The second picture is pure hillbilly cluelessness. Needed a new properly flashed ledger and the new joists hung on hangers. The guardrail on the right in the first picture is apparently too high off the deck; more than 4".

What blows me away is these are the contractors/subcontractors that the local governments approve and hire to do their community renovation programs… Noted on the guard rail height. That will be easy enough for me to adjust and it will still be at least 36 inches tall. I dont want to do any repairs on this quite yet until I can verify the deck is not at risk of collapsing from being sistered to the original joists the way they did. Thank you for pointing out the guardrail height!

It isn't necessarily the guardrail height; it's the distance from the bottom of the guardrail to the deck that's too large.

Take this out and re-build, not only it's not safe, nothing is code compliant including stair stringers.

Not...good. Probably harder to fix than to just demo and re-do.

Have you contacted the non-profit about your concerns? I am sure they would want to know about work that will come back on them when this fails. And they need to know why that bid was the lowest bid for the project.

Thanks everyone. The city does not seem to care about the fact that permits were not pulled. They told her that there are so many who do not comply that they cannot keep up with all of them. I will see if I can get them to send an inspector up to fail it so I can take that to the non-profit as grounds to fight. She already met with them over the issue and when they called the contractor in, they apologized to the contractor for making him come in over ”such a small matter”. They then proceeded to pay him and leaver her with this disgrace of a deck. So needless to say, the non-profit is a dead end in terms of help. The non-profit is in partnership with the city so they won’t pursue the permit issue. The most corrupt part is, the non-profit’s lawyer is either the current or ex city DA. So unless we can get a civil case outside the area, the judges are all partial to the DA. The corruption in that city

is horrible!

Arrgh! I'm feeling your pain - and rage! What a corrupt city mess. And so unsafe.

Try calling your local state representative and see if they can help you. If it’s funded by Federal Government entity then contact your U. S. House of Representative person. Or their office.

I was just going to say what Flo said. A local state representative just helped me get my drivers license renewal when it had slipped through the cracks. I was helped promptly and politely!

I'm not a pro and want to follow the advice/resolution. The photo of the bowed deck support looks like a meme-joke. Jeeeez.

This is an accident waiting to happen. Someone could get killed here.

In many areas, the local TV station has a reporter who loves stories like this. They usually send a camera crew for pictures and interview the appropriate government employees and a representative from the non-profit. Donors love to know how their money is spent.

Social media would love this. Post up pics and the "contractor" who did the work, that will get them to answer you, and quickly.

I don't know about Colorado, but some jurisdictions require posts and beams to support the joists on the house end. This is due to the inability to verify that they are adequately attached inside the house's exterior wall.

YMMV