Deck ledger board attachment shortcut

They took the easy way out…screwed the ledger board directly to the cut ends of the floor joist.
Sorry for bad pics…I was standing in a few inches of water.



Not impressing me either :slight_smile:
image

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They fit in with the rest of the job… :upside_down_face:

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Oh, Yeah, That’s nice, the lags will pull out of the decomposing joist ends. :roll_eyes: A deck collapse made the news today here in Maine, The ledger pulled away from the house with multiple injuries.

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IMO, you earned your entire inspection fee with that find.

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Because wood is relatively weak perpendicular to its grain, screws don’t hold that well when screwed into the end grain. This firstly because the thread has a harder time cutting into the grain from the end, and also because what it does grab shears out more easily, as the shear is cross-grain.

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Are you sure? From the way that brick looks intact and flat, might you be looking at the wood used just as a spacer? Sort of a homemade version of the “Deck2Wall” plastic spacer? ( https://www.deck2wallspacer.com/ ). Do you have the ability to go back and take yet more detailed photos?

Was there an old deck that rotted out, accounting for the floor joists? What direction are the floor joists going in in the house?

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I agree, just looks like a spacer to keep ledger away from the brick.
why in the world would anyone have floor joists sticking out of their brick? this is not how a house is constructed. as there is a rim joist that would be in the way of the joists sticking out like that.

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Looks like there was an existing deck that used extended joists that may have been removed to make room for the “new” deck. Still all in all a crap job.

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I think you are spot on.

You’re good! Actually it was a balcony. House built in the early-mid 70s and original six foot balcony was removed.

Refer back to @bhull1 's post above. :wink:

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I think shear describes forces perpendicular to the lag length that cause it to snap off. Screwing into the end of a board is not considered structurally sound anymore as the screw or lag lacks pullout resistance in the end grain.

Looks like a proper ledger should be installed here against the sheathing ( not brick veneer) and bolted into the rim joist and also with structural connections tying it back into the floor framing and with ledger flashing.

One should have to have a license to install a deck. Almost all i see are crap. Some so scary i won’t walk them. I don’t know how they stand as long as they do. Must be inertia.

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Here in GA, the house flippers have worked an end around. When they apply for a permit, they just put a simple set of stairs on the back of the home. Once the CO is issued, the come back and install the “crappy deck”. Why do they go thru this trouble? They have no idea how to design or build one properly.

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