New Deck,

Ok, I inspect this house on sunday, is there anything from this point of view wrong with this deck?

Size of support posts and attachment to home would be my concerns. If small kids present, horizontal wood is climbable.

Apart from the horizontal safety rails I would wait till Sunday then check it out properly…

Agree, can’t tell more than that :wink:

Support posts in front of driveway without extra bollard protection. And, the climbable railing.

Looks like a patio to me. Check the landscape plants at the very bottom edge of the pic.

If it is a driveway… nice catch!

yep. Nobody drives over bushes to get in their driveway. (okay, I did drive over my neighbor’s bushes to get in my driveway once at 3:00 am, but that was a long time ago and it was Saturday night).

Posts need cross bracing or some other type of better support. 6x6 would be better.

Horizontal rails are mentioned, but not a defect. They haven’t proven to be more dangerous than vertical.

Attachment to the house is always a concern, seldom done correctly, IMO.

Thx, really wanted to see everYones view on horizontal slats, and or 6X6 post,. and possible no sway bracing. the attachments I will see tomorrow.

Agree with Jeffrey:)

I wouldn’t have any problem at all with the post size but they should be protected from impact by a car. Climbable guardrail is bad, bracing depends on how it feels. A full-length ledger at the offset (or other framing we can’t see) may make it stable enough. Walk out there, grab the guardrails and try to make it move.

Climbable rails are now permitted in the model codes.

I call them out in anyway as a safety concern for small children.

Plants are in the foreground tops just visible at bottom of pic, I don’t think that’s a driveway. Patio slabs would not not last long if it was used for parking. Columns also look like they could be metal but can’t tell from the photo. “Deck” more resembles a balcony. Is it cantilevered or fastened to a ledger?

Ditto. I even had an Architect tell me that they were OK, just as the client’s 4 year old was climbing on them to look down from a 7th floor balcony. :mrgreen:

What did the architect have to say?

http://www.olatheks.org/files/Development/BP_DeckGuidelines.pdf

Here is what I go by here in KC. This could apply to many other cities. You just need to document, advise, refer, let the buyer decide.

James, what did you find when you did the inspection? What did you report?

The “Ladder Effect” is no longer in the ICC.

Your picture does not let anyone see the ledger connection.

It might be worth checking. What is the max bolt load for a 1/2 inch bolt or 3/8 in lag screw? Might be nice to know to “guess” if ledger connection makes senses.
Decks are a huge problem. Comments on line cannot take away your responsibility to your client (my opinion).

I agree with previous posts there should be more support and larger posts. According to the “How to perform deck inspection course” it says the posts should be 6 X 6 and no higher than 12 feet tall.14 feet tall is ok if there is cross bracing.

BUMP?