As we’ve just completed the replacement of a fallen deck more reports of decks collapsing over this past holiday weekend bring attention to the danger of improper building practices. Read more here.
Luckily the Henrico deck we replaced was only inches from the ground and no one was injured but most fail during parties when loaded with people. Why does this happen?
The main failure point has been the connection to the house. Most decks are attached by bolting the ledger board to the band or rim joist of the house. Failures commonly occur from either not using the proper attachments or not flashing the decks ledger properly allowing the framing to rot.
To avoid this problem altogether I prefer to build free standing decks whenever possible. Though it’s not always possible and does require another set of holes for support posts and beams, with no attachment to the house there’s no failure point to worry about.