Here’s a lesson I don’t want anybody in this group to learn—even if there is a lesson here at all and it’s not just horrifyingly bad luck.
In this video, we see the aftermath of a deck collapse near Allentown, Pa. It’s clearly a failure at the ledger, which is all too painfully common. What makes it worse is that the deck was being repaired. The victims of the fall were father and son contractors. The father has “life-threatening injuries” because he was dumped onto a wheelbarrow.
I don’t even want to know.
The local inspector informs me that the deck was un-permitted and—you guessed it—nailed on. I’m actually fuming mad right now.
The deck next door looks like it was built before the straight line was invented. Or brains. Or building codes. It’s garbage and clearly a problem waiting to happen.
So, on our next deck repairs, this bears out that we should all check the ledger and—I’m not implying these guys didn’t, or that you wouldn’t—look for bolts. Look for rot. Maybe add a temporary wall.
Or, check how the house was framed if you can. We all just assume band joists, probably. My understanding is that this neighborhood’s floor systems were framed with trusses, which may well mean that this deck could have looked structurally sound but whoever installed it missed the trusses and it was only hanging on by OSB.
No word on how the father is. Or the son, who is also suffering because someone nailed on a ledger.
I just don’t want to hear that this story happens to any of you.
What a catastrophe.
