Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Installing Lag Bolts on Existing Deck

I am about to purchase a home that has an existing deck. During the home inspection, the inspector realized that the deck was not lag bolted to the house, it was just nailed in. This, I know, is not a safe condition, especially since the deck it off the second floor of the home (roughly 10' above grade).

I've built a deck before on my old house and used lag bolts to secure the ledger to the house. Can anyone tell me what might be involved in properly securing this deck to the house using lag bolts? Can I just drill in through the ledger with it attached or do I have to take the whole thing apart?

You COULD lag bolt it, but THROUGH BOLTS would be better. But, being attached at the 2nd story, that's probably not an option. It would require tearing up the floor in the upstairs room to do.

My prejudice would be to install a beam a foot or so from the wall and make the deck freestanding. Means digging footings, adding posts, etc., but there is no chance of water leaking into the wall, like there will be if you penetrate the siding with lag bolts.

Yeah, making the deck free standing might be a better option, I am just not sure how easy that will be because there is a concrete slab under the deck. The deck itself comes off the kitchen through sliding doors, and the basement also has a sliding door that leads out to a concrete 'landing'. I might not have the option of digging post holes on the one side.

LOL anyone ever built a 3-legged deck? j/k

I will have to wait and see what exactly I am dealing with. All I remember is what I saw briefly when we walked through the house and what the inspector found.

My situation was this:

1) First deck was cantilevered off of the floor joists and not flashed (1969)
2) Deck rotted off (?)
3) Floor joists cut off and cedar siding installed and new ledger beam installed over the cedar and nailed to the house and not flashed.
4) The ends of the cedar began to rot and the rot was beginning to transfer into the old cantilevered joists.

So we pulled the rotted cedar out and sealed the end of the joists with oil base Kilz.

I then ran 1/2" x 6" galvanized lag screws through the joist hangers on the ledger and into the ends of the cantilevered joists.

I put one bolt in on every other joist, with extra ones on the ends.

Then we flashed it - one flashing below the deck boards that runs out 5" and another flashing above the first deck board.

See my blog for more (http://xxxxxxxx.net/~mahamm/xxxxxx_blog/xxxxxx.html)

All, please comment on my fix...

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This is an interesting thread, since I'm about to replace a deck on a 2-story house and it will be attached to the house with a ledger (it is a walk-under deck). The code compliance plan checker in my county told me that lag bolts are no longer allowed for attaching ledgers to buildings...they now require SDS screws (they do not need to be pre-drilled). Of course, it also requires staggering the screws to prevent splitting the ledger down the middle. Don't know if any of this applies to your situation, since a free-standing deck has been suggested, but thought I'd mention it. Don't know if your county has the same requirement...

Mystified-

I am kind of in the same situation as you, except for the fact that I am trying not to replace the whole deck. It looked structurally sound (the previous owners had 5 kids and used the deck often) so I am not worried about that. I just need to figure out the best method for securing it to the house/making it free standing.

Probably my best bet would be to contact the local building inspector and have them come look at it and tell me what I'd need to do to bring it up to code. I don't know about the compliance issue with lag bolts in my area, so I'd have to check that as well.

Here are a couple photos (from the home inspection) of the ledger. It looks to have been professionally installed, but I can't be sure. If it was built when the house was constructed (14 years ago) then it was probably up to code then. You can see in the one photo where the ledger is nailed in.

Photo 1 (http://img473.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img01186ru.jpg)
Photo 2 (http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/3131/img01201uy.jpg)

You COULD lag bolt it, but THROUGH BOLTS would be better. But, being attached at the 2nd story, that's probably not an option. It would require tearing up the floor in the upstairs room to do.

Lefty- I just re-read your post and realized this might be the best bet. The deck comes off the kitchen, but I might be able to access the bolts on the inside from the basement. So, the deck is basically off the main floor, but the way the land slopes, the basement is actually walk out. In the photo, you can see the sliding doors that come out of the basement and the deck above the concrete patio there.

Deck Photo (http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/227/img00550hg.jpg)

A lot of good ideas here, however, I'm going to reccomend decklok brackets. We have used them to retrofit a lot of existing decks, and they are specifically designed to secure decks from lateral and siesmic force. You can find them over here. (http://www.deck-lok.com) I think they are probably the best solution when you are unable to build, or afford the time or money to build, a freestanding deck.

-deckguy ;)

Deckguy-

Thanks for the suggestion. Those look like quite a viable option for my problem. Luckily for me, the band and floor joists are easily accessible from inside the basement, thanks to a drop ceiling. Looks like this will be the way to go, and for under $70. :thumbup:

Thanks!!
Kev72

You're quite welcome. Let me know how they work out for you, we have been using them for awhile now with absolutely no problem.

-deckguy ;)