when Section R507.8, a prescriptive method for sizing deck posts, was included in the 2015 International Residential Code. Prescriptive design is a cookbook for construction that eliminates the need for a design professional
POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about deck ledger board connections, construction, codes & safety Deck & porch ledger boards: Most residential decks are supported on one side by a ledger that is bolted or lagged to the home’s band joist. This connection is critical, since a failure here can ca...
Side Note BUILDING A DECK? FIRST CONTACT 811! Contact 811 at least a few days before you start any digging project. Your state’s one call center will notify affected member utility companies about your digging project, at which point they will send locate technicians to mark public underground...
The 2021 IRC will be the first I-code to provide any guidance on guard construction other than the load target and the geometry. Though guards function foremost as a safety feature, they are also an architectural feature, and the market for deck guard design is enormous. This makes prescripti...
Deck construction codes, guidelines, and materials have evolved radically over the past 15 years. Technological advances in fasteners and fastening systems - along with more stringent code requirements - make today’s decks much safer than their predecessors. In many cases, old decks can be easi...
approach that will satisfy the new code requirements. Most jurisdictions haven’t adopted the 2021 IRC yet, so now is a good time to prepare, by trying out different approaches for guardrail post connections that will comply with the new code section and seeing which construction details work be...
Except using tendons to introduce compressive stress in concrete deck, some construction strategies are used. Temporary loads are sometimes applied to the sagging regions (the regions of positive moment) before the concrete cast in the hogging regions. In this way, the compressive stress is induced...