The potential problems lurking in a poorly maintained or uninspected deck could spell catastrophe for homeowners, families or guests.
The North American Deck and Railing Association, or NADRA, declared May as Deck Safety Month to nationally raise awareness that deck owners should check their decks for signs of trouble.
Hoping to prevent the injuries and fatalities that can come with a failing deck, NADRA cautions that decks have life expectancies similar to roofs and windows. The association said half of the 50 million decks in the U.S. are past their useful lives, and need repair or replacement.
Harry O’Neill takes part in doing real estate flips of multiple houses every month as vice president of Empire Building Products, Bern Township.
“You start by doing visual inspections,” O’Neill said. “If you see something, you bring in a contractor. If you see the structural parts decaying, you’re going to tear it down and start over.”
NADRA agrees that an American Society of Home Inspectors, or ASHI, certified home inspector or knowledgeable deck builder is best suited to evaluate and inspect residential decks for the deterioration caused by water, climate and corrosion of fasteners. Deck builders who are members of NADRA are required by ethics codes to comply with state and insurance requirements.
15 to 25 years
Matt Breyer, president of Breyer Construction & Landscape LLC, 314 Arlington St., a NADRA member, confirms that while decks built entirely from pressure-treated lumber have lifespans of 15 to 25 years, depending on maintenance, that composite or alternative materials may last up to 50 years.
“But most of them are built with some kind of wood frame, so there’s a limit on that structure,” he said. “It’s a structure that needs to be inspected on a yearly basis.”
Breyer also recommends decks are cleaned annually, giving enough time for a property owner to do their own check for loose stairs or railings.
He said: “The first concern is the railing, because that’s what people lean against. That’s a crisis point. Stairs have a ton of abuse. You have all the weight and pressure coming down.”
If stairs are set into dirt, settling can also cause them to pull away from the deck frame, causing another point of failure, Breyer said.
Shaugnon Lavariere, a building and remodeling manager for Bachman Roofing, Building and Remodeling Inc., Wernersville, with 26 years experience in the construction industry, cautions that another area of concern is the fastening of the ledger connecting the deck to the house and whether it is properly flashed to keep it dry.
“That’s where you’ve got two framing systems interacting,” Breyer said. “You could have bolts going into nothing. If a ledger is weakened, you don’t notice anything until it collapses.”
Catastrophic collapse
Breyer said that anything from a heavy snow or a large summer gathering could cause a catastrophic collapse.
Using a certified contractor should mean a builder will follow local building codes mandating correct fastening and flashing of the ledger board, ensuring the proper deck footing sizes and depths as well as the correct anchoring of support columns to footings and beams, explained Tom Rinaldo, construction manager at D&B Elite Construction Group, Spring Township, with 35 years in the industry.
Lavariere also suggests residents should ask for the deck’s building permit from its previous owner.
One of Empire’s biggest concerns when undergoing a house flip is if a weekend warrior built a deck, O’Neill said.
“Those are the ones you say: Remove it and start over,” he said.
Deck fasteners add an even further item to check for deck safety, according to Troy Good, co-owner of Good Contracting LLC, Pike Township.
Good explains when arsenic was removed from pressure-treated lumber in the early 2000s, the additive used instead made the wood extremely corrosive.
“You can’t put the new pressure-treated lumber against aluminum siding,” he said. “You have to use the right deck screws. If you don’t, it will eat right through them.”
Cause of failures
Older decks may have been assembled using nails instead of screws. Ledger boards attaching a deck to a home with nails is another cause of deck failures, NADRA noted.
“In the old days, you nailed it together,” Good said.
National catastrophes involving deck failures are regularly reported, and Breyer hopes they will trigger more stringent legislation for deck safety across the country.
Good suggests homeowners with questions or concerns about the condition of their decks could take photos and send them to a contractor for a professional opinion.
Breyer and other contractors will be offering free deck inspections during May as part of Deck Safety Month, fitting as many no-cost inspections in as possible during the height of the building season, Breyer noted.
Saving money by building a deck without the proper expertise is not worth the risk of the serious injuries caused by unsafe decks, he said.
“There are code requirements that are important, but it’s more important that the structure is safe,” Breyer said. “The biggest takeaway is that if you’re not actually sure, get someone to inspect it.”
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