flashing deck ledger to brick veneer
I am looking for advice on how to properly flash a deck ledger board, through bolted to the second floor rim joist. The ledger board is on the brick veneer.
The existing deck bolts have let water leak into the wall. There is major water and termite damages along the sixty foot back side of the house where the deck ledger board is fastened to the house. Apparently water came into the wall around the bolts. The ledger board is bolted up against the brick veneer. They supposedly go through the brick and are fastened through the rim joist.
There is a concrete patio on the ground level where you walk out of the finished lower level, under the deck. The deck is at the second floor level.
Does anyone have a detail of how to flash this area so that after I repair the rot and termite damages, water will not come back into the house.
Please reply to this query at your earliest.
Thanks Jim H.
Replies
That's a tuff question Jim and probably why you haven't received many replies. Flashing has to go under something to divert water out and away from the house.
Right now flashing will do nothing but trap water unless you could get a rubberized seal under the fake brick and over the flashing.
I believe your best bet would be to put 1" pipe spacers between the ledger and the wall and not flash at all in this case. It's tricky but you pre-drill your ledger, feed your 5" lag bolt through the ledger, through the spacer and into the sill of the house.
Caulk the lag before driving it into the sill.
I hope this helps,
Bob
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
My do you say "fake brick"?
Any way there might be another problem. I really don't know about this, just speculating.
Could the problem be that water that normally flows down the backside of the brick and weather barrier is hitten the bolts and following them into the structure?
True Bill, that is exactly what is causing the rot problem. The water is running down the wall, hitting the ledger (DAM) and getting held between the ledger and the house, thus creating better penetration of the water through the ledger bolts.
If the water can pass by the ledger it will help IMHO.
I normaly flash but I haven't had to deal with this kind of problem in the 20 years I've been building decks.Bob
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
Bob
No, I was thinking about water that had already work through the bricks into the cavity. Water tht would have been there without the ledger board. But instead of runnning down the cavity to the weep holes it is hiting the bolts.
I agree with Bill, the water may not be coming from the deck, per se. In fact, I'd suspect the threshold or jambs of the doors leading out to the deck.
The last couple of structural engineers I've used to get stamped drawings have rejected a ledger bolted through brick veneer to the house frame. Their reasoning was twofold. As the bolts are tightened on the brick, the veneer "envelope" is being compressed into the airspace behind it. This complicates the way the load is carried through the veneer (which is complicated by the need for openings in the veneer to get access to the deck). The second objection was the long cantilever from where the ledger is to where it actually connects to the frame.
Ok, these are "purist" arguments (engineers can be fond of these). The width of the ledger mitigates the compression of the brick envelope. Also, the mass of the brick itself is taking some of the compression load of the deck. Ok, so now I'm using practical arguments on professional engineers (not always a good idea).
How to fix the problem and get that stamp? One engineer wanted the veneer taken out and supported on a sill angle (not going back to him again). Second engineer had a novel answer, turn the beams. Now the beams set into pockets in the brick veneer. City then wanted a "joist hanger" to make a connection to the framing. The local HVAC shop gave me a good deal on cutting the custom hangers on their plasma cutter--needed custom, as the tabs had to be turned into the hanger's inside, and the legs had to "reach" the outside. Probably could have used some angles instead.
Back to the question in the thread. The ledger will need some sort of isolation from the brick, spacers, or a membrane of some sort. Then, probably, the bolts need to be upgraded to some less corrosive material, like stainless. Then, they probably ought to be installed at a slight angle, so that any moisture in the cavity behind the brick that collects on the bolts, goes to the brick, not the house.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong (with thanks to Dennis Miller for the line).