Steve Payne
Is a deck without a ledger plate, but built as an extension to the outside of kitchen floor joists, legal in Vaudreuille/Dorion, Quebec?
Canadian ContractorDaniel Raymond is dismayed to find that his daughter and son-in-law have no one to help them with a particularly troublesome rotting deck issue. First of all, he even wonders if their deck is even legal.
Below is another building code question for Quebec contractors to reply to. Who knows, if you live in the Vaudreille/Dorion area, you might even pick up some work!
This was recently posted by Daniel Raymond. Thanks for your question, Daniel, and we hope you find your contractor…
“My daughter and son-in-law are – like everybody else it seems – struggling. Their problem is that after deciding to redo their deck out back that was rotten and unsafe for my granddaughter, with the help of family they dismantled the existing deck to find that no ledger plate had been installed to attach the deck to the house. The contractor had, instead, continued the kitchen floor joists 12 feet outside the house. Some of these joists have rotten away – and the rot in one joist seems to have penetrated inside the house. It’s completely rotten and has signs of rodents.”
“Now the family are trying to pitch in but only my son has experience in construction. Unfortunately, he is away in the air force. My question to your readers: Is this situation now, or has it ever been, code? And what would be the best way to proceed? Our local contractors are all too busy and not interested in the job. My daughter and her husband live in Vaudreuille/Dorion, Quebec. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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It’s not legal and the house must be freezing in the winter
Mark is correct – it is not legal, never has been legal, and should be corrected as soon as possible to prevent any rot from entering the house structure.
I am a contractor in the Vaudreuil area. If you need help with this reconstruction project, feel free to contact me. Contact information is on http://www.cavcon.ca
Not legal for sure. There must be someone in that area that would be interested in looking at it. fixing that will be tricky and way to hard to explain here. You will need to add new floor joists and redo the deck. Will need to have the ceiling in the basement accessable.
This might seem like a big job to you but it really isn’t. You need a qualified General Contractor, with a good knowledge of structure, who is willing to put a carpenter on it and spend the time to do it right. It’s just carpentry work. When the framing is complete be sure to have 2 lb. sprayed foam installed to all joist ends.
As Brain said, it’s really not a big job. I’ve dealt with situations like this in the past and was able to do most of the repairs from the outside. The deck will have to go and some of the exterior siding. If you have a unfinished basement, it would help a lot.