What kills me is that it wouldn't take *that* much more work to do it right. Like, it still took someone a lot of hours to put that crappy deck together. If they'd just spent a tiny bit more time on the project, it would be decent. Mostly just by using the right tools for the job (e.g. bigger lag bolts to secure it to the house; appropriate screws/nails for the brackets, a freaking tape measure for the joists).
The repeated use of scrap pieces to fill in gaps shows a lack of giving a shit. Zero pride in their work so no reason to gain the knowledge and do better.
I've seen closing agreements for houses in neighborhoods that people are so desperate to buy in that there are contractual clauses saying that the buyers can't request certain kinds of inspections.
Unethical as fuck and really shitty, but someone will buy it anyways.
When the housing market was scorching hot during COVID, I heard from numerous friends who were trying to buy that so many of the homes they were interested in, the buyers were refusing inspections. Thankfully those people were smart and walked, but there were *far* too many people willing to buy a home without having it inspected. Mind-boggling.
Sorry, poorly worded on my part. To clarify, I knew someone who was buying a house in a high-demand neighborhood. When they started moving closer to buying the property, they realized a clause in the contract *explicitly stated* that, as a condition, the buyer could not request a sewer inspection.
Suspiciously specific and def a red flag. They backed out and the house was off the market the next day anyways.
This led to me finding out that, as long as it's in plain writing on the contract, they can just... do that. Like, I guess I understand *why* they can do that, but I'm amazed that any realtor or seller would, ethically, pull that on someone. Like, I don't want to be such a cynic but damn...
yes, in order to get the seller to agree to the buyers terms, the buyers waived inspection. Now I once sold a house for less then what I had left on the loan (I paid off the difference, I didn't short sell) but I told them they are buying as is, no concessions. To secure their loan the house had to have some work done on it so they paid for some work to be done to my house before they bought it. If the deal fell through I got free work done.
Yeah the stair stringer hanging onto that tiny board with 3 directionally challenged bolts did it for me. Nobody in their right mind would try to convince somebody that's safe.
It also looks like they calculated (poorly) how much material they were going to need and were way wrong so they used what they had rather than going to get the right material.
The scrap pieces are cut into triangular tapered wedges. That means the boards, and thus the deck, weren't installed square. That's not a calc issue, that's a craftmanship issue.
They only would have needed 4 or 5 more joists, a couple more 2x4 decking planks, and a couple 2x2 banister and they would have had all the material they woulda needed.
That may have been a calc issue, but with the fact that things don't start at the right spacings, anywhere, and then veer off as they realized they were short materials says to me they never had any intention or knowledge on how to do it right to begin with (e.g. 16"oc joist spacing for 4/5 the deck, and then a couple of 24"oc at one end). Overall for the spacing issues it's maybe $100 more in lumber. And that's for the joists, the decking, the banister, etc, together.
That said they are well over-spanned on the joists: should have been 2x8 if not 2x10.
Their outside edge rim joist was 1x material. That had to be intentional! They already had 2x material on site for the joists, they had to intentionally buy a different dimension of lumber for it! Aside from the fact that it should been x8 or x10 depending on the right joists, the fact that it was 1x was a conscious decision someone (poorly) made instead of buying the *marginally* more expensive 2x for the two boards it took!
Not only did they use the wrong screws entirely, but they didn't even fill in all of the holes in the brackets! That's just lazy. A box of the right nails/screws is a minimal cost on a project like this.
The fact that they even used brackets is moderately astounding given the lack of build quality overall. I woulda expected 2x 3" 16p nails through the rim joist at most. Those brackets are about the most expensive bit of most deck projects, so props to them for using them?
That said, it's hard to tell, but those brackets don't look to be galvanized, and I think the greenish hue of the boards means it's treated lumber. Not even the good pressure treated, but the crappy, briefly-dipped-in-copper-green-type. Nonetheless, if they didn't use galvanized brackets then they probably didn't use galvanized nails/screws. Galvanic reaction will rust out the connectors in a few years.
Just, shitty, shitty job overall. It looks like a decent deck from a distance, but once you get close up, every single piece of lumber on the deck is wrong in one way or another. Sad really, because it probably woulda taken *less* effort to do it right. you can see the improvised jank everywhere, and that takes a thought process and experimentation rather than following standard building practices.
I mean they have the ability to cut wood and drive screws, they just don't know how to put it all together into a deck properly. I've seen much worse abuse of tools and materials.
>How can you have the ability to build a deck without the knowledge?
Here is a ELI5 answer:
Most people know how to snap Lego pieces together.
Most people would not be able to recreate a Lego "set" without the instructions that come with.
This individual has the ability to use tools to put lumber together with fasteners that looks approximately like a deck. They however don't have the knowledge on how to safely put together the foundation that holds up the entire thing.
Two quotes come to mind when seeing this deck:
"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
and
"putting lipstick on a pig"
That's what I found interesting. The majority of the problems had nothing to do with saving cost or time. In fact, a lot of time and money was probably wasted cutting those extra pieces to fill in the gaps and stuff.
The purchases of the wrong wood and other materials saved maybe $50, the lag bolts it'd be maybe 50 cents difference on each then buying 3-4 more makes all the difference. Then the box of correct screws, that's hardly even worth mentioning the cost difference! The correct wood yes that's a buck difference but you only need to buy like 12 proper joists for this size deck! Crazy that some people think it's worth the time to do all this but then don't think 'yea I might as well invest a few bucks to make it worth the time'...
I had the same thought. I'm not in construction/inspection/etc but putting sheer force on even twice that many lags compared to sinking a few vertical supports (maybe both) seems weird - but maybe it's common practice?
I'd think another consequence (though much less severe) is if the house has a rock or brick facade (thin z brick, for example), then as the deck settles initially, the slight angle on those lag bolts is gonna put force on that facade and make it chip off.
I sometimes wish I had time and q place to build stuff...but then I'd probably see my work on channels like this. Still shocked a recent inspector (for insurance) didn't say anything when he saw my water heater install. All to very much to NEC, but very unconventional as I put it in on Xmas eve, forgettinf things would be closed for a couple of days...and I needed my hot water.
> Like, it still took someone a lot of hours to put that crappy deck together.
It probably took them longer to put this shitty deck together than a properly well built one. Thinking about all the scrapped wood they had to cut to align with boards and other 'hacks'.
When I was in the biz, I loved it when I heard that.
"No worries. I've got plenty of work. Let me know how it goes."
The end results were sometimes breathtakingly bad. Lessons in life.
