PLEASE NOTE:This following was excerpted from the Monday Morning Marketer, a newsletter specifically written for Home Inspectors.

PLEASE NOTE:This following was excerpted from the Monday Morning Marketer, a newsletter specifically written for Home Inspectors.

The article in This Old House confirmed what I had been suspecting all along. Decks are a real safety issue for Home Inspectors. I am now taking a different approach when inspecting a deck. I am now assuming that all decks are a piece of junk until my evaluation proves me wrong. I also have to add some new terminology to my report to deal with these topics.

I have been intuitively noting for the last year whether or not the decks are secured to the houses with nails or lag bolts. My findings were consistent though: well-constructed decks have lag bolt attachments, while throw-em-up tract homes and do-it-yourselfer decks usually have nails.

NOTE: Even if the deck has lag bolts, never make the assumption that the bolts are installed into a secured portion of the home. They may be screwed into just OSB or plywood.

Those of you inspecting in humid climates probably probe the living daylights out of ledger boards already, but here in Utah where it is so arid, that probing usually does not reveal damage. The rot is just not there. When rot is present, it is very evident without even probing.

The TOH article stressed the importance of probing the ledger board on homes without the proper flashing for rot. About 95% of the decks in my area are not flashed. Only the expensive mansions employ this method of protection. I report the lack of flashing and I make a strong point to report on the ledger board connection and make the Safety Upgrade recommendation for the addition of lag bolts.

In my opinion, nailed ledger boards that are separating from the house are now a HAZARD needing further evaluation/repair/upgrading. Lag bolted ledger boards that are separating from the home are in need of resecuring to prevent deck failure.

The most secure decks appear to be those that are constructed as free-standing units without any attachments to the main home for strength. This provides the proper free standing supports around the entire perimeter of the unit. I can only imagine how immediate the second story fall from a failed deck ledger board would be.

Feedback from your deck experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I spoke with a nearby neighbor who experienced the nightmare of deck failure just 6 years ago. He went with his older son to a friend's brand new house that was only 3 weeks old. The friend said "You have got to come out and see the best scenic mountain view in the whole city." The owner walked out onto the second story brand new 10' x 12' wood deck, followed by the son and then my neighbor.

Two steps out onto the deck and the ledger board broke away from the home. He said that time slowed down and it took what seemed like 5 minutes until he hit the ground. The other two fell on top of him. The deck was about to topple back on top of them, but stopped. My neighbor crushed 2 of his vertibrae, lost 1 1/2" in his stature, and still suffers the pains of the accident to this day. His experienced mirrored those that I have already shared with you in the info above.

The difference in this story is that the deck was secured to the home with Grab-it type 2" long drywall screws. Some of the screws pulled out, while others sheared off. The screws only penetrated the home's sheathing a 1/2". Screws obviously are no better than nails, yet many builders are using them.

In thinking about my neighbor's accident, I'm trying to figure the weight load that caused the deck to fail. 3 men 200 pounds each plus the weight of the lumber. That really isn't very much when I consider the numerous BBQ's that I have attended with a dozen or more people on a deck. I'm not a structural engineer, but I have sheared off my share of drywall screws with vice grips because they were too long. They don't bend, they shear off.

My neighbor's experience clearly confirmed the "No Warning" condition of the Grab-it screw fastener's failure. The builder of the home is one of the largest in Northern Utah. I would have thought that the builder would have: 1) Done their own recall and returned to all of their previous wood decks to install lag bolts, and 2) Started installing lag bolts on their new construction. This construction failure was unethical at best, no major lawsuit was ever filed, so the builder never changed his ways. I have inspected a couple dozen of their home's and to this day they still use grabbers or nails.

Consider the experiences presented in today's Monday Morning Marketer carefully as you evaluate your next home with a wood deck.

Continue reading about a Woman Killed in a deck collapse.

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