This topic contains 86 replies, has 36 voices, and was last updated by 
kurt@welkerhomes.com 1 week ago.
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AnonymousHere’s an article that may explain why this time. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dry-rot-berkeley-balcony-collapse-20150616-story.html#page=1
Here’s an article that may explain why this time. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dry-rot-berkeley-balcony-collapse-20150616-story.html#page=1
I saw that on the news and although they didn’t show a close up I thought to myself with the way it looks… like it just snapped off, it had to be rotted
Only 8 years old. some heads are going to fall on this one.
Mark E.
Pioneer, CA
Working Pro 1972 - 2015
Member since Jan 22, 2013
www.creative-redwood-designs.comNot good. Not good at all!
Only 8 years old. some heads are going to fall on this one.
RW right on that, heads are gonna roll. The bad part is if that one failed all the rest of them could have the same rot going on. I smell a lawsuit!
Dirty
A Working Pro since 1988!
Member since January 26, 2013.
wow how does the water get there and cause dry rot. I thought in this day and age the beam would’ve been made of stainless or something.
Wow, another deck! This type of work is crazy. Guess they didn’t have any engineers checking the building for these water issues. You would think more care would be involved when peoples lives or health is at stake.
A Working Pro since 2004
Scary, just the thought of people falling onto each other 5 stories makes me cringe.
8 years….I dont know about Cali but 8 years back ACQ was prime time. With all of the hardware going into these builds I wouldnt be surprised if that corrosion factored in. I recently pulled apart a low deck about that old with all corroded joist hangers. They were galvanized too.
My instincts feel like moisture or humidity speeds up the active chemicals.If I lived in that building I wouldnt be going out on ly balcony anytime soon.
Working Pro since 1993
Tom M
I just refused a job a few weeks ago on a balcony similar to that.
The floor joists were all rotten that came cantilevered out of the house due to no flashing. He wanted me to build a 4′ x 10′ deck and nail it to the house and just use 4x4s on each corner on a 45* angle back to the house. I told him that was not up to code and was not safe.
Told him if I could not do the job right I would not touch it.WOW, that is unreal. Can’t understand how companies get away with building stuff like this. For it to give in only after 8 years. Not good at all.
“If you don’t pass on the knowledge you have to others, it Dies with you”
— Glenn BottingThat’s incredible, RIP those poor people who unfortunately lost their lives. I can’t understand how things like this get by.
WOW, that is unreal. Can’t understand how companies get away with building stuff like this. For it to give in only after 8 years. Not good at all.
It goes back to code enforcement not doing a good inspection of it being built . Or water got in throw the building surface .
Always willing to learn .
AnonymousOnly 8 years old. some heads are going to fall on this one.
RW right on that, heads are gonna roll. The bad part is if that one failed all the rest of them could have the same rot going on. I smell a lawsuit!
If I lived in that building I wouldnt be going out on ly balcony anytime soon.
I read that they have closed off all of the rest of the decks til they get inspected, I’m pretty dang sure they wouldn’t have had to tell me not to go out on one.
How much work would it take now to repair the fallen deck? And of course if the others are showing the same dry rot? I bet they end up tearing them all off the building and fill in the doors with a wall
I always worry when we go on vacation and stay in the hotels with balconies. The last one we stayed at Virginia beach on the boardwalk 8 floors up. Most of them are concrete.
That’s incredible, RIP those poor people who unfortunately lost their lives. I can’t understand how things like this get by.
Probably because the owners are on the other side of the country and no one is properly maintaining things. Rent ranges from $2-4k and they can’t be bothered to inspect critical elements of their building. I would suspect that other balconies are less than ideal on his building as well….gross negligence! BIG lawsuit coming.
Jon P.
Timber Carpentry & Construction
https://www.facebook.com/timbercarpentry/
InstagramThat’s incredible, RIP those poor people who unfortunately lost their lives. I can’t understand how things like this get by.
Probably because the owners are on the other side of the country and no one is properly maintaining things. Rent ranges from $2-4k and they can’t be bothered to inspect critical elements of their building. I would suspect that other balconies are less than ideal on his building as well….gross negligence! BIG lawsuit coming.
For rent that high, you would definitely think they could inspect every year or two. Rot that bad certainly didn’t spring up overnight.
<P>That’s incredible, RIP those poor people who unfortunately lost their lives. I can’t understand how things like this get by. </P>
<P>Probably because the owners are on the other side of the country and no one is properly maintaining things. Rent ranges from $2-4k and they can’t be bothered to inspect critical elements of their building. I would suspect that other balconies are less than ideal on his building as well….gross negligence! BIG lawsuit coming. </P>
<P>For rent that high, you would definitely think they could inspect every year or two. Rot that bad certainly didn’t spring up overnight.</P>
for sure , but I would not be able to sleep at night , bottom line is the mighty dollar , the more they make the less they spend . it said a fifth floor balcony, i could not see the amount of floors , but it mentioned 177 units , you would think that the supports would be more structural like say steel , i can’ imagine the parents of those kids.
I had the opportunity to work on a 5 year old, 3 story apartment complex that had similar decks. Luckily we got to these before there was any injuries. In our case, the siding was hardboard and was deteriorating. On closer inspection, the buildings (3) were a total disaster. It took two years for the apartment owners to get a multi million dollar settlement. We then spent 2 years repairing the buildings. Replaced all the decks, siding and ton’s of rotten framing.
You really can’t inspect the decks because they are a closed system. Lightweight concrete on top and stucco or similar on the underside. Inspectors are not usually going to see the errors in waterproofing. It’s really up to the contractor to get it right, and obviously, he did not. The investigation will not be limited you just this building, if they find poor details in other balconies. They will start looking at all the projects this contractor has built.
I lost all the pictures of this project in a hard drive crash, but here are the apartments.
http://www.apartments.com/lakewood-court-apartments-san-jose-ca/bs04x9b/
Mark E.
Pioneer, CA
Working Pro 1972 - 2015
Member since Jan 22, 2013
www.creative-redwood-designs.comI will never go on a small deck with that many people to start with and the only decks I trust are the ones I build 🙂 It still is sad to see this happen .
Good post, Mark. I was gonna say the same thing.
Ongoing inspections are difficult to impossible, because you can’t see any structure on those balconies.
As far as inspectors missing something, maybe, but cantilevered decks are notoriously difficult to waterproof properly. They are very complex to do properly, and it’s possible that it’s just beyond the scope of expertise of a general building inspector.
Personally, I’ve repaired cantilevered decks, and it made me nervous just knowing it would be my name on it. I would never build one on a new building, but then I don’t build high-rise apartment building, so…..
Delta
Goin' Down In Flames........
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