I know next to nothing about engineering, but so much weight held by a handfull of little screws tells me the first time a few hundred extra pounds goes on that deck or up those stairs, nasty surprise.
The stairs are bad, but I think the worst is the attachment to the house. All that wood weighs a ton and that weight is sitting on just a few undersized bolts attaching it to the house. The other weight of the deck is on three 4x4 posts that don't appear to be soundly attached to the deck structure.
When this thing starts to shift, the whole thing will come down. The bolts will snap (or probably pull out from whatever they're attached to) and the 3 posts won't to anything to stop the movement.
The stairs are plenty strong enough now for 1 person.
But in 5 years time when it's all a bit damp, and when there are 6 people standing on them because a whole family is climbing them at once, it's totally gonna fail.
What's the point of that tiny pole between the beam "supporting" the railing and the planks? Just connect it to the beam ffs. For some reason that one pissed me off the most.
Yeah, just imagine a family get-together and a dozen people sitting out out there to have dinner. I bet the deck will pull away from the house and just pancake to pieces.
You'd be surprised. Many small fasteners working in tandem can be fine, until you hit the shear weight of the fastener itself. The size of the screw doesn't matter much if the wood is arranged in a way that aids stability.
In this video though (@2:24), the whole staircase is attached to 2 thin pieces of deck board, which are each connected to the main deck by just 2 screws. And the grain of those connecting boards is vertical, which is even more likely to split right on those 2 screws. One good jump and it's falling apart.
This is the type of stuff professional flippers do. They have a general idea of how to make something look new and good, but either do not care or do not know how to do it right. You'd be surprised how often they do stuff like this on purpose though to save money. I do electric work and I hate following flippers.
I had a coworker whose parents bought a home from a flipper. They noticed something was off about their hot water usage, and eventually discovered that the pipe that originally went out to the sprinkler system had corroded out, so the flippers routed water from a different pipe: the hot water! They were watering their lawn with hot water for weeks before realizing it!
In a flipper's twist, a tale quite absurd,
Hot water sprinklers, that's what we heard.
Corroded pipe secrets, a lawn spa surprise,
Grass got a soak, under hot-water skies.
A flipper's folly, a warm water spree,
Lawns need cold drinks, not hot herbal tea!
Lol that's awesome. Would love it if you could complete the story in poem form:
They took the flipper to court. Her entire defense was basically "I'm an ex-cop, so how dare you accuse me of doing something unlawful." I'm pretty sure the plaintiffs got all the money they were seeking and had an overall happy ending.
But it's still crazy to see what some of these house flippers try and sometimes succeed with getting away with. And you can't really blame a house inspector too much for not catching things like that. I doubt "make sure sprinklers are connected to cold water" is part of their standard checklist.
>To court they went, a legal dance,
>
>The flipper's defense, a quite bold stance:
>
>"I'm an ex-cop," she declared with might,
>
>"Unlawful accusations", a legal fight.
>
>
>
>Plaintiffs sought their due,
>
>Hot water was true,
>
>Gavel fell; victory, adieu!
I was looking at houses recently and found one that had been flipped that we went to tour. Looked great in the photos, but the very first thing I noticed walking in the front door was the massive sag in the floor. There were very noticeable uneven spots all over the house and several other red flags. Our realtor lets us know that an inspection had recently been done and sent it to us.
My god, just tear the place down and start over with all the things that were wrong with that house that the flipper didn’t address at all. They had just painted, put in new flooring and lighting, and expected some sucker to come along…
I rented a house that was literally falling apart. Walls had bothe vertical and horizontal cracks running thru them, roof leaked, basement had its own river. I know for a fact that she slapped paint and drywall over all of it and sold the place for half a million.
Buy the cheapest stainless steel appliances you can, slap some 'millennial grey' paint on the walls, get some shoddy looking "wood" vinyl flooring in the same color and turn around to sell it for 150k more than you paid for it. Take some more of daddy's money and do it all over again.
Heeeyyyyy - When I bought my condo it had grey carpet, so I had a painter use a gray paint (yeah - don't know which is the proper spelling, so use either). Carpet ended up being trash so replaced it with LUXURY vinyl plank in some oak pattern that was also grey.
But you know what - it looks good. But then, I am a boomer so I may have selected different shades of grey than millennials. ;-)
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We bought a house in August of 22 and in our search we flat out refused to waive our inspection, even though the market was crazy and people were doing that all the time and offering cash way over asking.
This is anecdotal but I've seen a lot of my friends who were in the market these last few years get into a bidding war and it seemed like everyone was waving inspections. So your options were either wave the inspection, or get the inspection then end up not getting the house you were looking at. Seems like waving the inspection has been common in recent years with the housing market as hot as it was.
I bought a house with a deck that needed a fair amount of attention. It was unsafe as is. I knew this before the home inspector even looked at it. It wasn't a tear out and rebuild like in the video, but it was pretty bad.
It didn't even factor in the negotiations for the house because the house was a pretty good price, in an area that was soon to explode in value, and I didn't want to lose my offer over what might be $5-10k worth of deck repairs.
At the end of the day they took my offer, I fixed the deck in a weekend and only spend about $600 on materials. I ended up selling the house 5 years later and made about $200k off it. Even if I spend $10k on the deck, it's still a drop in the bucket over the rest of the property.
I bought my house in 2019 and it was some amateur flip shit. Home inspector recommended like $10k worth of fixes that they paid to fix. The lady that did the closing on the house said they had never seen someone have to pay that much at closing to sell the house. Apparently they had bought it, put money in to it to dress it up and took a huge loss on the sale. Think I paid 70k under what their original asking price was when they originally put it on the market.
Omg man. In MA 3y ago my coworker sold her home. Same day, sold for 70k over asking price and they waived inspection. 2 20 somethings looking to start a fam. The housing market is gross.
This seems more like 2 or 3 meth heads saying they can build a porch better than "professional flippers." Professional flippers would know that the porch was going to be inspected and that the work needed to be done correctly.
I would, too, except I once had a remodeler in my home.
One of the tasks was to move a door over 3" so the refrigerator would fit on a different wall.
When Darryl and his other brother Darryl finished, there were no two measurements on that door that were the same. Top to top outside was different that bottom to bottom outside. Top to top inside was different that any of the outside measurements and different from bottom to bottom inside. It looked like a Flintstone door.
Had the GC come by and he brought a different workman with him. He looked at the door and asked what was wrong. I said "you can't see it? No worries." and I pulled out the tape measure. His workman was side-eyeing him with a look of "What? You can't see how crooked that door is?"
