What Caused This Wood Deck Failure?

[civilian]

Pavers can really upgrade the look of a concrete pad. Yours looks very nice.

But a lot of manual labor. Jon

 

[jyoutz]

Pavers can really upgrade the look of a concrete pad. Yours looks very nice.

It wasn’t all that hard to do. The first day we snapped a square line and mortared the edge bricks. The second day was just laying the interior brick on the slab. Since we decided on a herringbone pattern, the only cuts were 1/2 bricks, except for some custom cuts on the row next to the house. I bought pallets of the bricks when Home Depot had a sale.

 

[2manyrocks]

But a lot of manual labor. Jon

Tends to be a one time thing. After looking at a lot of houses, seems like a lot of huge wood decks have started to fail as their owners aged, and I guess no longer had the energy to replace them. Pavers or concrete would still have been functional.

 

[Rustyiron]

I guess I naively thought that the purpose of treated wood was to resist rot and decay under such conditions.

No new deck for me, as soon as this one is hauled off in the dumpster, I'm going back to the concrete patio.

On a humorous note, I see a bunch of advertisements for hardscape patios off to the side of this posting right now

My knee jerk response to your problem was the "trapped moisture" until I asked myself then wtf is "treated lumber" good for?
I'm not sold on that conclusion and thinking more about poor treatment. Who keeps the little plastic information tag stapled to the end of every stick anyway for possible warranty issues 10 + years away.
They've played with the formula so much in the past 20 years I don't trust any of it sourced at Harry homeowner big box stores.

 

[Runner]

My knee jerk response to your problem was the "trapped moisture" until I asked myself then wtf is "treated lumber" good for?
I'm not sold on that conclusion and thinking more about poor treatment. Who keeps the little plastic information tag stapled to the end of every stick anyway for possible warranty issues 10 + years away.
They've played with the formula so much in the past 20 years I don't trust any of it sourced at Harry homeowner big box stores.

Yeah, but this wasn't sourced from a big box store, that stuff held up fine. This was expensive stuff from a lumberyard advertised like crazy.

Pressure treated lumber trusted for 50 years

Our pressure treating wood process forces a waterborne preservative deep into the structure of the wood providing long-term protection against rot, fungal decay and termite attack.

www.yellawood.com

LONG-TERM PROTECTION​

Our pressure treatment process forces a waterborne preservative deep into the structure of the wood, providing long-term protection against rot, fungal decay and termite attack. The process has been applied to many types of pressure treated wood, such as decking boards, picket fence and split fence materials, pressure treated plywood, posts & rails and other materials, just to name a few.

 

[not2old]

I earned a good living having my crews repair rotted fences, decks, and retaining walls on condos in greater Vancouver. I've made my own "railway ties" out of concrete for my retaining wall and will be installing metal fencing when I get to it. When my deck needs replacement, I will be covering it with a vinyl surface that will waterproof it and also provide winter storage space for my outdoor furniture. When using wood for any of these things, you are building a temporary structure.

 

[Fladogman]

From my experience pressure treated wood isn't what it used to be and yellow wood seems to me one of the worst for holding up. It rots when it touches the ground pretty quickly. At least the ones back a few years ago did.

 

[5030]

Actually, the best alternative (and the most expensive) is engineered decking made from recycled plastic waste. The stuff never rots, looks just like wood, screws down easily and will drain your wallet quickly...lol

Besides, it's 'green' so it's all good, right?

 

[ning]

Decks are great, until they're not.

Next house I build will have patios - bricked, flagstone, whatever, but no wood decks. Wood decks get hot, they rot, they're just another expense up front and down the line.

"Engineered" / synthetic decking materials have pretty good marketing but it seems that reality doesn't quite keep up with the promises - the stuff does last longer than wood, but you still have the wood under structure and the synthetic stuff even if it's not falling apart it gets more and more plastic-looking with age -- and the deck still won't last as long as the house.

 

[Rustyiron]

Yeah, but this wasn't sourced from a big box store, that stuff held up fine. This was expensive stuff from a lumberyard advertised like crazy.

Pressure treated lumber trusted for 50 years

Our pressure treating wood process forces a waterborne preservative deep into the structure of the wood providing long-term protection against rot, fungal decay and termite attack.

www.yellawood.com

LONG-TERM PROTECTION​

Our pressure treatment process forces a waterborne preservative deep into the structure of the wood, providing long-term protection against rot, fungal decay and termite attack. The process has been applied to many types of pressure treated wood, such as decking boards, picket fence and split fence materials, pressure treated plywood, posts & rails and other materials, just to name a few.

The only thing that stuck in my head was "lowes" almost the last word in your post.
Have you contacted the supplier or yellawood?
This is just wrong and possibly keeping some moist air under the deck with concrete is probably better having the normal, wet dirt. I can't imagine that you skirting was anywhere near airtight either. Sorry about this, IMHO you didn't do anything wrong.