A Deck or Balcony Collapse - This Is Preventable
Updated: Oct 10
The incident that happened this last weekend in Malibu, CA is just inexcusable. If you live under a rock, I'll give you the gist of it:
A surveillance camera was showing some partygoers having a jolly good time, overlooking the ocean in a wonderful wood deck...
Wonderful until this happened - Watch our video here and see the tragic events that made the local news and now are going viral.
This was 100% preventable. We work day and night trying to bring awareness to property owners that preventive maintenance is important!
We send out flyers, we teach in earthquake awareness that structures should be inspected regularly, but it seems that insurance companies give a false sense of security to property owners...
When human lives are at risk, high structures like this collapsed balcony should be inspected at least every two years by different companies! Saving a few hundred dollars on a structural assessment can cost an endless lawsuit or worse -- the life of a loved one.
If you have a high balcony or deck and want to have it checked, give us a call and book a paid assessment. We inspect the deck, write a report on it with recommendations, and even if anything needs to be done, we give you an estimated price for corrections. We are experts in deck and balcony repairs.
Don't wait until it's too late, book an assessment now and make sure that all your loved ones are safe.
What changed since this was written
When we first published this, preventive inspection of an elevated deck was a recommendation. It is now the law, and both of the first deadlines have already passed.
California has two balcony inspection statutes. One covers rental apartment buildings of three or more units, the other covers condominiums and community associations. They have different deadlines, different sampling requirements and different lists of who is qualified to inspect: SB 721, SB 326 and the deadlines that have passed.
If you own or manage an elevated wood-framed deck, balcony, walkway or exterior stairway, this stopped being optional.
Why these fail, and it is almost never the wood
A deck does not collapse because the lumber was weak. It collapses because water reached the structure years earlier and nobody could see what it was doing.
The ledger. Where the deck attaches to the building is where most catastrophic failures start. Water that gets behind the ledger rots the connection from the inside
Flashing. Missing, installed backwards, or covered over during a later re-coat so nobody knows it is not working
Guardrail posts that penetrate the walking surface. Every one of those is a hole through the waterproofing, at exactly the point that takes the most load
Drainage and slope. A surface that holds water instead of shedding it
The coating at the end of its life. A maintenance item, right up until it becomes a structural one
The guardrail detail deserves its own attention, because a railing replacement is usually the cheapest opportunity to fix the thing that was going to rot the structure anyway: guardrails and metal railings.
What an owner can look for between inspections
None of this replaces a qualified inspection, and all of it is visible from a ladder:
Staining on the ceiling or wall directly below a balcony
A surface that feels soft or springy in one spot
Cracking or separation where the deck meets the building
Water standing on the surface after rain instead of running off
Rust weeping from a fastener or a post base
A guardrail with any movement at all when you push it
The last one is the simplest test anyone can do, and the one most likely to find a problem before it finds you.
If something is found
The statutes separate an immediate threat from a condition that is not. An immediate threat means access to the element is prevented at once and it is shored or repaired under the building department's direction. Anything else goes on a repair schedule with permits, and missing that window converts a maintenance item into an enforcement matter.
On an occupied building the repair is the real project, and it has the same operational shape as any other work carried out around residents: soft-story retrofit for property managers and HOA boards.
Start with a free 15-minute call
Tell us how many buildings, roughly how many balconies or elevated walkways, whether they are rentals or an association, and whether an inspection has ever been done. In fifteen minutes we can usually tell you which statute applies to you and whether you are looking at a report or a repair.
Call (323) 707-4979 to book the free 15-minute consultation.
The Ultimate Pro, Inc. CA License 831700, Class B General Building. Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties since 1996.
Planning a backyard like this one? The order you build it in is what decides whether the trades end up tearing out each other's work. Book a free 15-minute call or call (323) 707-4979 and we will walk that order with you before the first crew shows up.
Prefer to watch before you call? X Plan Nation is The Ultimate Pro's YouTube channel, where we take construction apart step by step so you can tell good work from work that will come back.
The Ultimate Pro, Inc. · California contractor license 831700 · Class B general building · 18481 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 · Serving Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire since 1996.
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