Thread: Partial bearing on deck beam

Came across a deck today that did not appear to be constructed by licensed contractors. Deck posts do not align properly on the built up girder/beam with bearing on one half of the deck girder/beam and the other half bearing on the ledger board. There were 3 instances of this. Last picture shows where the ledger board was nailed over the bolt for the deck ledger board leaving a nasty opening between the ledger board and the band joist.
Also noticed nothing of the posts that was over 50%.

I am thinking this would qualify for a structural issue...how would any of you write this up.

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Originally Posted by sidney alstad

Came across a deck today that did not appear to be constructed by licensed contractors. Deck posts do not align properly on the built up girder/beam with bearing on one half of the deck girder/beam and the other half bearing on the ledger board. There were 3 instances of this. Last picture shows where the ledger board was nailed over the bolt for the deck ledger board leaving a nasty opening between the ledger board and the band joist.
Also noticed nothing of the posts that was over 50%.

I am thinking this would qualify for a structural issue...how would any of you write this up.

.
What you have already said sounds good to me.

Apparent Amateur Installation.

Just Report what you saw.
.

While the first 2 pictures do not show best building practices I'm not sure that it is wrong. IMO the last pic is the biggest issue.

Also what does this mean?

Originally Posted by sidney alstad

Also noticed nothing of the posts that was over 50%.

Originally Posted by chris mcintyre

While the first 2 pictures do not show best building practices I'm not sure that it is wrong. IMO the last pic is the biggest issue.

Also what does this mean?

If I am not mistaken, the deck posts where they join or are attached to the beam/girder should not be notched more than 50%. The deck posts at this inspection were 6x6's and were notched close to a 60/40 split.

Looks like a DIY job. They probably saw or copied the method from a home show. The deck joists look like 2x6 maybe 2x8, that's probably why they used all the built-up girders. As far as the deck collapsing downward probably not an issue.
In these instances I look for attachment and lateral stability. Is the deck sufficiently attached to the building? From your last pic probably not. Is there sufficient bracing and bolting to keep the deck from swaying side to side? Not sure about that from the pics.
I typically put a note in about the dangers of bad decks, list the concerns and tell them to get qualified repairs. It's important to explain and show deck issues to the client so that a scummy contractor can't just scam them.