Hey there,
I'm looking for some advice on attaching a ledger board to our house.
First of all, the house is double-brick construction and currently has a small deck on the second level (rear). The existing deck's ledger appears to be properly bolted through the bricks and the joist. We are currently remodeling the main floor bathroom which is at the back of the house. Consequently, we have access to the rear joist through the yet-to-be-finished bathroom ceiling.
Eventually (within a year or two) we plan to rebuild and widen the existing deck. So we have decided that now would be a good time to attach the ledger board since we have access to the appropriate space inside the house. If we wait, we'll have to tear into the ceiling again later.
Sorry for the long intro... anyways, we bought the longest carriage bolts we could (12"), however they are about an inch short. So we have to go somewhere to find 14" bolts. The double brick is very thick and the joist is 3" instead of 2", plus a gap between the bricks and joist. But here is what I'm struggling with... We were thinking that the bolts should be fed from the inside out, with the nuts on the outside. When we feed the bolts we plan to use masonry-to-metal concrete filler in the bolt holes so that they will be permanently attached to the house. But the joist spacing inside is 10".
How are we supposed to feed the bolts from the inside out when the space between the joists is 4" less than the length of the bolts? All references I have seen to using carriage bolts has them fed from the inside out. Should we forget that and feed them from the outside in? The problem with that then is if the ledger needs to be changed, all of the bolts will need to come out whereas if we put them inside-out, presumably we could reuse those bolts if we ever needed to change the ledger doe to rot or anything like that.
Or should we forget the bolts and use lag screws? the inner joist is certainly hefty enough to take them. I am quite certain that bolts are the proper code just about everywhere these days though.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I'm looking for some advice on attaching a ledger board to our house.
First of all, the house is double-brick construction and currently has a small deck on the second level (rear). The existing deck's ledger appears to be properly bolted through the bricks and the joist. We are currently remodeling the main floor bathroom which is at the back of the house. Consequently, we have access to the rear joist through the yet-to-be-finished bathroom ceiling.
Eventually (within a year or two) we plan to rebuild and widen the existing deck. So we have decided that now would be a good time to attach the ledger board since we have access to the appropriate space inside the house. If we wait, we'll have to tear into the ceiling again later.
Sorry for the long intro... anyways, we bought the longest carriage bolts we could (12"), however they are about an inch short. So we have to go somewhere to find 14" bolts. The double brick is very thick and the joist is 3" instead of 2", plus a gap between the bricks and joist. But here is what I'm struggling with... We were thinking that the bolts should be fed from the inside out, with the nuts on the outside. When we feed the bolts we plan to use masonry-to-metal concrete filler in the bolt holes so that they will be permanently attached to the house. But the joist spacing inside is 10".
How are we supposed to feed the bolts from the inside out when the space between the joists is 4" less than the length of the bolts? All references I have seen to using carriage bolts has them fed from the inside out. Should we forget that and feed them from the outside in? The problem with that then is if the ledger needs to be changed, all of the bolts will need to come out whereas if we put them inside-out, presumably we could reuse those bolts if we ever needed to change the ledger doe to rot or anything like that.
Or should we forget the bolts and use lag screws? the inner joist is certainly hefty enough to take them. I am quite certain that bolts are the proper code just about everywhere these days though.
Thanks in advance for any advice!