At Home In The Woods

[dcyrilc]

I feel for you. That is one of my biggest pet peeves these days.
When I was a contractor, I was proud of my work and never had anything to hide. Not saying I never made mistakes, but never intentionally did things the wrong way. As I was well known by all our inspectors, the largest problem I had was when I needed an answer to something the inspector was not around. I always had to hunt them down because they knew they could trust my work and so they spent their time watching other projects.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I don't think my building inspector would have let me put that porch ledger on like you did, where you offset from the house for the brick to go behind it. Mine had to be lagged against the house, plus hangers on everything coming off of it.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't think my building inspector would have let me put that porch ledger on like you did, where you offset from the house for the brick to go behind it. Mine had to be lagged against the house, plus hangers on everything coming off of it.

I agree. I'm also wondering how he will replace the ledger and attach it to the house when it rots? All decks have a relatively short lifespan, and being able to plan on how to repair or replace it in the future is always an easy way to save a ton of money when it has to be done.

Why not bolt the ledger board directly to the house and end the brick right under the ledger board? Then flash it?

Eddie

 

[Obed]

I agree. I'm also wondering how he will replace the ledger and attach it to the house when it rots? All decks have a relatively short lifespan, and being able to plan on how to repair or replace it in the future is always an easy way to save a ton of money when it has to be done.

Why not bolt the ledger board directly to the house and end the brick right under the ledger board? Then flash it?

Eddie

I was talking about the ledger board for the basement porch roof, not the deck. Maybe "ledger board" isn't the right term for the the board that the porch ceiling joists attach to?

The deck under the main floor back porch (different porch) will be bolted to the house. However, the brick cannot stop under the ledger board because brick will continue up the wall higher than where the deck meets the wall. The ledger board will be attached to the outside of the brick using the bolts in the picture and the deck floor joists will attach to the ledger board.

I'm hoping that the basement porch roof will be flashed and roofed well enough that the porch roof doesn't rot. The method by which the basement porch roof attaches to the house is how more than one builder we asked recommended doing it.

Obed

 

[Obed]

This evening we met with a phone company man to determine where the phone network interface box (NIB) would attach to the house. They are going to let us put the NIB in the basement. We are happy about that for security reasons. So we will be able to run the phone conduit through the concrete basement wall. There will be no phone line above grade outside of the house that an intruder could cut before breaking into the house. I wish I had known we could put the NIB inside the house when I was running the phone conduit. I will need to re-route the conduit a bit before it enters the house in order to get it to enter the house where I will want it to go.

You can see the current location of the one inch conduit in the picture. I'll need to dig out the end of the conduit and move it about six feet so it doesn't enter the house too close to spots where the electrical conduits enter the house.

 

[dave1949]

I can see the brick and rafter/ledger is a tricky spot. I don't have any experienced suggestions. One thought would be to have a bolt through lintel that allows the ledger to be anchored to the wall and the lintel carries the brick.

One thing to keep in mind is wood always takes moisture from masonry when they are in contact. So, flashing, PT wood, and/or some method should always be used to keep the wood and masonry separated.

I don't think it matters if it is a roof or deck floor, the principle is the same. Obviously, the roof rafters have a better chance of staying dry.
Dave.

 

[dstig1]

I can see the brick and rafter/ledger is a tricky spot. I don't have any experienced suggestions. One thought would be to have a bolt through lintel that allows the ledger to be anchored to the wall and the lintel carries the brick.

One thing to keep in mind is wood always takes moisture from masonry when they are in contact. So, flashing, PT wood, and/or some method should always be used to keep the wood and masonry separated.

I don't think it matters if it is a roof or deck floor, the principle is the same. Obviously, the roof rafters have a better chance of staying dry.
Dave.

I wasn't going to say it as it is a bit late but since others did....that standoff blocking for the porch roof should all be treated. ANYTHING wood that touches masonry should be treated. I'm not sure why they didn't just ledger it to the house directly (with treated lumber...) and then just cut (technically rip) the one row of bricks to keep the pattern intact above the roof.

 

[dave1949]

I wasn't going to say it as it is a bit late but since others did....that standoff blocking for the porch roof should all be treated. ANYTHING wood that touches masonry should be treated. I'm not sure why they didn't just ledger it to the house directly (with treated lumber...) and then just cut (technically rip) the one row of bricks to keep the pattern intact above the roof.

What's done is done in this case I think, but I mentioned it incase it would be helpful for the deck work. I have been trying to think of a way to minimize any chance of a problem developing with the wood stand-offs between the ledger and house wall.

I used PT lumber with a strip of sill seal between it and the concrete when we built; everywhere wood and concrete transitioned. We have several interior concrete walls, so there were quite a few places where the wood framing joins the concrete.
Dave.

 

[Obed]

I wasn't going to say it as it is a bit late but since others did....that standoff blocking for the porch roof should all be treated. ANYTHING wood that touches masonry should be treated.

Yes, the PT wood makes sense. Too late now though.

Obed

 

[CurlyDave]

Well, it is not too late to treat it with several coats of wood preservative. Coppergreen, or Jasco Termin-8 come to mind.