When The Ants Come Marching

In my post yesterday I had a picture of an unsafe deck railing. The railings were the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as deficiencies with this particular deck. A much more common issue I find is with the ledger board attachment and flashing.

The ledger board is where the deck attaches to the home. It is one of the critical anchoring points of the deck structure. The ledger board and home should be protected with two pieces of flashing as shown. The board should be anchored to the home with lag or through bolts, not nails!

A very important choice which must be made with regard to the flashing is what type. Aluminum can no longer be used with pressure treated wood due to the newer preservative formulations. These new formulations contain a high amount of copper which reacts with the aluminum, degrading it fairly quickly. Copper is the best choice for ledger flashings.

The ledger on the home I was inspecting had never been flashed. It also appeared it was not pressure treated wood. One section was clearly decaying. The homeowner, either himself or a hired contractor, had attempted to fix the degrading ledger by attaching a new board under the old one. Notice the absence of bolts in any of the boards. I was quite surprised the snows in January hadn't taken this deck down.

As I mentioned the flashing also protects the home from water infiltration. Every time it rains water will seep between the ledger and the home. Without flashing a wood on wood seam is going to decay.

And who loves wet decaying wood?

Carpenter ants.

The ceiling on the opposite side of the deck ledger was finished with wooden panels. The panels could be shifted, but not easily moved because radiant heaters were installed on top of them. The panels that were near the ledger were seeping frass. Frass is basically saw dust created by carpenter ants mining tunnels in the wood. When a panel was slightly raised, the frass came raining out of the opening.

The frass indicated ants were present, which indicates moisture and decay to the unobservable wood structure of the home.

This area was carpenter ant heaven. As I said there were radiant heaters in the ceiling, moist wood and insulation. Everything an ant desires, food, water and a comfy home.

And so the ants came marching.

James Quarello
Connecticut Home Inspector
2010 - 2011 SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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