] [Thread] [Date] [Author]

["Schwan, Martin K." <SchwanMK(--nospam--at)ci.anchorage.ak.us>]

And people will continue to build decks without permits and without any
design load because "it's just a deck."  

The chicken scratch I have reviewed for decks lead me to believe most people
have no concept of what are the minimum design loads.  "But we have always
built them this way"..."yes, 2x6 joist can span 16 feet"...why do you need
to know what connections I'm using? ...then they add that hot tub...

Yea, the owner may have been out paddling his canoe...but now he might be up
a creek without a paddle after the lawyers get involved...

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Turk [mailto:73527.1356(--nospam--at)compuserve.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 8:46 AM
To: seaint(--nospam--at)seaint.org
Subject: Re: deck collapse


Davis Parsons wrote:

. > At 11:00 AM, NPR reported that the owner of the property did not get a 
. > building permit for any work on the deck and I will bet that there
wasn't 
. > any engineering design performed either.

And clients wonder why I insist that building permits be obtained for work 
that I do.

I had one call where the person stated that he wanted something designed so 
that it would be safe, but not to code.

I tried to explain to him that the Code defines a *minimum* level of safety,

but I don't think that he believed me.

I have had contractors state that factors of safety are "fudge factors" in 
order to overdesign a structure, which shows that they don't understand what

a "safety factor" is for.

The online version of the Chicago Tribune stated that the building owner was

on a canoe trip in Canada and couldn't be reached.  Well, maybe he was 
paddling his own canoe, but it seems that is what he also had done with his 
building.

A. Roger Turk, P.E.(Structural)
Tucson, Arizona

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