The deck (platform) has been deconstructed and removed from the lake.

The deck was 10 X 20 of pressure treated lumber. The deck was tied to
the concrete seawall by a single 2X12 ledger that had 1/2" bolts that
were placed in the concrete when the wall was poured. After 10 years
the bolts were in good shape with no rust apparent.

Although the bolts holding the ledger to the wall were in good shape
the 2X12 PT material was shot. A 3' section in the middle was mostly
missing and the remaining ledger wasn't much better. My best guess is
that 10 years of being tight against the damp concrete and subject to
over 50 inches of rain a year with no way to dry out was more than it
could or should have been expected to endure.

The floor joists were joined to the ledger with clipped 8d ring shank
nails that were toe nailed into the ledger. The nails were badly
deteriorated with most of the rings on the shanks missing. The end of
the joists were rotten. There was no other support for the floor
except for a secondary ledger on the side bands of the platform to
which the floor ends were nailed.

The only good structure were the 3 6X6 PT post that supported the far
side of the deck. The former owner who had the work done said that the
post holes were dug by a track-hoe that was being used to clean out
the lake while it was drained and that each post has a couple of bags
of concrete around them. When we couldn't move the post using a wench
chained to a tree we began to suspect that this was going to be
harder than anticipated. From someone who was around at the time we
learned that the track-hoe took big bites out of the ground, the posts
were set and braced and when the guy pouring the wall came along he
overfilled the holes.

Using a 2 ton come-along, a Kubota tractor and lots of strong language
we managed to get 1 post free of the bottom but were unable to lift it
out of the lake.

Obviously time for substantially heavier equipment.

This deck would make a good example of how not to build a deck.





On Thu, 12 Jul 2018 19:03:49 -0500, swalker wrote:


Walked out on the platform on the lake to see how many boards needed
replacing when one corner collapsed. Quite a jolt!

See the image in a.p.b.w