Monday I found myself up around the 7,500 foot level looking out across a beautiful green mountain valley. 
The retreat cabin was one of the few properties left in our area that is for sale under $90,000. Add to that 1.5 acres of property, electricity, water and a septic system, and you can see that not a lot of money was being directed towards this 22-year-old barn-style cabin. In other words.... This was a real "Fixer Upper."
The half rolled composition and half wood shingled roof was shot and leaking. The home had been foreclosed on and was being sold "As Is". As expected, their was significant damage throughout the interior, as well as needed repairs to the mechanical systems.
The barn-style allowed for 75% of the home to be surrounded with wood decks, as well as an upstairs master overlook deck. The sad part was that about 60% of the deck boards had sustained major rot and deterioration. If you didn't step upon the joists you would find yourself caving through. To make the deterioration worse, the previous owners covered the entire south end with oriented strand board covered with lovely brown exterior carpet. Oriented strand board and carpeting hold the water worse than just the deck boards. OSB also deteriorated quickly from prolonged moisture exposure.
The main large BBQ deck was erected over a hillside drop-off which required deep set poured concrete support post that had metal U-shaped brackets securing the double wide 2x12 support beams. The 2x12's were never secured to the pillar support brackets...... They just sat free moving in the metal U-channeled pillar brackets. The main center support at the outer edge of the deck has settled 3" and shifted sideways about 4". This caused the main 2x12's to twist from vertical to about 11 & 5 o'clock. In other words there was imminent failure that was about to bring the deck crashing down.
Deck failure would not have limited the damage to the deck alone. Instead, the decks were constructed as integral parts of the cabin and when failure finally occurred, it would have brought the home down with it. This was a shocking thought as I was under the house when I made this realization.
