Ask the Architect

More on decks and railings

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Q. We read your column about stair railings and decks and want to share our experience. We had a home inspection to buy our first house last year, and the inspector told us the deck and rails weren’t safe for our 2-year-old, and that we should check to see if the deck was ever legal. The building department checked it for us. The deck wasn’t legal, and we wanted the seller to get a CO before we bought and to make the deck safe. They first agreed, then offered instead to sell as-is. We agreed, and learned later that we had to get a zoning variance for too much covering the property, a permit, plus a lot of changes. We practically had to rebuild the deck, which had no foundation and was just sitting on a patio, and the railings and steps had to be rebuilt, too, since they didn’t meet code. It cost us more than the $3,000 they took off the sale price. So can you tell us about the requirements we should have looked for?

A. Lesson One: always get a thorough search by someone who knows building codes before buying. Never assume a title search reveals code violations or that the building is truly clear of potential problems. Every property probably has some violation, just based on code changes and retroactive requirements, from smoke and monoxide detectors, which are minor costs, to escape wells and finished-basement permits, which aren’t as minimal to resolve.

Lesson Two is to never assume something is “grandfathered.” Many homeowners have zoning problems that will add more than half a year to their permit process, and extra costs just for air conditioning units placed in side yards, because everyone assumes the air conditioning companies took care of permits. Surprise!

Lesson Three: Decks are structures. They must support the load of everyone you invite over for your July Fourth barbecue. I still cringe when I think of the disaster when a deck collapsed and four people were killed on Long Island. One victim was pinned under the barbecue, and was burned badly before dying.

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