10 Tips for Installing Your Own Deck... The Home Inspector’s Way

Deck building mistakes cost this homeowner $12,305 on a $3,214 deck, and every one of them was built in on day one. I'm Hank. 28 years renovating and inspecting homes, more than 10,000 of them, and these are the ten deck code checkpoints I look for when I go under a deck with a flashlight. Decks fail in two places: the connections and wherever water sits. A nailed ledger board is behind nine out of ten deck collapse investigations. Footings above the frost line heave and sink your corner. An unflashed ledger rots the rim joist behind your siding, and I've pushed a screwdriver straight through one. Missing joist hangers, plain steel fasteners in treated lumber, surface screwed railing posts and uneven stair risers do the rest. Covered here: deck permit requirements, footing depth and frost line, ledger board attachment and R507, ledger flashing, post bases and beam connections, joist hangers and hanger nails, hot dip galvanized hardware, joist tape and board gapping, deck railing code and the 200 pound load, and stair riser and handrail rules. Total hardware difference between the deck that fails and the deck that outlives your mortgage: $288.74. Brick veneer wall, second story deck, hot tub, or spans past the tables? Get a licensed pro. General guidance only, your local code office has the final word. Worst deck you've ever stood on? Tell me below. THE HOME AUDIT. Hank has inspected homes since 1998 and takes no sponsors, no ads and no free product. Just what the flashlight finds. #DeckBuilding #homerenovation #HomeImprovement