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Guy built my deck and did a crappy job. How can I fix this sistered beam?

Guy built my deck and did a crappy job. How can I fix this sistered beam?


  #1  
Old 07-09-19, 09:43 AM
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Guy built my deck and did a crappy job. How can I fix this sistered beam?

Here are pictures of the problem area.

The posts were notched to hold two 2x. Those 2x were lag screwed in. However, the length of the sistered 2x are not lag screwed and dont have an adhesive or anything and I dont want them to split. There's already probably a 1/4"+ gap. Honestly, nothing will probably happen if I leave it as is, but i'd like to fix it.

Should I just get some lag screws and snug it up? I'm scared of two things here: 1)that the gap will widen as I've seen happen when I screw two pieces of wood together that arent clamped. 2)that the first board will actually snug up to the second thereby pulling the 2x off the post a little which i definitely DONT want. Would it be better to use a carriage bolt?
 
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Old 07-09-19, 10:58 AM
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My inspectors would not permit structural deck screws to attach a beam like that. They want to see 1/2" hot dip galvanized through bolts. Do you have any screws going in the other direction to hold the beam onto the post?

Are the deck boards attached to only one or both of your beams? If only one then you can use screws to suck them together but if they screwed the decking to both then you won't be able to pull them together.
 
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Old 07-09-19, 11:09 AM
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I think the spax lag screws are the only things holding the beams onto the post; I dont think there are screws in other directions. The deck boards...I'm not sure. I plan on buying some hurricane ties to attach those to the beams more securely instead of whatever he had done. Hurricane ties and galvanized nails. Im not sure if I should use them on each side of every joist to the beams though...that sounds like it'd take a while lol.
 
 

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