Stabilizing a second story deck

[DLev]

So I'm buying this townhouse. I'm in the 14 day option period and the inspection went fine except the inspector suggested better lateral stability for the deck. Here's the quote:

In reply to:

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[horn4life]

45 degree angle support.

Pre drill the supports and then use a nut and bolt with washers on both ends to tighten down the support beam.

 

[DLev]

From where to where?

P.S. How much beer am I going to drink on that thing.

And last question...this is an easy enough job for me not to get into an argument with the seller over, right?

 

[slevhtown]

I'm pretty sure I can fix it and drink a lot of beer on it at the same time.

 

[NickDanger]

You would want to get a 4x4 to match the existing and make two 45 degree cuts in opposite directions so that you have a parallelogram. The parallelogram then gets attached to the horizontal beam and the vertical post at about 8-12 inches from the corner. You have now made an angular support. You do it on each side so that you have your basic chicken foot. Imagine a "Y" with the vertical part going up all the way instead of stopping at the branch.

The hardest part of the project will be related to the fact that your circular saw will not cut thru the 4x4 on a single pass and maybe not even if you pass it through from above and below. You'll likely have to get out the backsaw.

Don't kill the deal over this. I might not even do the project at all.

 

[politically correct horn]

If you look at the fence door and see the two boards that cross to form an x and you replicate that between the support beams then you have your bracing. If that is not clear you want to go from the floor of the deck closest to the fence door to the bottom of the beam farthest away from the fence door. You then take a second board to make the x. You would proably want to secure them where the two crossing boards form the x on the middle beam as well.

 

[NickDanger]

I didn't understand that.

 

[politically correct horn]

Nick you are right, I was actually thinking of roof trussing when I tried to describe how to brace it.

 

[DLev]

politically correct horn, I think that is what the inspector suggested and to me that would be pretty ugly. I'm inclined to do smaller angular supports if they work. Also, they've been using that deck for four years with no problems, so I may not do it at all. I'm real sure now that I won't ask the seller to fix it.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Dlev,
All three of these solutions should work, but some are more elegant than other. Please excuse the messiness, i did this quickly:

 

[DLev]

Awesome. Thanks LF68!

 

[washparkhorn]

That was a very cool thing to do - LHF68.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Eh, no biggie.

I'm not in it for the glory, just wanted to help.

 

[NickDanger]

If it weren't for the fact that it looks like there isn't much behind it anyway, those "X"'s are awfully unattractive. Is that necessary? I had the "moment" in my mind. Don't know if that is effective enough, but it's certainly less obtrusive.

I'm wondering also about something that might be decorative and functional. A triangular piece of wood with decorative molding/carving. Imagine cutting a corner off of a sheet of plywood or even a pair of 1x6's. Would that be structurally significant enough?

 

[Luke Duke]

Duct Tape and bailing wire will fix anything.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Well, from his pictures it doesn't look like anyone will be walking on the other side of those columns, so the threaded rod method would work just fine. Sure, there are infinite solutions, just find one that suits your needs.

DLev, if you wanted to make it more attractive you could 'hide' the bracing by building a gridded-wire fence between the posts and plant ivy below it. Eventually the ivy will grow up the fence and instead of looking at massive bracing you'd be looking at a lush, green wall.

 

[Bevoldemort]

They won't be doing much of anything on the other side of those X's. Is there any reason why they HAVE to go from floor to ceiling? Couldn't they form an X in the top 2 feet or so? Especially if the deck has been performing fine so far?

 

[politically correct horn]

thanks LHF68, your first example was what I was trying to describe.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Bevoldemort, as I stated above, there are infinite solutions to this problem. However, those were my suggestions. The simplest (and probably the most effective) is the first or third, but the second will work. I doubt that it is so unstable that it's unusable, but after inspecting the pictures, bracing is probably a good idea because of how long those columns are.