While most maintenance & even some repairs can easily be handled by a typical homeowner, building a new deck or performing major repairs should generally be left to a professional deck builder. At SLS Construction, we insist on building everything to meet or exceed the most recent building codes or best practices instituted by other Government Agencies, manufacturers, or trade groups. This raising of the bar not only protects our customers, but their friends and family that will also be enjoying the deck or patio. I remember back in 2003 when the nation was shocked when 13 people died in a deck collapse in Chicago. In this case, the owner who wanted to save a few bucks never pulled a permit and had a deck built that was not properly designed for the load, nor did it meet the codes of that time.
You would think after this and quite a few other ones around the same time, that would help eliminate any more senseless mishaps. Unfortunately by just typing in the term “deck collapse” in Google leads to these results in just the top half the of the page; 2008, 3 injured — Deck Pulled away from the house; 2008, 2 Injured — Deck Pulled away from the house; 2008, 5 Injured — Deck & repairs done never met code; 2008, 21 injured — Rotted Wood. In our photo album area we have one example of an improperly built deck that I visited in the City of Cullman in 2008 that was only a few years old. I am sure they got a really good price on the deck being built originally, but how much did that deal really cost them?
Updates: Broken links have been removed, which includes the link for the deck in Cullman – additional pictures were used in this article: HTRC Article on “WHEN you need to call a professional”