Deck and balcony collapse lawyers explain that when you’re attaching a deck’s ledger board to a brick veneer home use caution. A brick veneer façade generally is only designed to support the weight of the brick itself. Many older homes do not have brick ties strengthening the veneer. And even in moderately aged homes, the condition of the mortar and bricks may not be good enough for the brick veneer to carry any extra weight load.

Our deck and balcony collapse lawyers caution you that if the brick ledges or the footings that support the brick aren’t sound, the weight of the deck could pull away from the veneer, and pull away the veneer from the house as well. And brick veneers with large gaps, such as for large banks of windows, might experience extra stresses on the bricked areas. A structural collapse could occur, causing injury.

The best way to attach a deck to a brick veneer home to ensure stability is to provide independent weight bearing supports like beams and posts up against the house. Then you would also bolt through the brick at the band joist of the house to provide lateral support for the deck. But this arrangement, with the independent support beams, carries the weight of the deck away from the brick veneer so that the brick isn’t supporting that extra weight.

In cases where the deck gets bolted directly to the brick veneer, the bolts are placed through the brick into the house-framing band. But because of the great distance between the back of the deck board and the house framing band, the bolts will actually bend and shear and put much of the weight of the deck back onto the bricks.

Our deck and balcony collapse lawyers know that fortunately, many brick veneer facades have extra carrying capacity. So the size and spacing of the bolts will generally be the same as for wood-to-wood connections. Put the bolt all the way through the house-framing band. Don’t use lag bolts. Carefully seal all of your bolt holes and the flashing at the ledger board to prevent water seepage and rot.