Checking for Corrosion: Deck Care & Maintenance

"Hi this is Drew Finn for expertvillage.com we are going to talk about cleaning and maintaining a deck. This video is presented by Black Dog Video and you can visit us on the web on blackdogvideo.biz. When you are inspecting underneath you want to make sure that the joist hanger brackets are not rusted through and that the nails aren't rusted through, particularly in places under doors and stuff where someone may have put salt down to melt snow so that the snow would melt. So this is where you look for corrosion for that. The flashing is also a concern if you put down salt, particularly aluminum flashing could corroded through in one season. So that is another reason we don't want to use salt up there. So look at the flashing and the joist hanger brackets and all the fasteners that are connecting the deck to the house. On the brackets the corrosion would be like rust it would be heavily rusted. It may be thicker in some places than others cause when iron rust it expands it is thicker. So that is what your looking through. I've seen these where the whole bottom is completely missing rusted right out. You can't really see the flashing from this angle but the flashing goes underneath the siting and comes out over the band joists that is bolted to the house, and its purpose in live is to divert water. So water is down behind the joist band and the house in rot the house that is the purpose of the flashing. So we look at them and look for any signs that there is any holes in it or if there is excessive corrosion on the surface."