the

combined weight of you, your

family and friends is pushing

down on this single board. It can

be thousands of pounds.

But it gets worse. Not only is

the weight pushing down, but if

you and your friends start

dancing on the deck creating a

harmonic side-to-side motion,

you can exert a force that begins

to cause the deck to pull away

from your home. This is a recipe

for disaster if the deck ledger

board or the untreated wood on

the exterior of your home has

rotted because the ledger board

was not installed correctly. This

is why my daughter’s roommate

was lying unconscious on the

ground that fateful day.

It’s important to realize that

Deck collapses
happen all the
time, and many of
them never make
the news.
Several years
ago, I attended an all-day
training session put on by a
leading manufacturer of metal
structural connectors for decks,
homes and other structures.
They estimated at the time that
over 80 percent of the decks in
the United States are
structurally deficient and ticking
time bombs. That speculation is
staggering, and it should
immediately put your head on a
swivel.
My youngest daughter’s
roommate was a victim of one of
these deck collapses. She walked
out onto a small deck four years
ago and it detached from the
building. Both the woman and
the deck crashed 12 feet to the
ground. She was rushed to the
hospital with a ruptured spleen
and a broken neck. She survived
but is now partially disabled.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the
saying a chain is only as strong
as its weakest link. The weak
link of the typical deck is where
it attaches to the house. This
deck structural member is called
a ledger board. In reality it’s not
much different from a steel
beam you might see in your
basement or the ones that
support bridges that you drive
under in your city or town.
An enormous amount of
weight is transferred to this
ledger board. In most cases, half
the weight of the entire deck, all

Perspective

Most decks are a recipe for disaster. Here’s how to prevent that.

Ask the

Builder

TIM CARTER

TIM CARTER/TNS

A metal structural connector manufacturer estimated that over 80

percent of the decks in the United States are structurally deficient.

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