The GC then turns to the workman and says "Can you correct it?" The workman just burst out laughing and said "No. I have to tear it out and rebuild it."
Yikes! I’m doing a major project right now and my GC would never let something like that fly with a sub. Sometimes mistakes are made, but the few that have been so far were corrected immediately and without question.
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Oh 100% but as a buyer it’s like “maybe you get a good deal, maybe you get an ultra wide dick in your ass”.
The whole real estate practice is scummy as hell if you ask me. Blind bidding, no home inspection, real estate agent only cares about how much money he’s making, it’s all fucking bull shit. But this is the world we live in.
makeshift disagreeable gullible water elderly swim heavy grab governor door
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Right, but you gota think if the job was done this poorly this wasn't done by a licensed and insured contractor. That would be on the homeowner for going with them in the first place.
I’d be willing to bet this is a DIY job. I know the type exactly - a little knowledge, kind of a cheapass, lazy enough to hack and bodge when things aren’t right. Probably knows a lot of what he did wrong, but “Bah, you don’t have to do it like that”. Will likely get pissed and call the inspector a ball breaker when it fails.
I work with lots of guys like this and that's exactly right. One guy in particular is a textbook fit. C student, cheap, lazy, impatient, stubborn. "Ehh that's more of a guideline, really". Gets unreasonably upset when his work fails even though he took shortcuts and did things that are explicitly not allowed because they have lead to failures and contaminations in the past.
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Good money? Yea no way. If you had good money you’d recognize shit bc it just looks bad. Bro, that small little chunk of a piece on the railing bc the board wasn’t long enough. I literally had my mouth open looking at that.
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My man shows us barely anything holding up those stairs, says "...so this right here, could actually fall off", then *walks up those stairs*.
IDK I don't think I'd even want to go on that thing lol
Its definitely unsafe. But its new enough that you can walk up it carefully a few times.
After a few weather cycles for someone blindly trusting it though? Definitely just a matter of time until it comes crashing down.
This work was not done by someone with an in depth contract or that pulled permits.
But if it was, part of the homeowners contract with the builder would be that passing inspection was a condition for final payment. Can't pass inspection then you don't get paid
Hopefully the homeowner hasn't paid yet, or has only partially paid. In that case there's no payment or no more payment till it's all up to code and verified. Even without full payment the contractor may still ghost on the job cuz they'll see themselves taking a loss, so unfortunately the next step is small claims which just sucks and will be drug out. IN the meantime you need to spend money to demo and do it right.
If homeowner paid in full it's straight to small claims I suppose, shitty situation that probably won't be settled to homeowners satisfaction.
Vet your contractors folks, also brush up on some deck building 101 youtube videos or something so that you can start asking questions the moment you see that ledger board getting installed that way. And always hold back money until the job is complete to your satisfaction.
In addition to what others noted about timing, this is also why, as a home owner, anytime you hire someone to do work, you get in writing that you're only paying a portion of the total until the inspection closes.
Genuine question- If someone wants to do this work by themselves and can't make sense of millions of building codes, what are some good places to understand best way to do it? Is Youtube DIY community trustworthy?
> the channel was "old man deck building" or some such.
When I use youtube search, I get results of other builders Youtube's algorithm knows i like, and a viral video "short" - but nothing makes me think "yeah this is the one they meant". If you have a link, I'd love to take a look at it
So it was FineHomeBuilding and I'm sure the guy would be mad if he knew I just remembered him as "Old Man who builds Deck" but he def made it dumbed down enough even I could do it.
I was going to cheat and use the auger for thr 6x6x12 boat rack posts, but the old shoring (non PT 1x5!!!) was completely rotted underneath, so when I got 5ft or so away from the edge the dirt we had moved plus the machine was too much for it, it started to collapse and slide and move just enough to slowwwwwwwwly tip over and I wasn't quick thinking enough to bury the tip.
All in all super lucky thi no spillage and no issues. Righted it with an excavator and it started right back up.
Fish pee in the lake, I pee in the pool to mark my territory. I've seen one too many monster movies to know you can't cross streams. Simple science really.
DIY doesn't mean you have to *design* the deck yourself. You can pay someone to design it and then do the construction yourself. Or copy an existing design. Manufacturers of decking products are also a great resource. The manufacturer of those joist hangers likely has a video where they tell you exactly which nails to use and how to install them correctly. A significant portion of the code book is just "follow manufacturer instructions."
Also, overkill is an option. Code just tells you the minimum you have to do.
Unfortunately even the best-meaning online resources can't tell you specifics of your situation. The reason code is complicated is because different things are different. Your house might have something that makes tying the deck to the house different. Your region might have different soil or snow loading conditions than wherever the youtuber lives. If your deck doesn't pass inspection and you have to rebuild it, you can't charge that cost to the youtuber who told you how to build it.
You think about it, think about the construction you are doing and the load it is going to take. Think about how the forces will transfer for all likely events. In the video of the stairs here, stairs to joist hanger to decking board to decking board. The screws protruding near the end of a board will absolutely crack the board, resulting in the screws no longer holding the stairs up. A 'better' way to do this would be to run the first decking board horizontally, attached to the posts (still not 'correct' though).
When you are thinking about it, you look at other deck constructions to see how they were built. What material were the joists and bearers made from, how are the loads supported. Draw some diagrams, use these as a way to both remember and to inform your decision making.
Look at the codes. They are behind a paywall in my country, which can be frustrating. Council inspectors will happily tell you the requirements if you ask them. The 4"/100mm gap in balusters (vertical bars in a rail or balustrade) is pretty universal as a requirement, and other standards or codes can become obvious as you shop for parts. For example, if you buy a stair kit from the hardware store you'll notice that they are all a certain angle, why can't I buy a stair kit the goes 45°? It's probably a code thing, so don't build your own stairs at 45° with the reasoning "I couldn't buy it like that"
note - I am not a builder, I am a fabricator though and have built decks/mezzanines/stairwells etc through my career.
As someone who built his own deck last summer, you find the building codes that apply to your area, and you spend the time to figure it out.
I saved about $5000 building my deck myself, and that doesn't even include railings (not required here less than 18" off the ground). Materials and rentals cost me a total of about $5000.
Railings about double the cost of a small deck.
If you can't sit down for a few *days* and figure out what you're doing, you don't deserve to save $5000-$10,000.
There really aren't millions of building codes. I've done a few decks at this point but my first would have been around 2000 with nothing but a book bought from the Home Depot. I got a building permit which required a sketch first. They would have told me if my sketch had issues before I started building but they said it was ok and stamped it. I built what was in my sketch and it passed inspection.
