By code, all decks must be designed and built to resist lateral loads, the forces that tend to pull a deck away from a house. Since 2009, the IRC has included a couple of prescriptive details that allow deck builders to meet that requirement. In part 3 of his 3-part series on proper deck ledger installation, Mike Guertin discusses the fasteners and metal hardware needed to follow the IRC’s prescriptive details and win the approval of your building inspector.
Installing Lateral-Load Connections
Part 3. Specialized hardware transfers loads from the deck frame directly to the frame of the house
When deck and house joists are parallel, screw a metal tie to the side of a house joist and another to a deck joist with structural screws.