Your Deck Might Be Failing Right Now (Don't Miss This)

0:01 Winter does more damage to your deck than you think. Before anyone sets a foot on your deck, check these spots first. If you don't listen to anything else in this video, this is the one you really should take something home with. Your ledger attachment. The most important part of the deck connection to the house. [music] If you don't do this right, you can die. A lot of people have. And every year people get injured from deck collapses. These [music] are Simpson structural screws. They must have been prescribed three. This is a 2 by 12 joist. We already talked about flashing, but it's attached to the house every 16 in with three structural lags, which is great. You just got to make sure that you have the proper amount for the size framing you're doing. So, if you don't know what that is, check with a professional. Talk to a structural engineer. They might charge you a couple

0:47 hundred bucks, but it's probably worth his time to give you the math on what you need to do, how to figure that out. One way to avoid that is by using a lateral tension tie, which you see right here. This is a more invasive style of lateral tension tie. And it's actually tied to the inside of the house to another floor joist and screwed to that. So, in an earthquake or if this deck wants to pull away from the house, it cannot because this tension tie has all thread that goes into the inside of the house and it's screwed to the floor joist. It's done very well. It's nice and stable and there's three of them in 24 ft. You're only required by code to have two, but whoever did this deck did three. Good for them for doing that. So, did you know that $50 can save you $5,000 of problems in the future if you use proper flashing on your deck. Now,

1:34 this deck has been properly flashed. It's basically a $10 a stick for this stuff. It can keep all the moisture from going in between your ledger and your house. If >> [music] >> you don't put a waterproof membrane behind all this, then you got to have this to make sure that the water goes down and out and then down the outside of the ledger board and not on the inside of the house. I've seen so many decks where I've torn apart and one time I had to tear down the wall studs all the way down to the base of [music] the foundation because it was so rotten. If you don't know if you have flashing or not, sometimes if you can't tell, sometimes you might have to pull the first deck board against the house and out to see what you have. If you don't have flashing, then you need to get it.

2:20 If you do have flashing, you need to make sure it's still in good condition. >> [music] >> This particular flashing is still in good condition and that's why we went ahead and reused it. And we may end up putting a layer of waterproof membrane tape in case we have to put any kind of a screw right here or anywhere else to hold something down to protect it so it doesn't leak in the future. So, let's talk about railing a little bit. In my opinion, this railing is way too loose. If your railing's doing this, you better go check it right now and make sure that it's not. So, that is one thing that I see a lot are banisters and railing banisters that are loose or or have fallen apart. And if there's more than a 4-in gap, you need to check that to make sure that younglings can't get through it, can't fall through it or any animals or anything like that. The post

3:05 connection for your railing is the most important part. It needs to withstand 200 lb of force when you're leaning against it or pushing against it. So, usually you can give it a pretty good wiggle and if it feels loose, then you might consider tightening that up or possibly getting a new handrail set. The base of your post, where they're located, how are they attached? Is there something solid that this base of the post won't move? You'd be surprised at how many times I've come out on a safety inspection or a deck inspection and maybe it's the center post of the deck and it's completely loose. The base is just able to kick it around. There's no bracket or anything holding it in that location. So, check the base of your post and while you're at the post, you might [music] be concerned about how is the post to beam connection? That's

3:52 another important step that you might want to check. So, you can see right here, it's not a heavy duty bracket. It's a standard Simpson bracket, but it has nails into the post and nails into the beam. It's just good to make sure that there's some kind of connection. When they say positive connection, if you have a building inspector come out and look at the deck, they want to know that there's a way for the beam and the post to stay connected in an upwind uplift situation or in an earthquake or something that where things want to move or twist or warp or whatever. So, having a positive connection of metal with nails is good. you're going to want to use structural connectors on this or use the proper nails that are made for that bracket. They actually make special nails for some of this stuff. So, double

4:38 check with your lumber supplier or your home center to make sure you're getting the right stuff. This one I see quite a bit and it has to do with wood splitting. So, when you install it, you may not [music] necessarily know there's a split or even see a split, but then eventually as things age, you may notice like one side of the board, see where it's a little wet right here. Uh this is kind of a indication that the wood is splitting a little bit. I checked the other side of this joist and it doesn't go all the way through. So, it's more of a superficial cosmetic thing than it is uh actual issue. But sometimes those splits go all the way through the board and if they travel far enough, it's reducing the capabilities of the joist to be able to span properly. If you have a really bad split that goes all the way

5:24 through a joist and if you can get up on a ladder and look through the joist, consider sistering another joist next to it to give it that strength that it needs to continue to span properly. Sometimes [music] cracks are just nature doing its thing, but other times uh nature takes it a little too far and then you're dealing with a joist or some structural member of the deck that really should be replaced or added extra support against. Here you go. Up here we have a joist to beam connection. And these joists happen to butt into this big glue lam. That's one way of building things. Uh another traditional way of building is putting your joist on top of your beams and you have some type of a cantilever past the beam. This particular deck, that's the proper way to install it. There's fasteners in

6:10 every hole. There's nothing missed or skipped and it's all galvanized Teeco style nails that are made for that application. The proper nails were used to install the joist hanger. Let's just for example say you have a beam and the joists go over the top of the beam, you still have to have a way for the joists and the beam to connect. So, there's a couple different metal brackets you can purchase for that. If you don't have those on your deck, the code, the building department wants to see a positive connection, which means you're either using a hurricane clip, a hurricane tie or some kind of a twist tie like a H2.5. There is one other way you can do it, but it has to be the right fastener, the right length and you can run up through the beam and into the bottom of the joist, but you have to have that all approved, engineer stamped and all that before you just go ahead

6:56 and do it. You are in a high snow load area. If you notice the center of your deck might be sagging, you might want to check it and make sure that all your joists aren't sagging too far. You might want to check how far the joists span between the house and a beam or in between beams cuz if it's too far apart and your framing's sagging, you might need to add additional support. The best way to do that is just get up on a ladder and take a look or get a string line or something and see if your joists have any sag in them. If it's too much, [music] that can be a potential recipe for danger. So, if you're just not sure what to do about this, go online and find a span chart and see if the joists that you have match up with the span chart or not. Make sure you don't have any loose or corroded fasteners anywhere on the deck. If you have fasteners

7:42 sticking up [music] through the decking, that can really hurt on a barefoot in the spring or summer. So, definitely check. Make sure you're tightening everything down. Put punch all the nails down or get a drill and screw all the screws down. We had quite a few on this deck before we remodeled it and we just took a grinder and we took a metal blade on the grinder and we just kind of shaved everything down so it became [music] nice and flat and then we taped over the top to protect the joist for any future decay. If it rains a lot and you're not using stainless steel fasteners, things can corrode and break easy. If they're going into pressure treated material, sometimes that can also be a problem. If you're getting a lot of marine fronts and things like that and you don't have stainless steel fasteners, it can be an issue as well. So, you just want to make sure that when

8:28 you're going into the treated lumber that you don't have anything that's corroding and sometimes you can't even tell until the board becomes loose and just flops around and then you got a real problem. So, consider stainless steel in lieu of a carbon screw. All right. So, you just went out and checked your deck. If it looks good, congratulations. You're well on your way to enjoying your summer. If not, maybe get together some tools and fix those problem issues so you can have a nice safe deck for your friends and family.