[Alketi]

I have a vacation home deck that is in a grandfathered location, i.e. too close to neighbor's property to allow for a teardown.

There are two issues:

1. The railing, which looks to be home-made by the previous owner (with apparently a painted pine top-rail), is disintegrating.

2. There are no joist hangars. I believe the joists are toe-nailed into either a ledger board or possibly directly to the house rim joist (I have to look more closely next visit). The inspector had flagged this back when I bought the house.


I'm handy enough to take on the repairs, but have never done any deck work before to know the best course of action.

-- Any recommendations on the best approach for building a new railing?

Would it be to (possibly) replace the lower white framing member and then notch-cut 4x4s for the posts and use composite sleeving and railing? Attach the 4x4s with 3.5" Spax outdoor screws?

-- How about for the joist hanging problem?

Can I just nail joist hangars in place after the fact?

[Again, a teardown is not an option in my case]

Thanks in advance.

 

[Daniel Holzman]

Since teardown is not an option, but you will be doing significant repair work, I suggest you discuss the project with your local building inspector to see what the local requirements are for railings. Your jurisdiction may follow the Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide, which does not allow notching of railing posts. See http://www.awc.org/codes-standards/publications/dca6