Looking at this picture it is obvious that this deck has some structural problems. First of all it should never have been built with 4x4 supports spanning such large spans. You can also see that there is earth to wood contact. The support beams are bent and warped and I can go on for a while, but then again I degrees from the point of this post.
Now take a look at this picture. As you can see there is some decay on this joist. As a matter of fact, this joist has already been sistered once before. A method used a lot here in the Poconos because it is easier and cheaper than jacking the structure to replace the joist.
What I wasn't expecting to find was this. This is an active carpenter ant colony busy at work. This is only one picture of an extensive amount of damage caused by these insects. In this particular case the infestation was found to have spread throughout a large area and more of the structure had to be replaced.
What's sad is that the owner of this home had the house exterminated last year for carpenter ants. Unfortunately the exterminator fumigated the inside of the house but didn't exterminate the deck area.
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