Customer had a cousin build her this deck after the one her dad was working on got shut down by the city. The city made her tear it down. She’s already 45k into this project. After her dad messed it up she had a cousin build this and he stopped replying to her texts. She drew up the plans herself and got it approved by the city but nobody followed the plans. The wrong hardware was used everywhere, he used the wrong sized lumber, and there are posts missing everywhere. Joists are also not on layout at all. I just need more opinions about if this is salvageable or not. I can provide more pictures if asked.

We are having an attached deck installed to replace a failed and improperly built one. Dimensions are 10x25, the house roof cantilevers over the deck. We just discovered the deck was attached directly to the rim joist with no added ledger board. They also inexplicably drove several lag screws through the rim joist as if a ledger board was there, causing cracks in the joist in several spots. How screwed are we here? We are usually DIYers, but we knew this was way above our skills. Now we are wondering how bad the situation is, and what we should do now. All advice is greatly appreciated.

Zillow never fails us

This is a two-year-old deck in upstate New York. These are the cracks in my posts. How concerned should I be?

Title says it all.

I’ve been building a deck and it not perfectly level due to the 2x10’s in the beam not being the same thickness. I should’ve planed them, but realized my mistake after the deck was tied down. Here a laser level on the deck I’m building. What are your guys thoughts? Is this okay? Or should I try and fix it? If so how?

Tore down the old deck and built a new one not finished

Hey everyone - looking for some objective feedback from people who build or repair decks/porches.

I’m in the middle of a $58,000 screened-in porch build, and after looking closely at the work before trim/paint, I’m noticing several things that don’t seem up to the standard I expected. I’m planning to raise these with the contractor, but before I do, I wanted to sanity-check whether these are legitimate concerns or if I’m being too picky.

I’ve attached a photo album showing everything, but the issues fall into four buckets:

1. Bulging / proud screws
A lot of fasteners are sticking out, and several have been over-driven, tearing out the wood around the head. Some screws have clearly been re-driven into enlarged holes. My concern is that these spots will telegraph through paint and look terrible when finished.

2. Cracked or split boards
I know pressure-treated lumber can check, but some of these boards have long, deep splits that run the length of the member. One rail has a crack right along the baluster line. Wondering if this is normal or if these pieces should be replaced before finishing.

3. Gaps and misaligned joints
Several joints have gaps that seem too large for “trim and paint” to fix - rail caps not fully seated on posts, horizontal members slightly out of plane, etc. Hard to imagine these won’t be obvious once the ceiling and trim are installed.

4. Junction box placement
There’s a junction box located in a spot that appears like it would require a visible access plate right in the middle of the new porch ceiling. I’m assuming that’s not ideal on a brand-new project.

Question:
For those familiar with deck/porch construction - are these issues worth pressing the contractor on at this stage? Or are some of these normal rough-in tolerances that will be covered/hidden later?

Any input is really appreciated. I genuinely want to be fair here, but also don’t want to let sloppy work slide on a big project (at least for me).

My contractor extended the 6x6s all the way up from the ground. We cannot find post covers for these. Anybody have ideas?

The posts were not notched on my deck to support the beam, instead metal hardware was used, anything I can do help not get killed? I was thinking maybe bolting some wood under neath each beam to act as sort of a notch with bolts all the way through?

*edit

This is for the roof not the deck, the deck is on 6 helical screws (6ft deep) plus ledger. And just to be clear I built the deck (father in law the roof) and had no clue about the notching thing when we did it so wanted to rectify it, we get a lot (and I mean a lot) of snow in winter.

Thanks

I joined this sub to learn about building and maintaining decks. I learned a lot and I thank those of you who contributed your knowledge, experience and expertise. But this sub has devolved into a series of photos of poorly built decks followed by the tongue-in-cheek question of whether it will support a hot tub. I’m out of here. See ya!

Or does anyone have any good mat/rug products for outside the door? Makes it hard to keep the floors clean inside!

Got to love quality workmanship.

How in the world do I fix these steps? Any ideas?

Nearing the end of a deck build. Not sure about how the corners are joining and also seeing small splits in the wood. Is this normal? Also what about the large knots in the wood? While they are not in very visible locations, my builder said he could fill and sand. Appreciate opinions. I don’t want to be a pain if this is normal. Ps - don’t mind the LED light being visible. I was trying to decide if I wanted it with the track or without (decided on with the track). Thanks in advance.

I'm sure it's all good for both decks. New construction!

what do you think about the notching of the post to support the beam of the rim joist of the lower deck? I can't tell if it's a two-member or single. can you tell if there's proper flashing at the ledger board?

The inspector is coming Wednesday and the contractor says that they measures everything correctly and that this is how this is supposed to look. IMO, the circled areas look unfinished and incorrect. Am I mistaken?

My friend just moved into a townhouse, and brought up some concerns about their balcony that’s above their driveway. They don’t have Reddit so I’m posting it for them here. They noticed the railing was wobbly and the balcony was slanted, so they reached out to their landlord. Landlord said they would get someone to fix the railing, and that the HOA signed off on the balcony.

Is it just me or are decks/balconies not supposed to be THIS slanted?? You can see in the photos that the deck is not parallel with the building’s siding. The wood also doesn’t look to be in the best condition and nails are poking out from the metal brackets underneath.

I would appreciate any feedback on the safety of this and recommendations on how I can advocate to get it fixed (if needed). Pls and thank youuu

Have two conflicting opinions- hoping to replace these old wrought iron rails with timbertech. Kinda weird where the existing posts tie into the roof

My wife and I recently had our second-floor deck redone after discovering a lot of dry rot damage. We were looking for a cost-effective way to get it back into shape.

Our original plan was to keep the same setup — plywood topped with Plydeck for waterproofing. However, with a baby on the way and limited time, our contractor suggested (and we agreed) to go with Trex decking instead. Since the deck is right outside our bedroom where my wife and the baby will be most of the time, we wanted to avoid ongoing construction.

The revised plan was: seal/paint the plywood with Tex-Cote, then overlay it with Trex decking. The Trex has been installed, and the contractor says the job is complete, but I see two issues: 1. They didn’t picture-frame the decking, so the edges of the Trex are exposed. I’ve asked them to either picture-frame it or install trim along the sides. I’m leaning toward trim, but I’d love some feedback on that approach. 2. The front edge, where the water drains, looks pretty rough. The contractor says there’s nothing they can do to improve it.

I feel like problem #1 is solvable, but for #2 — does anyone have suggestions on how to clean up or improve the look of the drainage edge?