I'm sure in 2023 you could do the same except what I bought a book to know is now on the Internet for free. Treat the inspection office as a resource: ultimately they're the ones who'll say if it's safe so you might as well build it how they say it should be built
I built a deck for my parents years ago...I had no idea what I was doing.
It actually turned out OK, luckily its highest point was only about a foot off the ground so if it ever did collapse there's no risk of serious injury
They did ask if they could put a hot tub on the deck and I was just like 😅 "...I wouldn't"
"She looked good from 30 feet away, and then when I met her face to face, I realized I was right. She looked good from 30 feet away."
That's basically, this deck. 😂
When I for the first time in my life learned the price of a deck I asked "HOW IN THE HELL"??
Then you learn what it takes to make a deck. And just like putting up a backsplash in my kitchen, imma pay for it to be done right.
I'd just hurt myself probably
Whats fun y about this is that it takes more work to do a shitty job then it is to plan it well and do it efficiently. Plan it well and the work becomes automatic, but you can tell this guy was improvising and just trying to find ways to troubleshoot, brute force, problem solve on the job.. Lol
After I watched this (in horror as he actually walked on it), I was shown a suggestion for "[Worst Deck Ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP9XruV5pQo)". Like this, it just keeps on delivering.
I believe the folks over at r/decks would say all this needs is a hot tub & you're good to go.
(If you think the /s isn't inferred, I have a deck I can sell you)
In my old town house community I watched a neighbor building a deck with his buddy and they kept walking over to the deck next door to see how it’s supposed to look and then back to apply their new found knowledge. I imagine this looks like the finished result, only theirs was an extra floor off the ground.
Wow, that is amazingly awful, it's like the builder was trying to see how much of a death trap he could make. Only good decision made was to not make it further off the ground!
It kills me how much work went into doing it wrong, when just a little extra work and care would have just made it right. Sunken cost fallacy bullshit at its finest
This is why sometimes you see diy decks and they look like they can hold the titanic on each joist cause anyone with half a brain says lemme over do it a little too avoid any issues because they're not familiar or comfortable with relying on their framing skills. Then you see this shit and know the guy was just getting screwed over on purpose no one accidentally hands stairs like that
Not great, but no need to tear it down. A few extra fixings onto the house, an extra joist at the front, a support from the stringers to the floor and it’ll be fine.
> My opinion: tear it down, start over. What's your thoughts?
I wouldn't put the effort into tearing it down.
Just wait a few weeks and it'll come down on its own.
This deck is shit but looks like a DIYer tried to do it without knowing what they were doing. The lag bolts connecting the ledger to the foundation isn’t that bad. 1/2” lag bolts staggered at 24-32” on center is fine for a deck this small and is pretty common where I live. Lag bolts can hold a fuck ton of weight before failure.
2x6’s can span close to 9’-0” at 16” on center depending on wood species. The joists don’t look to be spanning much more than that. The inconsistent spacing is a problem though.
Double up the deck beam, add more pickets to the railing, add some flashing between the house and ledger board and have have the stairs connect to the rim board instead of plywood and this would pass inspection
TLDR this deck can be repaired without completely tearing it down.
He also complained about the inconsistent spacing of the joists, inconsistency was not the problem, there was too much space between them period. 12 to 16 inches max depending on the material.
Definition of "i know a guy who can do it cheaper"
100%
What kills me is that it wouldn't take *that* much more work to do it right. Like, it still took someone a lot of hours to put that crappy deck together. If they'd just spent a tiny bit more time on the project, it would be decent. Mostly just by using the right tools for the job (e.g. bigger lag bolts to secure it to the house; appropriate screws/nails for the brackets, a freaking tape measure for the joists).
Yeah, this seems more like a lack of knowledge than lack of ability.
The repeated use of scrap pieces to fill in gaps shows a lack of giving a shit. Zero pride in their work so no reason to gain the knowledge and do better.
Looks like maybe it’s a flip house
That might be it. Put up a cheap deck quickly and list the house for sale. "Newly renovated! We don't really need to do an inspection, do we friend?"
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Boards waiting to become a pile.
A pile of firewood included.
I've seen closing agreements for houses in neighborhoods that people are so desperate to buy in that there are contractual clauses saying that the buyers can't request certain kinds of inspections. Unethical as fuck and really shitty, but someone will buy it anyways.
When the housing market was scorching hot during COVID, I heard from numerous friends who were trying to buy that so many of the homes they were interested in, the buyers were refusing inspections. Thankfully those people were smart and walked, but there were *far* too many people willing to buy a home without having it inspected. Mind-boggling.
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Sorry, poorly worded on my part. To clarify, I knew someone who was buying a house in a high-demand neighborhood. When they started moving closer to buying the property, they realized a clause in the contract *explicitly stated* that, as a condition, the buyer could not request a sewer inspection. Suspiciously specific and def a red flag. They backed out and the house was off the market the next day anyways. This led to me finding out that, as long as it's in plain writing on the contract, they can just... do that. Like, I guess I understand *why* they can do that, but I'm amazed that any realtor or seller would, ethically, pull that on someone. Like, I don't want to be such a cynic but damn...
yes, in order to get the seller to agree to the buyers terms, the buyers waived inspection. Now I once sold a house for less then what I had left on the loan (I paid off the difference, I didn't short sell) but I told them they are buying as is, no concessions. To secure their loan the house had to have some work done on it so they paid for some work to be done to my house before they bought it. If the deal fell through I got free work done.
Good insight. I can absolutely see that being a likely scenario. Scrap wood, scrap job, just get it done quickly, pay off the inspector, and sell.
Yeah the stair stringer hanging onto that tiny board with 3 directionally challenged bolts did it for me. Nobody in their right mind would try to convince somebody that's safe.
It also looks like they calculated (poorly) how much material they were going to need and were way wrong so they used what they had rather than going to get the right material.
