Is Your Deck Safe?

Part of our job as affordable licensed building contractors in the Bronx and other Burroughs is making sure your home is safe. And one area that you might assume is safe and sound is your deck—but how can you be sure?

According to This Old House, decks are a common do-it-yourself construction project. If you want to tackle the project yourself that’s great, but read A Real Advantage Construction’s tips for making sure your deck doesn’t have dangerous structural defects.

Decks commonly collapse when they have been merely nailed on. Decks should be attached with bolts, rather than nails. While nails can stand up to the downward force of a crowd gathering on a deck, they can’t stand up to the outward force, which acts as a lever (forcing the deck away from the house). As a result, nails tend to loosen as wood swells and shrinks with moisture—making them offer less resistance to the prying forces.

A screwed-in connector, on the other hand, gains increased frictional strength courtesy of the wedging action of wood fivers along the shaft’s length. A lag bolt (think: a giant screw) has nearly nine times the pullout resistance of a nail (per inch of penetration). A true bolt, which is inserted into a drilled hole and fitted with a nut, boasts even more strength due to its metal-to-metal connection. With that said, these connectors may loosen over time, so look for signs like a widening gap against the house.

One tip to keep the connection between the house and deck dry is to add flashing to drain away, which will protect both entities. Of course, a freestanding deck eliminates this problem.