woods to avoid/or use when building a deck

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building inspector just left and found multiple issues, including the way the deck is anchored, or not anchored, to the ground. Another issue which i wasnt aware of but sounds like it could be serious is apparently when you cut treated wood you are supposed to dip it in something called copper green. prevents the cut end from getting water or insect damage. He didn't do that, which seems fairly important.

seems like the deck guy has a lot of work cut out for himself, a lot of which is going to be undoing the work he already did.

now we'll see if the gc who's supposed to be managing all this tries to squeeze more money out of me to cover the extra work.
 
A GC should know what he is doing, and should have quoted for all of that, not one penny. Different if you just hired a handyman for cheap and some of the responsibility was yours. It is his fault for hiring someone less than a pro or telling his people to cheat.
 
oh i know its 100% his fault ... i still wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get more money out of me. This GC sucks - they dont manage anything. Literally all they do is call a sub and tell them to show up - i have to keep track of everything that needs to do done including scheduling the inspections. and from what i have seen, they try to hire the cheapest subs they can.
 
You mentioned in post #1 that the contractor was using redwood. That is usually not a treated lumber, so why do the ends need treatment?

Your best strategy is to hold money back from the GC until you - and the inspector - are satisfied. Also tell him that a negative review online is next.
 
Then I will tell you how I would have built it so you can go after him. Dig the footing in the 24 to 30 inches that the inspector talked about. concrete with a saddle to hold the framing. 2 ply 2x10 no more than 12 ft long placed on the saddles under the deck where he now has crap on the concrete. If there is no room under there for the 2x10 beam he can bring it up to deck height and hang the joists off the side of it.
He can argue that using 24 decking that 24" OC is fine and he might be right, I don't know red wood but we never go more than 16" on center even with treated 2x6 for decking.
If it was not attached to the house then it would be better to set the wood in concrete.
 
You mentioned in post #1 that the contractor was using redwood. That is usually not a treated lumber, so why do the ends need treatment?

Your best strategy is to hold money back from the GC until you - and the inspector - are satisfied. Also tell him that a negative review online is next.

i dont know what they are called but it's the smaller pieces of wood between the joists? that you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pics i posted on page 2. Those need to be treated with the copper green.

I actually just got off the phone with the inspector - he called me because he was concerned enough about how messy this is that he wanted to be sure i understood.

At this point he basically recommends they take everything down and start over, patch all the holes they when the bolted the deck to the side of the house and rebuild it all.
 
You mentioned in post #1 that the contractor was using redwood. That is usually not a treated lumber, so why do the ends need treatment?

Your best strategy is to hold money back from the GC until you - and the inspector - are satisfied. Also tell him that a negative review online is next.

The redwood is the decking, treated lumber under would be understood.
He did use a better grade o9f treated than was needed of anything above ground.
 
i dont know what they are called but it's the smaller pieces of wood between the joists? that you can see in the 2nd and 3rd pics i posted on page 2. Those need to be treated with the copper green.

I actually just got off the phone with the inspector - he called me because he was concerned enough about how messy this is that he wanted to be sure i understood.

At this point he basically recommends they take everything down and start over, patch all the holes they when the bolted the deck to the side of the house and rebuild it all.

That is called blocking and keeps the joists from racking.
 
That is called blocking and keeps the joists from racking.

might be a code thing, it stops them from racking and warping but they don't go over the beam, the nails do that they go in the middle of the run if it is more than 7 feet and if the run is more than 14' two rows are needed.
 
well they have to redraw the plans they submitted to the building dept since the original plans showed the wrong deck design. the new plans will reflect where the posts etc are going. So im somewhat hopeful it'll be done correctly this time around. prob wont have the updated plans until Monday.
 
I thought I would drop off this photo. It shows the beam in the frame and the saddle in the concrete.

And for a few dollars more I would ask for 1x? to cover the framing just for a better look and notice how the outside edge is wrapped so the end grain is not visible, that just takes a few more bits in the framing.
Your one photo shows a bad joint in the redwood. Most lumber comes a little long by a 1/4" or so, so there is no excuse for not squaring the end of the boards.
 
at this point i just want the deck finished and done in a reasonable way. expecting them to pay attention to details like that and having it come out right just seems like way more then i should bother expecting from these guys. I just want them to finish and not have to deal with them again - well except for when i take them to arbitrations since i dont plan on paying the last amount thats owed to them since they didn't really do their job as a GC.
 
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