You don't want your deck to fall down, especially when you're standing on it, do you?
There’s been a fair amount of news about decks pulling away from houses when people are on the deck, which--if you think about it--is pretty darned scary, especially when it’s a second-story deck!
The biggest issue we see in the field is with decks that are improperly fastened to brick veneer houses. You *can* design decks to attach to a brick veneer home when you’re building the home; if attached correctly, there are bolts from the deck through to the floor structure inside the home. But when you add a deck after the home’s been built, you want to make sure it’s self-supporting and free-standing. Brick veneer isn’t sturdy enough to be load bearing and is never a safe structural support. When you get folks on the deck, the load on the deck can pull the brick away and the deck can come crashing down.
We follow the best practice of building our decks in a self-supporting, free-standing fashion. The entire deck structure is supported by posts set into concrete footings in the ground. The deck does get tied to the house, but in a way that doesn’t use the side of the house as a structural support element. It keeps everyone safe when they’re on the deck, and it avoids disasters. Want to build a deck? Talk to the experts. Give us a call at 502-583-7252 or shoot us an email.
This is a great video about why decks collapse:
Decks need to be maintained once they’re built. Here’s a good link to a one-page homeowner deck-safety checklist.