Deck and Porch Inspection in Jeffersontown, KY
Jeffersontown has a large stock of decks built in the 1980s and 1990s, which is precisely the period whose standard details have since been recognized as inadequate. The single most common problem is the ledger: nailed rather than bolted, and installed without flashing.
That combination fails quietly. Water gets behind the ledger, the band joist behind it rots over fifteen or twenty years, and the fasteners lose the wood they were anchored into. There is no visible warning from the deck surface, which is why ledger failures tend to happen suddenly and under load.
The second issue is footing depth. Kentucky frost depth requires footings below roughly 30 inches, and a good number of decks from this era sit on pads set considerably shallower, which shows up as seasonal movement and posts that no longer bear evenly.
What We Look At Here
- Ledger fastening type — nails versus through-bolts or structural screws
- Flashing at the ledger and condition of the band joist behind it
- Post-to-footing and post-to-beam connections for uplift and lateral capacity
- Footing depth relative to local frost depth where it can be established
- Joist hangers: presence, correct model, and correct nails
- Guard and rail post attachment, which is a separate load path from the deck itself
More on the service itself: Deck & Porch Structural Inspection. More on the area: Jeffersontown.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
My deck feels solid. Is an inspection still worth it?
Ledger rot is concealed behind the board and gives almost no warning underfoot. A deck that feels solid is exactly the condition in which the connection is worth checking, particularly on anything built before about 2000.