Decks, especially those that are high off the ground, can be extremely unsafe. They are likely to be homebrew affairs with missing or inadequate guardrails, steps or handrails. Those are the more obvious issues. But often the problems with decks are more subtle -- poor attachment to the home, no ledger board flashing and rot at connectors, poor connections at joists, posts and all structural members. If you put all of this together, you have a deck that is slowly moving toward the eve of destruction. Sometimes, in the news, you read of decks collapsing and sometimes people are hurt or killed in the collapse. As a home inspector I have cited a number of problems with decks but I have only ever seen one that had catastrophically collapsed (I saw it some time after the fact and as far as I know nobody was hurt). However, I know three realtors who have been injured on decks at houses that were for sale. In one case a man fell off a deck and received a serious neck injury. In the other two situations the realtors, one a man and the other a woman, stepped on rotten wood deck boards and ended up straddling a joist below. It did not feel good from what they tell me -- the guy really whined about it while walking funny. The deck photos below show what a deck might look like from below. And you can be hurt even on a low deck if one leg suddenly drops way down below the other leg. It is apparent that, at this deck, along with marginal construction practices, plain old neglect and "rot" were the culprits that led to the ultimate demise of the wood. In case you are wondering, all that green is not good and it is fungal related. When a deck is allowed to deteriorate like that, you end up with this. And this. Any of us who routinely walk on decks need to be very careful about it. Take a look underneath if you can and, for sure, check out any high decks before you go out there. Even a deck that might have, 15 years ago, been built to code by a contractor might be unsafe today. It depends on maintenance and plain old rot. Over time wood, especially the popular 5/4 cedar decking, will fail and rot and you can step right through it. Thanks for stopping by, Steven L. Smith
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