Look beneath the deck boards

Well, the decks that you walk on are not actually the structural system. So the deck boards you walk on almost never fail. They're not going to fail under just like a person just walking on them. What fails is underneath. It's the deck joists. Those joists hold multiple deck boards, right? That's the structural member. But we don't really see that. So when if you have a client or maybe it's your own balcony that you're walking out onto and you feel that it's soft, that's a common thing for people to just replace the decking or the plywood, whatever it is that that surfaces. But that's not what's failing. Your building is trying to tell you that the problem is actually underneath. It might be a rotting ledger board. It might be a beam that's too long for the span. Maybe a large windstorm came and weakened its lateral system. So it's the wood that nobody sees that is holding up the people. So if you've restained your deck boards three times over, that's a hard thing to explain because your building is telling you over and over again, right? Something else is happening here. So do this. Have your maintenance person probe the end joists with just like a screwdriver. You want to make sure that that wood is solid. If you can get in there and flake it off, if you can push your thumb through it, then it is starting to rot. And that is a sign from your building that it's time to call an engineer. So if it sinks in, don't restain. Hold that restain bid and get those frames looked at. For the board, a board sees that restaining over rot has spent money to hide the problem. So the budget line for resurfacing decks is it's not a deck inspection. And the manager who says that out loud has earned their key that they need to get that engineering inspection. So if you own the building, for example, an apartment building with elevated walkways, that's how people get out. That's their only access. So it's an occupancy question, not just an engineering or maintenance one. If it's your house, you can do this. Look and see if your ledger beam is attached with nails or bolts. Bolts are better. Nails can often come loose and it can become a safety issue and fail suddenly. So to get out that screwdriver, probe those beams underneath your decking, not your actual decking, to see whether or not you have a real issue on your hand or if it's just a maintenance issue.