I was conscious, but I dearly wished I hadn't been. She would never walk again. Three years later, she remains partially paralyzed and unable to get around except in a wheelchair. And all because of a badly built deck. But I sure wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else.
Decks are phenomenally popular in the United States.
Yet structural defects that can bring decks down are frighteningly common. In 1995, at a campground in suburban St. Louis, more than 100 fans of the Grateful Dead rock group were injured, five of them critically, when a covered deck under which they had sought shelter from a thunderstorm broke away from a lodge. And at the New Jersey shore last summer, an outdoor wedding ceremony was disrupted when the deck collapsed as the bride and groom exchanged vows. A deck can even handle the rowdiest gang of fraternity brothers as long as the beam that carries the floor joists is properly bolted to the side of the house. By contrast, virtually every deck that collapses has been merely nailed on.