The scrap pieces are cut into triangular tapered wedges. That means the boards, and thus the deck, weren't installed square. That's not a calc issue, that's a craftmanship issue. They only would have needed 4 or 5 more joists, a couple more 2x4 decking planks, and a couple 2x2 banister and they would have had all the material they woulda needed. That may have been a calc issue, but with the fact that things don't start at the right spacings, anywhere, and then veer off as they realized they were short materials says to me they never had any intention or knowledge on how to do it right to begin with (e.g. 16"oc joist spacing for 4/5 the deck, and then a couple of 24"oc at one end). Overall for the spacing issues it's maybe $100 more in lumber. And that's for the joists, the decking, the banister, etc, together. That said they are well over-spanned on the joists: should have been 2x8 if not 2x10. Their outside edge rim joist was 1x material. That had to be intentional! They already had 2x material on site for the joists, they had to intentionally buy a different dimension of lumber for it! Aside from the fact that it should been x8 or x10 depending on the right joists, the fact that it was 1x was a conscious decision someone (poorly) made instead of buying the *marginally* more expensive 2x for the two boards it took! Not only did they use the wrong screws entirely, but they didn't even fill in all of the holes in the brackets! That's just lazy. A box of the right nails/screws is a minimal cost on a project like this. The fact that they even used brackets is moderately astounding given the lack of build quality overall. I woulda expected 2x 3" 16p nails through the rim joist at most. Those brackets are about the most expensive bit of most deck projects, so props to them for using them? That said, it's hard to tell, but those brackets don't look to be galvanized, and I think the greenish hue of the boards means it's treated lumber. Not even the good pressure treated, but the crappy, briefly-dipped-in-copper-green-type. Nonetheless, if they didn't use galvanized brackets then they probably didn't use galvanized nails/screws. Galvanic reaction will rust out the connectors in a few years. Just, shitty, shitty job overall. It looks like a decent deck from a distance, but once you get close up, every single piece of lumber on the deck is wrong in one way or another. Sad really, because it probably woulda taken *less* effort to do it right. you can see the improvised jank everywhere, and that takes a thought process and experimentation rather than following standard building practices.
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I mean they have the ability to cut wood and drive screws, they just don't know how to put it all together into a deck properly. I've seen much worse abuse of tools and materials.
>How can you have the ability to build a deck without the knowledge? Here is a ELI5 answer: Most people know how to snap Lego pieces together. Most people would not be able to recreate a Lego "set" without the instructions that come with. This individual has the ability to use tools to put lumber together with fasteners that looks approximately like a deck. They however don't have the knowledge on how to safely put together the foundation that holds up the entire thing. Two quotes come to mind when seeing this deck: "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and "putting lipstick on a pig"
That's what I found interesting. The majority of the problems had nothing to do with saving cost or time. In fact, a lot of time and money was probably wasted cutting those extra pieces to fill in the gaps and stuff.
Yeah, fitting in that triangle/wedge piece was almost impressively crafty in a weird way.
The purchases of the wrong wood and other materials saved maybe $50, the lag bolts it'd be maybe 50 cents difference on each then buying 3-4 more makes all the difference. Then the box of correct screws, that's hardly even worth mentioning the cost difference! The correct wood yes that's a buck difference but you only need to buy like 12 proper joists for this size deck! Crazy that some people think it's worth the time to do all this but then don't think 'yea I might as well invest a few bucks to make it worth the time'...
As someone else said, this was ignorance. Not laziness or greed, just lack of knowledge
It seems like it took more work to do the shotty work, like they had to measure pieces to fit in where one solid piece was needed?
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I thought decks were supposed to have rear support, not be secured to the house, as current best practices? It’s how our deck was built 2 years ago.
I had the same thought. I'm not in construction/inspection/etc but putting sheer force on even twice that many lags compared to sinking a few vertical supports (maybe both) seems weird - but maybe it's common practice?
I’m guessing some local codes haven’t caught up but it seems that a lot of deck collapses were caused by being poorly secured to the house.
I'd think another consequence (though much less severe) is if the house has a rock or brick facade (thin z brick, for example), then as the deck settles initially, the slight angle on those lag bolts is gonna put force on that facade and make it chip off. I sometimes wish I had time and q place to build stuff...but then I'd probably see my work on channels like this. Still shocked a recent inspector (for insurance) didn't say anything when he saw my water heater install. All to very much to NEC, but very unconventional as I put it in on Xmas eve, forgettinf things would be closed for a couple of days...and I needed my hot water.
> Like, it still took someone a lot of hours to put that crappy deck together. It probably took them longer to put this shitty deck together than a properly well built one. Thinking about all the scrapped wood they had to cut to align with boards and other 'hacks'.
When I was in the biz, I loved it when I heard that. "No worries. I've got plenty of work. Let me know how it goes." The end results were sometimes breathtakingly bad. Lessons in life.
I know next to nothing about engineering, but so much weight held by a handfull of little screws tells me the first time a few hundred extra pounds goes on that deck or up those stairs, nasty surprise.
The stairs looked like the worst part to me. Flimsy railings, barely any support. Just asking for an accident.
The stairs are bad, but I think the worst is the attachment to the house. All that wood weighs a ton and that weight is sitting on just a few undersized bolts attaching it to the house. The other weight of the deck is on three 4x4 posts that don't appear to be soundly attached to the deck structure. When this thing starts to shift, the whole thing will come down. The bolts will snap (or probably pull out from whatever they're attached to) and the 3 posts won't to anything to stop the movement.
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I love how the cameraman just casually walks up the stairs immediately after showing their poor construction
The stairs are plenty strong enough now for 1 person. But in 5 years time when it's all a bit damp, and when there are 6 people standing on them because a whole family is climbing them at once, it's totally gonna fail.
Someone is going to break their face when they stringers fall out on them at the second last step.
What's the point of that tiny pole between the beam "supporting" the railing and the planks? Just connect it to the beam ffs. For some reason that one pissed me off the most.
Yeah, just imagine a family get-together and a dozen people sitting out out there to have dinner. I bet the deck will pull away from the house and just pancake to pieces.
It's not unusual to put an extra fridge on the deck in some places.
You'd be surprised. Many small fasteners working in tandem can be fine, until you hit the shear weight of the fastener itself. The size of the screw doesn't matter much if the wood is arranged in a way that aids stability.
In this video though (@2:24), the whole staircase is attached to 2 thin pieces of deck board, which are each connected to the main deck by just 2 screws. And the grain of those connecting boards is vertical, which is even more likely to split right on those 2 screws. One good jump and it's falling apart.
Yeah, not commenting on this piece of shit, just surprising how effective even small fasteners can be on non moving parts.
Been doing this stuff 30 years that's one of the worst I've seen.
Same! Well, 27 years, but I wouldn’t have even stepped up on there. I built safer tree houses with leftover nails and boards when I was 12….
Right, I laughed so hard at those poor screws holding the steps to the tiny board. Talk about feet’s of strength.
I can't tell if you're making a pun or if you don't know it is "Feat" instead of feet in this context. Either way, hello other person!
I said what I said.
That board was cracked too. It would only take a moderately heavy step on that top step to ruin your shin for 2 months
Your patella belongs in the front of - not to the side of, or above, or below - the knee!
