Why Deck Safety Should be Top of Mind

With more than 50 million residential decks in the US, it is estimated that 30 million decks are past their useful life and need to be replaced or repaired, according to the North American Deck and Railing Association (NADRA). A significant percentage of decks are missing key components, are poorly constructed, lack proper maintenance, and have significant safety issues.

“It’s important that decks be inspected. Ideally, they are built right in the first place, but since in the real world they often aren’t, they need to be inspected by someone who is specifically trained to do deck inspections,” said Bruce A. Barker, Immediate-Past ASHI President and president of Dream Home Consultants, a Jacksonville, Florida-based consulting and building inspection firm. Barker would know. He’s quite literally
written the book on deck inspections. Among his many titles you’ll find A Practical Guide to Evaluating Decks and Deck Codes and Standards. His writing over the years has included an exhaustive look at a long list of deck accidents, injuries, and fatalities. “Every single one of those was preventable,” he said.

Barker said true deck inspections are not something that can be done by regular home inspectors, as additional training is critical to a thorough deck inspection. I talked to Barker more to find out what home inspectors need to consider when it comes to deck safety as part of Deck Safety Month in May.

What are the most common issues regarding deck safety?

Age is a very common issue, and the deterioration that comes with age. You get a deck that’s more than maybe 15 or 20 years old and, not only has it deteriorated, but it probably wasn’t built very well to begin with. It’s only been since 2009 or so when the International Residential Code had more than a paragraph on decks. The code has significantly improved since then, so the earlier you go basically it was the wild west. It was left very much open to interpretation—the right way to do things.

The number one issue is flashing. Flashing protects the ledger. The vast majority of decks are supported by the house, and if the connection at the house is not properly flashed, water gets in and rots the wood. It doesn’t matter how many bolts and screws you put in the rotted wood, they’re not going to hold.

Then it becomes a matter of was the ledger to house connection done properly?

Then it’s stairways and the rails and guards, and those are the biggies. If a deck is going to fail, it’s probably going to fail at the ledger connection, at the stair connection to the deck, or the guard connections to the deck.

Are there misconceptions about inspecting decks?

There’s a difference between a deck inspection and a home inspection that includes a deck. When you’re doing a home inspection you’re looking at a gazillion things in a limited amount of time, so you really don’t have the time to thoroughly inspect a deck. All you can do is look for what the standard of practice requires—obvious visible significant deficiencies, components that are not functioning properly, or components that are at the end of their service life. As for a deck inspection, there is an ASHI deck inspection standard and, according to that, there’s more to be done. A deck inspection is different from and significantly more detailed than a home inspection deck inspection. To do that more detailed inspection, you need more detailed training.

I wrote a course for ASHI on the topic. It’s an eight-hour online deck inspection class for members that, when you pass the exam, you get a digital badge that says you’re qualified to do deck inspections. It’s eight hours covering everything from flashings to ledger attachment to stairs, handrails, guards. It covers basically everything in the deck inspection standard that you need to know to inspect a deck.

How has deck safety evolved?

The connection of the deck ledger to the house is getting much better. That’s where a lot of the changes were in the 2009, 2012, and 2015 code updates. In the 2018 and 2021 codes, they started getting better at some of the other issues. The real go-to document is DCA 6, from the American Wood Council. That’s a free download from awc.org. If you build a deck to that, you’ve built a good deck.

Who should become a certified deck inspector?

Probably every home inspector. It doesn’t mean you have to use it. The more education you get the better.

One of the points I make is that it’s really hard to find a defect if you don’t know what it looks like. The more education you get the more you’re going to know what a defect is. If you take the eight-hour class, you’ll know more of what to look for in the regular inspection and you could wind up saving your client’s life or save them from catastrophic injury.

Can you share an experience you’ve had inspecting decks in your career?

One of the agents I work with has the running joke that I’ve never met a deck I liked because there’s something wrong with virtually all of them. Sometimes it’s relatively minor, but the biggest example I can give is the guardrail connection. That’s almost always wrong, and that’s probably the #1 or #2 failure point. What happens over time is that the wood gets soft, the connection fails, then everybody’s out on the deck and they’re taking a selfie, leaning against the rail, and all of a sudden the rail fails and they’re all on the ground. If it’s a tall deck, that can be nasty.

Why do so many decks have issues?

It’s a lack of education of the deck builders and code officials. That’s improving over time, but the decks of 10, 15, or 20 years ago are still out there and were built before modern updated codes.

I don’t think anyone sets out to build a bad deck. Decks are a favorite DIY project, and those are the scary ones. A lot of times, since they’re in the backyard, people don’t pull a permit, those decks are not inspected, and the homeowner just doesn’t know.

Opinions or statements of authors are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of ASHI, its agents, or editors. Always check with your local governmental agency and independently verify for accuracy, completeness, and reliability.