Deck Inspection

What to Keep in Mind While Planning Your New Deck: How to Pass That Deck Inspection

Do you often envision the deck you are planning to build for special outdoor activities and celebrations of the family? Well, you must ensure that the deck is safe and up to the latest regulatory codes. This can be done by performing routine deck inspection.

 

Deck Safety

 

Since your deck is located outside of the house, it is often subject for the harshest elements the entire year. This means that the deck is often exposed to heat and cold weather conditions taking a tool even on the most well-maintained outdoor structures.

 

What You Need to Look Out For

 

Insect damage

    •  Modern day decks are mostly made of wood or a composite of such often treated with chemicals to keep bugs away. You can check for any deterioration if you notice some movement or sound when you first step onto it.

Rusted fasteners or connectors

    • Sometimes the safety of the deck is not visible from the outside. So, you have to look under the deck to ensure that connectors, fasteners, and joists are all in good shape.

Cracks and rotting

    • Wood tends to crack after some time specially between the joints and around the fasteners. This can exploit the weaknesses in your deck leading to serious problems.

Mold and mildew exposure

    • Almost all decks develop a green tint from mildew within its lifespan. In fact, steps are prone to mildew growth making them slippery and unsafe.

 

Deck Inspection

 

Deck framing

    • Inspectors for framing would usually require decks to be built low to the ground. This makes the job of inspectors easy without having to crawl down the structure. During deck inspection, inspectors will have to look at the specific connections assembled across the frame.

 

  • Among the areas to be inspected are the joist and beam spacing, as well as the hardware connections. Before the permit can be closed, you must pass a final inspection when all the work is done.

Deck footing inspection

    • Contractors can save ample amount of time on a project if they coordinate promptly about the footing inspections after the excavations. You can pass the footing inspection by using an inspector measure so that you can verify the base sizes and depths of the holes meet the specifications of the approved plans.

 

Professional Deck Inspection Cost

 

Perhaps the most important areas have been discussed and the remaining item to talk about is the cost. Typically, professional deck inspection cost ranges from $25 for a 30-minute inspection to as high as $199 for an hour.

 

What to Do If You Fail

 

It is possible to make mistakes as even experienced tradesmen can overlook details. Therefore a deck inspection is necessary because an inspector can look for details that others can’t.

 

If you fail, it is guaranteed that the next time your deck is inspected, it will become much safer and ready for use. So, it is not that bad to fail at your inspection after all.

 

Deck Inspectors for Southern California is happy to offer our services in Los Angeles, Orange County as well as San Diego and all Southern California surrounding areas like: Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank, Santa Monica, Anaheim, Temecula, Vista, Escondido, Carlsbad, and El Cajon