Replies

1. 
   Mongo | Jul 17, 2003 04:42am | #1

   What material was used for the rim joist?

   With TJIs I've seen everything from 3/4 ply to 1-by TJI rim stock to 2-by doug fir to LVLs.

   Obviously some of these materials will hold a lagged ledger better than others. Don't forget the flashing details as well.

   Depending on the height of the deck, you could omit the ledger and build the deck independent of the house altogether.

2. 
   GUNN308 | Jul 17, 2003 06:03am | #2

   I don't know where you live but up north where I am we don't build decks level with interior unless it's roofed over, building level leads to iffy flashing details in front of door and snow build up leads to rotten jambs a 6" step down allows for minimum flashing up wall and out over ledger and joists. As for attachment in your case I would go free standing and don't nail flashing to wall let it free float.

3. 
   Dinosaur | Jul 17, 2003 06:46am | #3

   Good advice from Gunn; unless the deck is covered by a roof out to at least 6 feet from the house wall, your better half's plan is gonna lead to trouble with water damage down the road.

   Lag the ledger to the concrete wall with lead anchors and 5/16 or 3/8 lags on 16" centers. Set the deck an inch or two below interior house floor level--you probably don't need the same depth of joist for the deck as for the house (less span in most cases) so the diff should work out just about right. Lay a strip of 90# felt or some Ice-Gard ice-and-snow membrane on top of the ledger before you set the joists on it. Do the same thing on top of all your joists before you nail the deck boards to them. The tar will coat the nails as they penetrate, helping prevent rust-out and concommitant rot at nail penetrations. The membrane will keep water off the wood and preserve it longer, too. Put a galvanized flashing on top of the main support beam on the outboard end of the deck; bed it in roofing pitch so the toenails holding the joists to it won't lead water in by capillary action. For the joint between the house and the deck, you can flash, or you can caulk; either way, make sure no water can weep in there--if it does, you could be looking at a rotted sole plate on the house wall not too far in the future....

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   Piffin | Jul 17, 2003 01:57pm | #4

   Not just water damage. ice and snow can make it impossible to exit the house after a storm if the deck is level with interior.

   This is one of the "I want" s that I have to educate southernerns all the time about when they buy vacation property here..

   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   Dinosaur | Jul 17, 2003 02:41pm | #5

   Piff--

   With the amount of snow we get here, a inch or two drop between the main floor and the deck level isn't going to help much on that score. Unless the door from the deck into the house is one of the main entries, most people use sliders up here, which is one way to eliminate the problem of getting literally snowed in. The other way is called a snow shovel....

   But even when the door off the deck is a standard 34" swinger,  few builders or HOs here in the Laurentians seem to bother with storm/screen doors on the main entry door-set, so there's no snow problem as the exterior door sets all swing inward. I don't know why screen doors are almost unknown here, but I make a few bucks each year building and retro-fitting custom storm/screen doors into pre-hung factory units once I point out to the HO the advantages--like being able to leave the front door open to admit some light without admiting squirrels, black flies, and so forth at the same time....

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   Piffin | Jul 18, 2003 06:25am | #7

   I'm not talking an inch or two, four to six is standard.

   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   Dinosaur | Jul 18, 2003 07:30am | #9

   Even so--around here, a four- to six-inch snowfall is considered a very minor event; nobody much notices (sometimes not even the municipal snow plow guys--although you'd have to see it to believe it how they can turn 4" of snow in the road into 4 feet of snow in your driveway...!)

   I wouldn't want to have the deck a 4- to 6-inch drop right outside an exit door; it strikes me as an accident waiting to happen. I'd have to check (no one's ever asked me to build one that way, so I don't know off the top of my head), but I'd be surprised if that arrangement meets NBC. Every time I see a door exiting over a dead drop or directly onto a flight of steps with no landing, I have to wonder what the 'designer' was smoking when he thought that one up.

   One thing a lot of buildings have here is a metal grating directly in front of the entry/exit doors set into the deck so that you can stomp the snow off your boots down through the grate before entering the house. This also prevents much snow build-up directly in front of the door itself.

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

4. 
   Boxduh | Jul 17, 2003 03:08pm | #6

   I don't attach a deck ledger directly to a rim.  Instead, I finish over the rim with metal flashing, then bolt or lag the ledger through the finish and into or through the rim, with a double row, one screw near top of deck ledger, one near bottom, these doubles spaced at 16".  Spacers made of 1" sawn pieces of galvanized pipe stand the P.T. deck ledger board away from the flashed surface of the rim, and each spacer is packed with sealant.  The 1" standoff allows good drainage and eliminates rim rot.

   As for "level with the inside floor," tell your owner it is simply not done, unless the deck is well covered.  At least a couple inches, depending on site and exposure, should be allowed for an exposed deck elevation drop, or else you will suffer leakage through the patio door sills.

   And as for those patio doors exiting to the deck, make sure to use a pan flash assembly under each one, something like the product "Jamsill Guard," or equal.

1. 
   Piffin | Jul 18, 2003 06:27am | #8

   "simply not done"

   I've read here that in California and some other southern locales it is code requirement to have it nearly at same level..

   Excellence is its own reward!