Lateral Load Deck Connector Options

[Music] since 2000 when the International residential code first got published has been a requirement in the code on the deck portion that requires that we have some sort of lateral resistance to lateral loads lateral loads are those that pull the deck away from the house now we've handled the vertical loads by the way we've attached the ledger to the house but we want to circumvent the ledger to the rim joist connection by having a connection between the frame of the deck and the framing inside the house now that could be a connector between the joist inside the house or the top plate of the mudsill and that connection over to the joist that way a completely circumvents a weak point being the ledger connection because in the event that there's ever any decayed due to a leak in the flashing system that rots out the rim joist we wouldn't have that sort of lateral stability to the deck so in either case we've got a few different choices that we can look at we've modelled up some of those let's take a look at the way they can be configured in the early 2000s the International residential code included an illustration that looks like this it's a prescriptive option for creating that lateral load assembly that connects the joist on the deck to the joist inside the house now this is not a requirement it's just a prescriptive option that we have available to us that's code approved so to speak now the connectors come kitted with screws that you're going to use to connect the connector to the side of the joist outside on the deck and inside the house each of these connectors is rated for 1500 pounds capacity and that's important to make sure you get the right connector for this assembly then you get two connectors one for the deck one for the house you supply the through rod be it a bolt or be it some threaded rod now the connector can go to a three feet out on the deck or it can be eight inches out on the deck the same in the house there's no prescriptive detail for that you just want to make sure you got a good attachment from the connector to the to the joist on either side now one thing that I run into a lot is building a deck on an existing house and when we're doing we're gonna have to cut a hole in a Finnish ceiling often the way I approach that is rather than cut a big hole in the ceiling you have to patch and paint it I'll get a six inch by nine inch access panel I'll cut a hole in the ceiling for that right underneath a joist and then I'll use a right angle drill I'll slip the bracket up in there use the right angle drill to drive the screws and then I'll run the through rod through there make the connection by having that snap in access panel it gives an opportunity for a building inspector to check to see that those connectors are installed properly or a home inspector in the future now we only need two of these assemblies per deck and it doesn't matter what size deck it is in order to meet the code that would mean if we were building a three foot by six foot deck we're gonna have two of these assemblies or for building a hundred foot long by 20 foot deep deck we'll have two assemblies and that would meet the code requirement on this ladder a little connection model I'm showing the deck joist in a conventional arrangement where we got our ledger board and our joists going away from the building but on the inside of the house it's a little different than what you commonly see where decks are built this would be like the gable end of a house where we got a non bearing mudsill on this side the joist are running parallel to the rim joist because of that there's no joist on the inside of the house that we can put the metal connector that's going to pair up with the connector out on the deck so what we have to do is put solid blocking between the rim joist and the first inboard floor joist the first inboard floor joist and the second one make that connection there on that second inboard block and then run a rod all the way through once we tighten this up all the load will be transferred to this block and thereby into the floor system with the floor sheathing so we got a good solid connection so in the 2015 international residential code a new design was introduced as an option for us to make a lateral load connection from the deck to the house using four seven hundred and fifty pound rated connectors this is one example of that and the one that looks very similar to the one that was in the code book basically it's an l-shaped bracket that connects to the underside of the joist on the deck like you see here and then the downturn Legg ends up being oriented in a way so that a screw a 3/8 inch lag screw or a structural screw can be drilled and driven in at least 3 inches into either the mud cell on the foundation or the top plate of a wall plate so it's very simple to install we just drive screws or nails up through the bottom here one lag screw in there we're going to put four of these on the deck one within 2 feet of each end of the deck and then the other 2 sprinkled somewhere relatively evenly spaced throughout the length of the deck whether it's a 6-foot deck or a hundred-foot deck we're only going to need four of these connections to meet the code now this is a different version of the same sort of a lateral load connection using the 750 pound connector that the code has illustrated in the 2015 IRC but the manufacturers designed it a slightly different way to achieve the same result which is connecting the joists on the deck to the top plate of a wall or the mudsill on top of a foundation so the way this bracket works is it comes bent down closed and you bend one point in order to elevate the drop leg on that piece of hardware to orient that so a screw can be driven through the bottom right into the center of the mudsill of the top plate it comes with a structural screw and that would be oriented off the wall so we want to have at least three inches of embedment into the top plate of the wall or into the mudsill one of the advantages of using a connector like this is if your ledger itself is positioned above where the plate in the wall or the mudsill is it gives you a vertical range of about 4 inches that that plate or mudsill can be below the bottom of the joist or the bottom of the ledger and you can still get that connection all the way ends so this 750 pound connection is a little different than the code shows but it accomplishes the same thing you're going to need four of these on a deck this one installs any number of different ways I'll show you the simplest and then just talk through some of the others the screw that comes in the kit gets driven into the top plate of the mudsill so we get at least three inches of penetration no need to pre-drill for a hole there and then the bracket can be installed afterwards as a slot in the back of it so that it'll go over the head of the screw and then you pull it up and then you just drive the connector screws into the side of the joist this can also be mounted to the underside of the joist or you can even mount a block on the side of the joist and drop that box below the bottom of the joist itself and mount it to that so several different installation options and if you check with the manufacturer you can see those all detailed so this 750 pound connection connects from the joist on the deck to the top plate of the mudsill and it's just a simple L bracket that can be installed several different ways one way is it can be installed right to the bottom of the joist if the mud sill or the top plate of the wall lines right up with the bottom of the joist but that's not often the case so for other installations where you want to have the ledger higher than the top plate of the mud sill you can add a block to the side of the joist and then you can put the bracket on the underside like I show here as long as you've got three inches of embedment into the top plate of the wall or the mud sill you're good to go one last note about these 750 pound connectors they're great when you've got to add a deck to an existing house these are going to give us the lateral load resistance we need without encumbering the inside of the house we're cutting a big hole a lot of extra work because they all screw in from the outside into the top plate of the wall or into the mud sill but there's one caveat to using them the code says that we can only use these when the house joists are parallel with the deck joists because the connectors going into that top plate and that top plates being supported by those floor joists if the joist are running perpendicular to the hat to the deck joists then we're not supposed to use them unless you get approval from your local building official first [Music]

Channel: finehomebuilding

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Keywords: Shop Class, Critical Deck Connections, FineHomebuilding.com, deck framing, ledgers, joists

Id: nVh7skLCfCk

Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2019