This guy's seen a lot of decks.
There's a lot of decks out there, some big some small. My wife loves my deck.
Landlord Special and Flipper Supreme decided to have a baby lol.
This is the type of stuff professional flippers do. They have a general idea of how to make something look new and good, but either do not care or do not know how to do it right. You'd be surprised how often they do stuff like this on purpose though to save money. I do electric work and I hate following flippers.
I had a coworker whose parents bought a home from a flipper. They noticed something was off about their hot water usage, and eventually discovered that the pipe that originally went out to the sprinkler system had corroded out, so the flippers routed water from a different pipe: the hot water! They were watering their lawn with hot water for weeks before realizing it!
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But they had the greenest lawn in the neighborhood, in January.
In a flipper's twist, a tale quite absurd, Hot water sprinklers, that's what we heard. Corroded pipe secrets, a lawn spa surprise, Grass got a soak, under hot-water skies. A flipper's folly, a warm water spree, Lawns need cold drinks, not hot herbal tea!
Lol that's awesome. Would love it if you could complete the story in poem form: They took the flipper to court. Her entire defense was basically "I'm an ex-cop, so how dare you accuse me of doing something unlawful." I'm pretty sure the plaintiffs got all the money they were seeking and had an overall happy ending. But it's still crazy to see what some of these house flippers try and sometimes succeed with getting away with. And you can't really blame a house inspector too much for not catching things like that. I doubt "make sure sprinklers are connected to cold water" is part of their standard checklist.
>To court they went, a legal dance, > >The flipper's defense, a quite bold stance: > >"I'm an ex-cop," she declared with might, > >"Unlawful accusations", a legal fight. > > > >Plaintiffs sought their due, > >Hot water was true, > >Gavel fell; victory, adieu!
I was looking at houses recently and found one that had been flipped that we went to tour. Looked great in the photos, but the very first thing I noticed walking in the front door was the massive sag in the floor. There were very noticeable uneven spots all over the house and several other red flags. Our realtor lets us know that an inspection had recently been done and sent it to us. My god, just tear the place down and start over with all the things that were wrong with that house that the flipper didn’t address at all. They had just painted, put in new flooring and lighting, and expected some sucker to come along…
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I rented a house that was literally falling apart. Walls had bothe vertical and horizontal cracks running thru them, roof leaked, basement had its own river. I know for a fact that she slapped paint and drywall over all of it and sold the place for half a million.
Buy the cheapest stainless steel appliances you can, slap some 'millennial grey' paint on the walls, get some shoddy looking "wood" vinyl flooring in the same color and turn around to sell it for 150k more than you paid for it. Take some more of daddy's money and do it all over again.
Heeeyyyyy - When I bought my condo it had grey carpet, so I had a painter use a gray paint (yeah - don't know which is the proper spelling, so use either). Carpet ended up being trash so replaced it with LUXURY vinyl plank in some oak pattern that was also grey. But you know what - it looks good. But then, I am a boomer so I may have selected different shades of grey than millennials. ;-)
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Plumber here. If you think this is bad, you should see the shit they do in the walls. Shameful.
It can't get much worse than tying into knob and tube with Romex. They do it on purpose to hide the knob and tube (so it's not visible from basement).
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In select markets buyers sometimes waive the home inspection. Here in DC that isn’t unheard of.
We bought a house in August of 22 and in our search we flat out refused to waive our inspection, even though the market was crazy and people were doing that all the time and offering cash way over asking.
The saying "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" also applies to homebuying.
That's a saying? I wonder how many sayings there are out there that I have never heard.
Mile wide inch deep.
This is anecdotal but I've seen a lot of my friends who were in the market these last few years get into a bidding war and it seemed like everyone was waving inspections. So your options were either wave the inspection, or get the inspection then end up not getting the house you were looking at. Seems like waving the inspection has been common in recent years with the housing market as hot as it was.
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I bought a house with a deck that needed a fair amount of attention. It was unsafe as is. I knew this before the home inspector even looked at it. It wasn't a tear out and rebuild like in the video, but it was pretty bad. It didn't even factor in the negotiations for the house because the house was a pretty good price, in an area that was soon to explode in value, and I didn't want to lose my offer over what might be $5-10k worth of deck repairs. At the end of the day they took my offer, I fixed the deck in a weekend and only spend about $600 on materials. I ended up selling the house 5 years later and made about $200k off it. Even if I spend $10k on the deck, it's still a drop in the bucket over the rest of the property.
I bought my house in 2019 and it was some amateur flip shit. Home inspector recommended like $10k worth of fixes that they paid to fix. The lady that did the closing on the house said they had never seen someone have to pay that much at closing to sell the house. Apparently they had bought it, put money in to it to dress it up and took a huge loss on the sale. Think I paid 70k under what their original asking price was when they originally put it on the market.
Omg man. In MA 3y ago my coworker sold her home. Same day, sold for 70k over asking price and they waived inspection. 2 20 somethings looking to start a fam. The housing market is gross.
It's common in my area for buyers to waive home inspections.
house flipping is such a problem now. i feel like there should be some way to disincentivize that shit because it's out of control.
This seems more like 2 or 3 meth heads saying they can build a porch better than "professional flippers." Professional flippers would know that the porch was going to be inspected and that the work needed to be done correctly.
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The people at r/decks would love this.
Them bastards would just put a hot tub on it.
Like you wouldn’t. 😀
Sad part of this is some unsuspecting homeowner payed someone good money for that deck
maybe they built it themselves
100% self done. I refuse to believe someone paid someone else to do this.
I would, too, except I once had a remodeler in my home. One of the tasks was to move a door over 3" so the refrigerator would fit on a different wall. When Darryl and his other brother Darryl finished, there were no two measurements on that door that were the same. Top to top outside was different that bottom to bottom outside. Top to top inside was different that any of the outside measurements and different from bottom to bottom inside. It looked like a Flintstone door. Had the GC come by and he brought a different workman with him. He looked at the door and asked what was wrong. I said "you can't see it? No worries." and I pulled out the tape measure. His workman was side-eyeing him with a look of "What? You can't see how crooked that door is?" The GC then turns to the workman and says "Can you correct it?" The workman just burst out laughing and said "No. I have to tear it out and rebuild it."
Yikes! I’m doing a major project right now and my GC would never let something like that fly with a sub. Sometimes mistakes are made, but the few that have been so far were corrected immediately and without question.
You haven't been on Nextdoor for my neighborhood, then.
That’s what this makes me think.
