When no one cares!

5 years ago

This Is what was found during the demolition of an existing deck. The deck was part of a new construction home that is now 6 years old. They did not use a ACQ approved fastener and you can see how the treated lumber corrodes and eats this nail. The scary part the deck is more than 10' off the ground (see below) and the above pic is from a stair tread board. Disgusting how many people involved just did not care, the so called "Builder", the carpenter(s) and even getting past the building inspector.

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Comments (3)

PRO
SML Custom Homes, LLC
5 years ago
I used to work for a company involved in steel joists amd deck and we'd draw up plans to ensure everything was per code and structurally sound. After we ship our joists out and they get to the job site, they begin to put them up. We get a call...or I get a call and the customer is concerned about the connection of several joists. They were supposed to bear no less than 2 1/2" on the steel beams. These guys had put them in with less that 1" bearing on the steel beam. The beam was angular to the joists, however, we'd coordinated steel plates to be used to get full bearing. Suffice it to say, they completely ignored our plans and did what they wanted. I'm surprised the building is still standing and how the inspectors let that fly. As for residential projects, I've heard and seen plenty of things that make me wonder whats really going on.
PRO
American Deck and Patio
5 years ago
Maybe the larger issue is not the nails or the contractor but rather the wood treating industry and negligent 2004 cave in to the EPA. ACQ was a failed product and a very poor reaction to a completely unnecessary and wrongful attack on CCA which has never proven to be a health or environmental risk. And guess what...it is still used as the primary and dominant wood treatment chemical in commercial and marine applications.....Why? because it actually works like it always has unlike the watered down MCA residential applications that are mandated for the residential market. Thus, the only losers are are all the residential decks built since 2004 with inferior framing lumber. I know this because I have seen and removed ACQ lumber decks where not just the hardware but the wood itself has disintegrated....To help you translate this repeated rant, the next set of pictures you may view in a similar setting as this may be rotted and failed ACQ and / or MCA treated wood frame decks which will be as bad or worse than the corroded nail pictures. What happens to lumber rotted and dry rot lumber decks? Look up the recent Berkeley balcony collapse.... As an industry, we would be providing a much safer and better decking product with no health risks to the residential homeowner if we had stayed with cca treatment chemical which by the way does not require any special treated hardware, nails, etc. beyond the standard galvanize process for any / all exterior applications.....
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PRO
Kehoe Kustom, LLC
Original Author
5 years ago
I appreciate and understand your comment, however their is not excuse for the outcome in my original post. We should not make a scapegoat for those that the lack of understanding of building principals and product knowledge. I am by no means a fan of chemically treated lumber but if that is what you are going to use, do the job properly! I prefer thermally modified lumber but the price point is a issue, 3x the cost of the standard treated. Other options are still available. The point of this should remain, those building need to know the products they are working with. With regards to those who built the deck in my original post, even if they did not have the knowledge they would have found the information specified in the architectural notes on the blueprints. Simply put, this should not happen. The reality, it happens far to often!