Is there a building standard that requires ledger boards for balconies to be fastened to the structure using lag bolts, carriage bolts or approved fasteners?
This particular balcony was on a brand new townhome.
The ledger board was missing lag bolts, carriage bolts or other fasteners, although the cantilevered beam and support posts may have provided some type of structural strength for keeping the balcony secured to the building.
It also looks like the joists are not completely resting in their hangers.
requiring threaded fasteners (rather than the old method of nails) is usually about preventing the deck from pulling away from the house and that one can’t really do that since it’s held on one side by the building and the other side by the beam that seems to extend back into the building (can’t really call it cantilevered since it’s got a post under it).
I can only presume that the ledger must be resting on something that is structurally connected to the building. Other than that, it can’t really go anywhere I suppose.
I agree with @ryoung7 , the intermediate support post connections look weak from these pictures.
Another possible concern is, I’m not seeing joist hangars where the joists are attached to the beam, it could be that they’re just out of sight from the angle of the shot.
That is a two story deck with a roof, it will not have a prescription in the deck section of the IRC. Therefore, the is deck engineered or designed and should be approved by the AHJ. I say this because we need to be careful using the IRC deck requirements as a guide.
However, I agree with your concerns about ledger attachment and maybe a few other details mentioned here because they are generally considered good practice.
What are you guys smoking with the ledger. THERE IS NO LEDGER AND IT DOESNT NEED A LEDGER. The balconey/deck joists are directly attached to the band/rim joist of the main house, which sits on the exterior bearing wall below.
The hangers are directly nailed to the band joist which is equivalent to being nailed to a deck with a ledger. Same hangers, same nails, same load rating. The band joist is supposed to be toe nailed into the double top plate of the exterior wall below. The sole plate of the exterior wall above is supposed to be nailed into the band joist.
It’s not going to pull loose magically. If it did, your ledgered deck would fail in the exact same way, because the house band to the wall connections are the exact same.
I’m with Larry. The siding below looks like EIFS, and is roughly flush to the surface of that “rim joist”. If that’s a rim joist how is that lower wall built? The rim joist would be sitting on styrofoam.
I’d go with the concealed fasteners, and I don’t see anything wrong with that railing, assuming it is anchored properly on that deck that we don’t see.
how are you so sure it’s EIFS and not stucco? For all we know it might not be either, it could also be panels of some type of composite material with the stucco texture only.
