Deck project done wrong!

[California]

This photo is like those drawings where you are asked to identify what's wrong. Clue - Everything!

Not my project! Just something unbelievably stupid I saw online. Source.

The worst aspect is a serious safety screwup: The difference in elevation stepping down from the deck to the top stair tread, will be huge. Way beyond code. And not identical to the rise of the lower stairs. Surprise! Then that top stair tread is unexpectedly narrow.

Lots more problems. Somebody posted this asking "Does my contractor know what he's doing" with regard to a minor aspect. Oh h*** no!

 

[319Quahog]

The only thing that really bugs me there is the different tread depth for the top stair and the stringers setting in the dirt waiting to rot. Add on the fact it doesn't look like PT either.

My new back deck's stairs are steep and I'm OK with that. We have no inspections or permits or any of that garbage here.

 

[ArlyA]

How are the steps attached to the deck?

 

[thepumpguysc]

I was looking at that too ArlyA.!! No hangers.. & the stringer sitting in the dirt is a no-no.. a couple of paver stones would take care of that..

 

[ArlyA]

I was looking at that too ArlyA.!! No hangers.. & the stringer sitting in the dirt is a no-no.. a couple of paver stones would take care of that..

A stringer in the dirt would need to be ground contact treated here. The OP isn't posting many necessary details.

 

[California]

It looks like the steps on the right side don't have equal rise. This is likely to make someone fall sooner or later. But not before they fall at the big step down from the deck to the tiny stair tread.

The deck needs a post at the outer corner.

And I don't see why they didn't build the deck lower, one step down from the doorway, closer to the level of that concrete deck at the right side.

 

[EddieWalker]

Back in the 90's I knew a guy who's family owned a bunch of Apartment Buildings in the East Bay of California. They where sued by an Insurance Company because their client fell while climbing the stairs to their apartment. The reason they where sued is that the steps where not all the exact same height. I think a couple of them where half to 3/4 of an inch different. From what I remember, the max difference was a quarter of an inch. Anything more is a safety issue and grounds for a lawsuit.

When building a deck, I make sure that every step is exactly the same height. My goal is 7 inches, but if it's more or less, what's important is that they are all exactly the same.

I can't see in the picture, but my biggest issue with deck builds is the lack of a beam under the joists. Too often the joists also double as beams. The other thing is how the beam is supported. It's very common for DIY people to rely on nails to support the load of a beam. And just about every time they use a beam, it's undersized for the span.

 

[Snobdds]

Who knows, maybe the price makes up for all the mistakes.

I know plenty of cheap asses that would look past the mistakes if they got a good deal on it. And trust me, there are contractors that cater to these people.

 

[plowhog]

I don't see why they didn't build the deck lower, one step down from the doorway,

Not defending the build, but my neighbor who uses a wheelchair has a similar design.

By eliminating a step at the door she has mobility, on her own without assistance, to get onto the outside deck, then back. Kind of a small deck for that, though.

 

[Runner]

If it were my house, those would be concrete forms....

 

[chim]

...........When building a deck, I make sure that every step is exactly the same height. ..............

Two places near me had variations that made it seem like each step was built by a different crew without talking to each other. One was a set of concrete steps at a Catholic church parking lot and the other was access to the basement level range at a gun club. Both have been replaced.

 

[scootr]

How are the steps attached to the deck?

Barely. New stair stringers are needed. All steps to be even or somebody's gonna take a fall one day. Bought a house once with stairs of different length/height. What a nightmare trying to remember where the big or small step was.
Also agree they need to pour a bigger pad or use a 12x12 concrete stepping pad under the base.
7 inches is the accepted rise for any step. That side step is too high and real trip hazard where it meets the stair

 

[HawkinsHollow]

At first glance it looks like a solid build and someone without a lot of knowledge about building such things would overlook the mistakes. I think shoddy or new "carpenters" take advantage of the lack of knowledge of your average homeowner. It is not until something fails or they trip over that 1 step 10 times do they realize they have been screwed.

 

[EddieWalker]

I think you're right. I see a lot of deck projects on my FB page. Mostly from home owners that are very proud of what they have built, but clueless on how bad it is.

Then there are the guys who are starting out as contractors, who have worked for other contractors, and they are sharing their projects on FB to get more work. They think they are showing quality work, and a bunch of their close friends compliment them on how good the deck looks, but it's really very poorly done.

The struggle is saying something, or just ignoring it. I have the same struggle on here when I see something being done poorly. If it's somebody that is being paid to do it, I usually say something. If it's a member on here, I try not to be rude, and be more subtle in suggesting ways to do it differently.

One of the reasons I like this site so much is from all the times I've posted projects on here, and people that know more then me, have commented on what I'm doing. They mentions ways that I could do it better. Sometimes it was subtle, other times they where blunt. Every time, I consider what they say and almost always, do as suggested.

 

[chim]

I think you're right. I see a lot of deck projects on my FB page. Mostly from home owners that are very proud of what they have built, but clueless on how bad it is..........

When #3 Son was looking for a house he asked me to come along. After seeing several that had owner-performed work, I asked the realtor if he could find us a house that the owner didn't "improve".

We had seen all sorts of things like a large deck with a couple support posts that didn't quite touch the ground, a bilevel with a garage added on the end where the only access between the house and garage was a stair that resembled a ship's ladder to the garage's second story then a narrow passage to the house's kitchen, all sorts of homebrew plumbing and electrical, etc.

 

[California]

We had seen all sorts of things ...

Tell me bout it!

This old farmhouse was owner-built, and much later wired, before codes and inspections. The biggest tell that it is primitive, is that you see exterior siding if you are in the bathroom and look toward the wall that separates it from kitchen. Ie, the first add-on was indoor plumbing.

Grandpa didn't do much to it when he bought the place in 1950. Dad and I (as a little kid) replaced the mud-sill foundation (redwood planks on the ground, rotted) with piers and posts a few years later. I'll skip more similar stories but Dad's advice for when I eventually inherited it, was to tear down and build new, you can't repair stuff as fast as it is disintegrating. But I chose to maintain it instead. This isn't our principal home, we only spend half our time here.

Now, I'm just patching stuff and and giving the same tear-down advice to the next generation.

I saw the online photo of that goofy new deck after I finished repairing the deck stairs here last week. That photo made me think how non-standard design here has made repairs more complicated.

Below is a photo.

The outer edge of the first stair tread crumbled away if you stood right at the edge. And the stair rail post at the bottom stair had rotted, this explained why it didn't feel solid even after I ran an additional bolt through it recently.

Replacing the lower stair tread, I found the redwood stair stringers rested on brick pavers, but gopher dirt had buried the contact point so all the stringers were rotten along their lower edges.

I had some old full-dimension 2x12 first-growth redwood plank scraps, and made partial scab stair stringers to bear down properly on the pavers and support the stair stringers. My air framing nailer was invaluable for attaching these alongside the stringers since there was no room to swing a hammer, or drill for bolts, in the now-narrow space between stringers. I also replaced the 4x4 newell post. This bolted securely to the adjacent reinforced stair stringer and went all the way down to bear on the paver beneath. The railing now doesn't feel shaky.

With new redwood for the lowest stair tread these stairs are good as new .