Safe Decks Make for Safe Barbeques

With summer coming, you want to make sure your deck is safe before you use it for any kind of gathering (or even just daily use). Decks, unlike house structures, can easily fail catastrophically. Every summer you will see news articles how people get hurt and killed when a deck falls down during a party or because someone falls through a railing.

As a matter of policy, whenever we examine a residential structure for anything, if the house has a deck, we examine it. We have even had a couple of real estate agents try to make us take that part off the report because “we didn’t hire you to look at the deck.” We politely but firmly say no, it doesn’t work that way.

You need to be aware of certain indicators that a deck is bad, and in need of repair or replacement. Here’s a few to be concerned with:

1.      Look at the posts holding it up. If they are wood, is there rot around the base? If the posts are steel, is there rust at the base?

2.      Is the deck too old? They generally have a service life of about 20 to 25 years. If the wood is discolored, that’s an indication that the deck is getting past its life. Treated lumber turns a sickly gray color when it is aging, and it loses a lot of strength. Decks that are getting past their service life will start to feel shaky. That’s an indication the deck needs to be replaced. 

A good rule of thumb is that if you are buying a house with a deck, and the seller can’t tell you the specific year the deck was installed, the deck is probably too old.

3.      Do your railings feel solid? They should not feel wobbly. You don’t want to have someone fall through the railings when they lean on them or sit on them (sitting on deck railings is unsafe anyway, but people do that).

4.      Look at the connections for the deck. Are the members pulling away from on another?

5.      Is the deck properly attached to the house? It should be bolted through to the house, and the rim board should not be on the outside of the brick veneer. It has to be attached directly to the wood structure.

6.      Was the deck a DIY project, or was it built without a permit? A lot of really bad decks we have seen were Do It Yourself projects built without a permit, so there were no inspections and not built by someone who knew what they were doing. That’s a real red flag. Decks, like homes, require building permits.

These are just some of the issues at hand. If you have any doubts, it may be worth it to have an engineer examine your deck and determine if there are any problems. If you repair or replace your deck, use a licensed contractor and follow all the permitting requirements. A proper inspection should be done on all work done to a deck. It’s not worth becoming another news item about a failing deck just to save a couple hundred dollars.