The Problem With A Cantilevered Deck

An inspector needs to be on the lookout for structural problems with cantilevered decks. That is especially true here in the northwest where we have so much rain.

Do you know what a cantilever is? Here is a pretty good photo that I took at a recent inspection.

See that beam: Dark on the inside and white outside where it supports an upper deck. Notice how green that beam is at the exposed outside section. That is a big problem with this design. As the wood is exposed to rain on the outside, rot forms and that will travel right down the beam. Before long you have a deck that is seriously weakened, likely to be unsafe, and you also have a repair job that takes some doing to fix -- especially if the decay gets back into the exterior wall.

The cantilever design might work great in some climates, but it creates many problems in the Pacific Northwest.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith