deck
 

I'm building a deck at my friend's house. The township he lives in puts people through some serious waiting. I had to submit detailed plans and 3 copies of the design with the permit application. Then they said the back edge of the deck was too close to the rear property line, and had to be shortened. They want 25 feet between the two, and 10 ft from the sides. The plans were finally approved this week, but they want to do 3 inspections. First one after the footers are dug, but before they are poured.... then once it's framed. then a final.

here is the 3 d model i built in Google Sketch up..... I had to remove the landings, though.....because they would be considered part of the deck. balls. so, here is the original model without the railing:

3 inspections... scamming wankers.

3 inspections is standard here too..... I agree with your summary, Griff.

We typically have one inspection here.

A friend in Md recently built a new deck last fall. He submitted all the paperwork, was approved and upon completion the inspector said he wanted it all dissembled and replaced using only the approved nails. NAILS??? My friend used all Azec material and Kreg decking screws. My neighbor said a lot under his breath and then a simple "yeh sure." He said they haven't heard from the inspector since.

My kids have been helping my dad build a deck platform at the edge of his dam so they can just jump straight in. It's pretty awesome. I'll try and put a pic up a bit later on if anyone's interested.

eta: They didn't worry about getting any council approvals. They just built it. :D

Yeah, when I built my deck, I went, sat down with Jack McKewen, the borough manager, sketched it out with approximate measurements, and paid him $65. Then I built it. The end.

Ahhh the good ole days ...

too much gov't regulation

link

[soapbox] Seriously, if you want to put people to work, put an unnecessary regulator out of work. That would have an actual multiplier effect. [/soapbox] Now back to our regularly scheduled cool home project.

Unnecessary regulators suck. But so does an improperly built deck that collapses when you have a party and 15 people are standing on it. Decks seem to be more susceptible to collapse than buildings. I'm not sure why that is. I never remember hearing of building just collapsing under the weight of people, but I do remember hearing of half a dozen news stories where decks collapsed and people were hurt.

Three inspections is overkill in most deck situations, but I can see how if a finished deck has hidden framing, you would want to inspect the framing before it was covered. Maybe the inspectors are just not interested in crawling around under low decks and maybe taller decks often finish the space a little underneath so that the framing is somewhat hidden. Tall decks have the most potential danger, so they should be thoroughly inspected.

Inspections can't catch everything though. I was helping a guy build his deck once, and he was using hangers for the joists. He used the short nails to hang the hangers to the posts, and the long nails to nail through the joists. I saw him do it and corrected him, but an inspector wouldn't have been able to see the length of the nail based on the visible nail head.

YEah... I have no problem with the inspections... just the time it took to get the friggin permit in the first place. I'm hoping that they are prompt coming out to do them, is all.

I get it that they need to make sure the holes are deep enough, and that there are enough to support the deck, and that the framing is sturdy enough. I'll be using screws and treated wood for the inner framing, but nails and clear cedar for the visible decking and railing. It's 16' x 18' and the lumber alone cost $5400. And I shopped around for the best price. DiamondM lumberyard is supplying it.

The homeowner has a mason doing the footers tomorrow. I can't wait to get started.

one thing i like about texass, just do it. yeah, they want you to call before digging/trenching, as long as you aren't in a right of way, phuck it. build it. funny thing is this tho, the HOA will screw you over before the govt will here.

nice plans btw jim, would love to see the pics of the build if you can...

I have to agree. Those plans look good. They are well thought out. Looks like they even take a hill by the steps into account. Too bad the landings got axed. I really liked those.

That's just what I was thinking... "Inspections and permits? For just a backyard deck? That's crazy!"

Building it virtually first illuminated several design flaws. I would have put the footers in the wrong spots, for one, and the railings would have looked shoddy....and just the way the outer box of the frame fits together changed the overall length by 3 inches... Again changing the location of the footers. Sketch up allows you to look at it from all angles and it predicts line location, centers you, tell you where the x y and z axes are... Fucking sweetest free program evar..... Like as far as meat space application goes. I would love to design decks for a living.


I should have been an architect. /costanza.

I'm going to have to just put a big wide set of steps on the face, and break it around the corner to meet a little one. He has a covered porch right next to the deck that might have been an issue with those landings anyway. I can't seem to upload pics off this iPad so I will post before shots later. Thankfully, I took a few shots with the regular camera too.