Deck post twisting and pulling away from beam

3262 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by de-nagorg, May 10, 2020

bhar

Discussion Starter · May 6, 2020

I hired a contractor to build a deck about 2 years ago. He clearly used very green wood and didn't use carriage bolts to attach the posts to the beam. As the post dried, it twisted and pulled away from the beam. See attached photos. I have a few questions:

1. How worried should I be? I assume it's done drying/moving and so won't get any worse, right?
2. Do I need to replace the whole post?
3. Should I add carriage bolts now?
4. If so, how many? Just one or two per post?
5. Is my goal to tighten the nut down enough to pull them back together, or just prevent them from separating any further?

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de-nagorg

· #3 · May 6, 2020

Welcome to the group.

That is probably done warping, I would get 2 bolts per post, and large square plates for each bolt, and install the bolts where they get the most meat to pull together.

Do not over tighten them, this might cause the thing to split, but tighten them enough to add a bit of secure leverage to holding this together.

This is common with PT wood, which is why I use REDWOOD, or CEDAR, most of the time.

ED

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de-nagorg

· #6 · May 10, 2020

bhar said:
Thanks for all the advice. I installed 2 carriage bolts (with 2 nuts each). As expected, it didn't pull the wood back together, but I can sleep better now.

If you slowly, over the summer, re-tighten those nuts, most of that gap will be taken away.

Remember SLOWLY wins the race.

ED

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Deck post twisting and pulling away from beam

bhar

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