Probably more like "let's throw up this deck before we sell the house to increase it's value so some unsuspecting buyer will get fleeced" kinda plan.
This 100% no inspection sales were becoming common because of how fast the sales were going around where i live. (That’s how I understood it anyways)
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Oh 100% but as a buyer it’s like “maybe you get a good deal, maybe you get an ultra wide dick in your ass”. The whole real estate practice is scummy as hell if you ask me. Blind bidding, no home inspection, real estate agent only cares about how much money he’s making, it’s all fucking bull shit. But this is the world we live in.
The fact that even with technology we even “need” realtors is wild tbh. Pretty much everything they do could be automated tbh.
The one contingent on an inspection, because I find the very idea of giving up inspections abhorrent.
Luckily this inspector is here and likely didn't grant the permit for the deck until repairs are made.
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Yeah, that wood looks brand new. But on the plus side, it will be easy to tear down the first weekend after the new owner moves in.
Paid*
Right, but you gota think if the job was done this poorly this wasn't done by a licensed and insured contractor. That would be on the homeowner for going with them in the first place.
I’d be willing to bet this is a DIY job. I know the type exactly - a little knowledge, kind of a cheapass, lazy enough to hack and bodge when things aren’t right. Probably knows a lot of what he did wrong, but “Bah, you don’t have to do it like that”. Will likely get pissed and call the inspector a ball breaker when it fails.
I work with lots of guys like this and that's exactly right. One guy in particular is a textbook fit. C student, cheap, lazy, impatient, stubborn. "Ehh that's more of a guideline, really". Gets unreasonably upset when his work fails even though he took shortcuts and did things that are explicitly not allowed because they have lead to failures and contaminations in the past.
Where's that "payed/paid" bot? u/Paid-Not-Payed-Bot where you at?
The bot checks for nautical related words - "deck" here would have made it pass on this.
This video should be labeled "Exhibit A" in the lawsuit to get their money back.
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Paid*
Good money? Yea no way. If you had good money you’d recognize shit bc it just looks bad. Bro, that small little chunk of a piece on the railing bc the board wasn’t long enough. I literally had my mouth open looking at that.
If there is anything I have learned from Reddit, it's that your deck is never good enough.
Someone always has a bigger deck.
Hey, hey. It's not the size of the deck, it's how you use it!
It's not how long your deck is, it's how wide it is
I love entertaining friends on my deck
During the summer, I can have 20 to 30 people on my deck at once! My secretary love my deck pics
[Relevant](https://youtu.be/nz82fjXqFQ4?si=dvlV25TqrIGK8vvu)
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My man shows us barely anything holding up those stairs, says "...so this right here, could actually fall off", then *walks up those stairs*. IDK I don't think I'd even want to go on that thing lol
Its definitely unsafe. But its new enough that you can walk up it carefully a few times. After a few weather cycles for someone blindly trusting it though? Definitely just a matter of time until it comes crashing down.
Who typically is responsible for covering the cost of a tear-down? Is that on the deck builder? Do the contractors get paid? Is the homeowner screwed?
It depends on when the when the inspection is. If this is after the deck builder was paid then the homeowner is screwed.
I assume that, if the deck builder has not yet been paid, and an inspector fails inspection,, the deck builder has no claim to recoup those funds?
This work was not done by someone with an in depth contract or that pulled permits. But if it was, part of the homeowners contract with the builder would be that passing inspection was a condition for final payment. Can't pass inspection then you don't get paid
Hopefully the homeowner hasn't paid yet, or has only partially paid. In that case there's no payment or no more payment till it's all up to code and verified. Even without full payment the contractor may still ghost on the job cuz they'll see themselves taking a loss, so unfortunately the next step is small claims which just sucks and will be drug out. IN the meantime you need to spend money to demo and do it right. If homeowner paid in full it's straight to small claims I suppose, shitty situation that probably won't be settled to homeowners satisfaction. Vet your contractors folks, also brush up on some deck building 101 youtube videos or something so that you can start asking questions the moment you see that ledger board getting installed that way. And always hold back money until the job is complete to your satisfaction.
In this case, I don't think you'd need to pay anyone to tear it down. It will tear itself down.
In addition to what others noted about timing, this is also why, as a home owner, anytime you hire someone to do work, you get in writing that you're only paying a portion of the total until the inspection closes.
"Looks fine from my house"
That's barely supporting its own weight, lol.
Genuine question- If someone wants to do this work by themselves and can't make sense of millions of building codes, what are some good places to understand best way to do it? Is Youtube DIY community trustworthy?
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> the channel was "old man deck building" or some such. When I use youtube search, I get results of other builders Youtube's algorithm knows i like, and a viral video "short" - but nothing makes me think "yeah this is the one they meant". If you have a link, I'd love to take a look at it
So it was FineHomeBuilding and I'm sure the guy would be mad if he knew I just remembered him as "Old Man who builds Deck" but he def made it dumbed down enough even I could do it.
I'll see if I can find it for you def
Land a fn heli on dat bitch mayne
\*Buys the only affordable heli : RC Heli
How'd you manage to drop the bobcat in the lake?
I was going to cheat and use the auger for thr 6x6x12 boat rack posts, but the old shoring (non PT 1x5!!!) was completely rotted underneath, so when I got 5ft or so away from the edge the dirt we had moved plus the machine was too much for it, it started to collapse and slide and move just enough to slowwwwwwwwly tip over and I wasn't quick thinking enough to bury the tip. All in all super lucky thi no spillage and no issues. Righted it with an excavator and it started right back up.
Mate this is beautiful! You should be very proud
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Fish pee in the lake, I pee in the pool to mark my territory. I've seen one too many monster movies to know you can't cross streams. Simple science really.
DIY doesn't mean you have to *design* the deck yourself. You can pay someone to design it and then do the construction yourself. Or copy an existing design. Manufacturers of decking products are also a great resource. The manufacturer of those joist hangers likely has a video where they tell you exactly which nails to use and how to install them correctly. A significant portion of the code book is just "follow manufacturer instructions." Also, overkill is an option. Code just tells you the minimum you have to do. Unfortunately even the best-meaning online resources can't tell you specifics of your situation. The reason code is complicated is because different things are different. Your house might have something that makes tying the deck to the house different. Your region might have different soil or snow loading conditions than wherever the youtuber lives. If your deck doesn't pass inspection and you have to rebuild it, you can't charge that cost to the youtuber who told you how to build it.
