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NEW ICC Info!
Nov 1, 2008: In addition to compliance with 2006 International Residential Code (IRC) and 2006 International Building Code (IBC), DeckLok is proud to announce our new International Code Council (ICC) Evaluation for The DeckLok Bracket. Download PDF document here. Expansion/Merger Opportunity! DeckLok is currently exploring options for increasing their presence in the market place. Acquisition inquiries are being accepted. Click for more information and contact info. DeckLok Video TranscriptMichael Morse, Founder DeckLok Bracket Systems
DeckLok, The TranscriptDecks have evolved from an area outside the house where you go occasionally into legitimate living space. Folks have barbeques out on the deck, they have furniture, they enjoy their deck much, much more than what was first built 30 years ago. That brings up an issue though because decks were not designed to carry that lateral load. They’re designed to carry a vertical load. They’re very strong and stable vertically. But they are not designed to resist pullout and specifically the pullout that is generated by motion – by people moving on the deck, by people dancing. Liability is another big issue as far as decks go. If a deck does collapse or a railing gives way with people on it, the homeowner, the deck builder, the insurance companies – their liability is tremendous. The worst part about these deck failures is they happen when you can least afford them. They happen at birthday parties. They happen at Graduation Parties, Wedding receptions. Frequently you’ll read that they were taking pictures in the corner of the deck. The people rushed over to having a good time, rushed to the corner of the deck and stopped - and that bit of momentum was the last that the nails could withstand and they collapse. And it turns a wonderful party into just something awful. That’s why we started this DeckLok Company. All these problems currently exist they way we build decks. That’s the bad part of it. The good news is, that the solution is very simple. With using DeckLok Brackets, you can take a connection that was dependant on nails and bolt it in and make that connection very, very strong. You can do that to existing decks, you can retrofit it to decks very simply. You can do it to new construction. You can do it before you have a deck. You can, as you’re building your house, tie that bandboard of the house into the floor joists to get yourself ready for when you do build a deck. When people build their house, they build their foundation and then they put the floor joists in. Then they put a board on either end, a bandboard, and then they nail it in place. Then they build the rest of the house. Sometime later, they want to add a deck. When they do, they will normally just bolt right up to that bandboard. The bandboard was never designed to carry the load of another structure. And it absolutely wasn’t designed to resist pulling away from the house at all. It was just installed with nails. What we do, is we go into the house, we have a bracket on either side of the floor joist of the house and through-bolt it so those bolts are now in shear and bolt the deck ledger board actually to the floor joist of the house. It gives terrific resistance, terrific strength. We tested it – it took 4,000 lbs of pullout before the floor joists ripped apart. It really anchors the deck very, very well. What that has the effect of is creating the deck and house connection that is bolted and it is one then. It is no longer two pieces that are just nailed together. They now move together under load, under say, a storm or under an earthquake. They shift together instead of work to pull apart. Installation of the bracket is easy. It uses basic hand tools. When you are going to lock in your ledger board you have to get access to the floor joists of the house. You can go from underneath. If your basement isn’t finished, then that’s clear, you just can go and access your floor joists where the deck is. Drill two holes, mount your DeckLok Brackets, drill through to the outside and bolt them together. Sometimes like on a second story deck, you may not want to do drywall work on your first floor, or you don’t have access, you can gain access to the floor joists by coming from the subfloor, from the top down. You would pull the carpet back and carefully mark where you would cut a section of the subfloor out and then you can install the DeckLok Brackets very easily. And then to reinstall the flooring, you would install a 2x4 sleeper on either side to support the edges of the subfloor and then screw the subfloor back in and put the carpet pad down, kick the carpet tight and it is a very, very clean job. Traditionally houses were built with “2 by” material, either 2x8 floor joists, 2x10 - solid wood. Now you see more and more of the houses are built with manufactured I-Joist or with 2x4 truss material. That’s fine. The floor joist or the floor truss system still is the structural part of the house that you have to tie into. You can do that very easily with our brackets on the I-Joist placing a 2x8 pad, or squash block on either side of the joist, just the way the manufacturer recommends, and through bolting. It will give you a terrific, strong anchor - similarly with the 2x4 joists. That system you would put a ½ inch plywood pad on either side and just bolt through – again, it gives you a very, very strong anchor. Railings are built to be beautiful, to be stylish, to be low maintenance and the system is very good. The problem is the connection at the base of the railing. By adding the bracket we make virtually every system that has been tested for the strength of the system itself – code compliant. We make a post that is strong enough to withstand the pressure that the railing sections themselves can stand up to. Another product that we offer is RailLok which does for the railing system what the DeckLok does for the railpost. It screws into the post in a way that creates a connection in shear as you would load the railing system you would have to shear the heads off the screws for this to fail. It gives a very, very strong connection for the railing. By using DeckLok Brackets you can turn your beautiful, maintenance free or low maintenance project into a deck that is code compliant, it is very strong, very safe and gives years of enjoyment without the risk of collapse.
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For Lateral Loads, you need a Lateral Anchor!
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