I was just busting your chops Bob, before JP or someone else did. 
The metal pad attachment is a standoff post base. Unless you’re referring to something else.
Name doesn’t fit.Need a good nick name.
Post attachment plate…
Hillbilly term for “footings”.
I dug “footers” for a home builder in the summers during high school.
If I would have called them “footings”, I would have been called a Yankee, and they would have took turns spitting tobacco juice on me…:|.)
Footers are at the bottom of the page, opposite the header!!
The horizontal spaces, top and bottom in the railing, look like more than 4" also. I doubt this deck was permitted.
I don’t understand. Are you saying this is a single rim joist, same dimension as the joists, covered over with fascia? Or a single rim joist of greater width than the joists, because it looks like it hangs down below the joists. Also can’t see bolt heads at the posts. Were they just painted to match and so not visible in these photos?
As for lateral strength (concerning the need for diagonal braces) I go up to the top, grab the rail and rock hard back and forth, trying to get the deck to move. If you don’t know whether it was engineered, it’s not a good idea to comment on engineering, but you can say that it moved pretty easily, or it hardly moved at all. Not the same as when you get 25 people up there dancing to a beat though.
Flashing at the ledger only matters if the siding was cut out to allow attachment of the ledger directly to the home rim joist.
I guess if I didn’t see posts notched to provide direct bearing for the rim joist, only a single rim joist, no diagonals, and the handrail assemblies look over-spanned too, I’d probably recommend the buyer ask the seller for proof that the deck was engineered and recommend evaluation by an SE if the seller couldn’t produce that proof.
My concern would be the upper ledger board attached to the cantilevered wall. The rim joist there is just end-nailed into the house floor joists. Not good support.
Thank you Kenton,
Yes it is a single rim joist greater width than the rest. There is no beam and the rim joist is lagged to the 6x6 posts. I don’t think the bolts were painted over they just don’t show up well on the pic.
I also did the shake and it actually felt sturdy but I didn’t like the looks of things.
The house had wood siding. The ledger board was lagged directly up against the siding (siding wasn’t cut out).
Thank you for your advice!
Good point Bill, I didn’t think about that until someone mentioned it.
Thank you
In regards to extending the cantilevered joists by attaching the deck; I’d agree that this could cause some excessive loading on the exterior wall of the house and just how they made that connection would be important as well.
In regards to the rim joist and its fasteners; if the fasteners were selected properly the shear shouldn’t be a concern and the TimberStrand can certainly bear loads as long as it was sized properly. My concerns would be more along the lines of moisture resistance. I’m not sure you can pour enough sealer on a timber strand to keep it from coming apart overtime, I just don’t think that they were designed to be subjected to the elements.
Interesting factoid about me - my Dad was the P.M. for the designed of the manufacturing equipment and he managed the construction of most of Weyerhaeuser’s Truss Joist Plants, LVL plants, and OSB plants… it is pretty amazing how some of their mills operate, if you haven’t been in a Saw Mill, or OSB plant…or anything alike and you get the opportunity you should go!
As for the retaining wall - for the most part they are adding compression loads to the concrete and concrete works well in compression. Beings that it is a retaining wall it is probably fairly well loaded with bar, so my question would be in regards to the footing’s ability to transfer the loads to the ground.
At the end of the day I’d refer them to a Engineer for an analysis before closing.