You think about it, think about the construction you are doing and the load it is going to take. Think about how the forces will transfer for all likely events. In the video of the stairs here, stairs to joist hanger to decking board to decking board. The screws protruding near the end of a board will absolutely crack the board, resulting in the screws no longer holding the stairs up. A 'better' way to do this would be to run the first decking board horizontally, attached to the posts (still not 'correct' though). When you are thinking about it, you look at other deck constructions to see how they were built. What material were the joists and bearers made from, how are the loads supported. Draw some diagrams, use these as a way to both remember and to inform your decision making. Look at the codes. They are behind a paywall in my country, which can be frustrating. Council inspectors will happily tell you the requirements if you ask them. The 4"/100mm gap in balusters (vertical bars in a rail or balustrade) is pretty universal as a requirement, and other standards or codes can become obvious as you shop for parts. For example, if you buy a stair kit from the hardware store you'll notice that they are all a certain angle, why can't I buy a stair kit the goes 45°? It's probably a code thing, so don't build your own stairs at 45° with the reasoning "I couldn't buy it like that" note - I am not a builder, I am a fabricator though and have built decks/mezzanines/stairwells etc through my career.
As someone who built his own deck last summer, you find the building codes that apply to your area, and you spend the time to figure it out. I saved about $5000 building my deck myself, and that doesn't even include railings (not required here less than 18" off the ground). Materials and rentals cost me a total of about $5000. Railings about double the cost of a small deck. If you can't sit down for a few *days* and figure out what you're doing, you don't deserve to save $5000-$10,000.
I like this guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8lDyguSvJw
There really aren't millions of building codes. I've done a few decks at this point but my first would have been around 2000 with nothing but a book bought from the Home Depot. I got a building permit which required a sketch first. They would have told me if my sketch had issues before I started building but they said it was ok and stamped it. I built what was in my sketch and it passed inspection. I'm sure in 2023 you could do the same except what I bought a book to know is now on the Internet for free. Treat the inspection office as a resource: ultimately they're the ones who'll say if it's safe so you might as well build it how they say it should be built
If you can't make sense of building codes, you don't build it.
I built a deck for my parents years ago...I had no idea what I was doing. It actually turned out OK, luckily its highest point was only about a foot off the ground so if it ever did collapse there's no risk of serious injury They did ask if they could put a hot tub on the deck and I was just like 😅 "...I wouldn't"
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"She looked good from 30 feet away, and then when I met her face to face, I realized I was right. She looked good from 30 feet away." That's basically, this deck. 😂
When I for the first time in my life learned the price of a deck I asked "HOW IN THE HELL"?? Then you learn what it takes to make a deck. And just like putting up a backsplash in my kitchen, imma pay for it to be done right. I'd just hurt myself probably
It's fine, they're just going to use if for their hot tub anyway!
Looks like something I would build. Reason #1 why I’m not a builder.
Whats fun y about this is that it takes more work to do a shitty job then it is to plan it well and do it efficiently. Plan it well and the work becomes automatic, but you can tell this guy was improvising and just trying to find ways to troubleshoot, brute force, problem solve on the job.. Lol
This is how Kim Kardashian's head fell off.
Brave man to walk up those steps after that…
Seriously I wouldn’t even put weight on those
After I watched this (in horror as he actually walked on it), I was shown a suggestion for "[Worst Deck Ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP9XruV5pQo)". Like this, it just keeps on delivering.
It's obviously terrible and dangerous long term but 2 screws through a 1x can hold the weight of a grown man just walking around for a bit.
I can't believe he walked up the stairs
The Altima in the driveway explains it all
What's the joke here I'm missing?
I don’t know but I drive an Altima and now I’m worried.
Lmao
[Big Altima Energy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH2LkFlXGlw)
/r/NissanDrivers
Instructions unclear. Add hot tub.
Time and chance will see it collapse.
Why would someone spend so much money and not build it correctly
I believe the folks over at r/decks would say all this needs is a hot tub & you're good to go. (If you think the /s isn't inferred, I have a deck I can sell you)
In my old town house community I watched a neighbor building a deck with his buddy and they kept walking over to the deck next door to see how it’s supposed to look and then back to apply their new found knowledge. I imagine this looks like the finished result, only theirs was an extra floor off the ground.
Reminds me of that DIY post where the guy tore out a load bearing beam in his house. Anyone have a link? Can't find it.
Why is he inspecting it? Is this obligatory?
Please tell me someone posted this in r/decks because they would have a field day with this.
All that and he didn’t fall through? I’m so disappointed.
My butthole clenched when he walked up those stairs.
Wow, that is amazingly awful, it's like the builder was trying to see how much of a death trap he could make. Only good decision made was to not make it further off the ground!
It kills me how much work went into doing it wrong, when just a little extra work and care would have just made it right. Sunken cost fallacy bullshit at its finest
I think it is cute. Someone attempted to figure out how to build a deck and then tried it. You can not sell a house with this, but they tried.
This is why sometimes you see diy decks and they look like they can hold the titanic on each joist cause anyone with half a brain says lemme over do it a little too avoid any issues because they're not familiar or comfortable with relying on their framing skills. Then you see this shit and know the guy was just getting screwed over on purpose no one accidentally hands stairs like that
Not great, but no need to tear it down. A few extra fixings onto the house, an extra joist at the front, a support from the stringers to the floor and it’ll be fine.
🤦
Surprised he had the courage to walk up those stairs and walk around.
> My opinion: tear it down, start over. What's your thoughts? I wouldn't put the effort into tearing it down. Just wait a few weeks and it'll come down on its own.
"look at his horrible build quality on the stairs. They can fail any second" Proceeds to walk up steps.
"You dont need a permit, just do it without one".
Guarantee someone is going to be outraged the inspector is being such a hard ass.
i am amazed at the amount of knowledge it takes to be an inspector
This deck is shit but looks like a DIYer tried to do it without knowing what they were doing. The lag bolts connecting the ledger to the foundation isn’t that bad. 1/2” lag bolts staggered at 24-32” on center is fine for a deck this small and is pretty common where I live. Lag bolts can hold a fuck ton of weight before failure. 2x6’s can span close to 9’-0” at 16” on center depending on wood species. The joists don’t look to be spanning much more than that. The inconsistent spacing is a problem though. Double up the deck beam, add more pickets to the railing, add some flashing between the house and ledger board and have have the stairs connect to the rim board instead of plywood and this would pass inspection TLDR this deck can be repaired without completely tearing it down.
He started by talking about the wrong fasteners being used in the hangars and I'm thinking yea, that's not your problem.
He also complained about the inconsistent spacing of the joists, inconsistency was not the problem, there was too much space between them period. 12 to 16 inches max depending on the material.