# Wobbly Deck in Westhaven: The Ledger Was the Problem > Spongy boards in Westhaven hid a rotted ledger and failed flashing. See how our Franklin deck building team found the real problem and fixed it right. Franklin Deck Building Pros | deck building | Franklin, TN *By The Franklin Deck Building Team — Deck Building professionals serving Franklin, TN* --- ## The Call: "A Few Bad Boards" That Felt Off It started with a text message and a short video clip — a homeowner in Westhaven walking across their rear deck, each step producing a soft, unsettling give underfoot. A couple of boards had started to cup noticeably along their edges, and one had split clean down its face. The ask was straightforward: price out a partial board replacement, maybe swap twelve to fifteen planks, and call it done before summer. We hear this framing often. The visible surface is doing something wrong, so the surface must be the problem. It's a reasonable assumption — and it's wrong often enough that we never schedule material before we schedule a site walk. The home itself is a two-story colonial in Westhaven, the kind of neighborhood where mid-2000s construction is now old enough to show its age. Westhaven's build-out concentrated heavily between 2003 and 2008, which means a lot of original decks out there are approaching or past the twenty-year mark. Hardware corrodes. Flashing fails. And the standards that govern how a ledger board gets attached to a house — and waterproofed — were meaningfully less rigorous before the IRC tightened those requirements in the 2009 and 2012 cycles. This deck was a textbook example of what that era can produce. --- ## What We Found On Site: The Ledger Was Failing, and So Was the House Behind It Our site inspection started at the perimeter and worked inward. The decking surface told part of the story — moisture-driven cupping and splitting are classic signs of a drainage problem somewhere above or below — but the real finding was at the ledger board. The ledger is the framing member bolted directly to the house's band joist (also called the rim joist). It carries half the deck's load and, critically, it lives right at the point where the deck plane meets the house wall. That intersection has to be waterproofed. In this case, it wasn't — not properly. The flashing had been installed without sealant at the top leg, and there were no kick-out diverters at the roof-to-deck transition. A kick-out diverter is a small, inexpensive piece of sheet metal that redirects water sheeting off a roof slope away from the wall and ledger zone. Without it, every rain event for nearly two decades had been channeling water directly behind the flashing, where it wicked into the ledger and — worse — into the band joist of the house itself. When we pulled back enough material to assess, the ledger was soft through most of its length. The beam pockets — the notched seats where the main carrying beam bears — showed advanced rot. Two interior joists had deteriorated enough that they would not have passed a framing inspection. And at grade level, the 4×4 posts were sitting in direct-contact concrete with no standoff hardware. Wood embedded in or resting against concrete in a wet environment decays from the bottom up; the post bases here were exactly as compromised as you'd expect after fifteen-plus years. Partial board replacement would have put new composite over a frame that was structurally unsound. We had to have an honest conversation with the homeowner about scope. --- ## How We Fixed It: Full Demo, Code-Compliant Rebuild The scope of work expanded significantly from the original inquiry — this is the kind of discovery that changes a project, and we documented everything before a single fastener was pulled so the homeowner could see exactly what we were looking at. **Demo and remediation** came first. We removed the entire deck structure down to grade and exposed the band joist of the house. The rot in the rim joist required remediation coordinated with a framing inspection by the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction — Williamson County in this case). That inspection was passed before any new framing went in. This step matters: deck ledger connections to the house structure are a life-safety issue, and pulling a permit and scheduling the framing inspection isn't bureaucratic overhead — it's the mechanism that protects the homeowner. **New ledger installation** followed IRC requirements for lag spacing and embedment, with through-flashing lapped correctly over the housewrap and kick-out diverters installed at both ends of the roof-to-deck transition. Sealant was applied at every penetration. The ledger-to-house connection is now the strongest part of the assembly. **Framing** was rebuilt with pressure-treated lumber throughout, joists hung on code-compliant joist hangers with the correct hanger hardware for the lumber size — no toe-nailing at bearing points. Joist spacing was maintained at sixteen inches on center. **Post bases** were the detail we spent time on at grade. New concrete footings were poured at frost-compliant depth per Williamson County requirements — this matters in Middle Tennessee more than people realize, because a footing that heaves will rack the whole frame. Each 6×6 post was set on an adjustable standoff post base, keeping the wood clear of pooled water and concrete contact. This is a code requirement, not an upgrade. **Decking** was finished with a capped composite product installed with hidden fasteners — no face screws, no exposed fastener heads to collect water, and a surface that won't cup, split, or need periodic sealing. The finished deck is what the original one should have been. More importantly, the house behind it is no longer taking on water at the rim joist. --- ## What to Watch For: Ledger and Flashing Inspection Every Spring If your home was built before 2010 and has an attached deck, the ledger connection deserves a close look — ideally every spring before the season starts. Here's what to check or ask a contractor to check: - **Flashing at the ledger**: Is the top leg of the flashing tucked under the housewrap or siding, not just caulked over? Caulk fails. Proper lap doesn't. - **Kick-out diverters**: If your deck runs alongside a roofline, there should be a kick-out diverter redirecting roof runoff away from the ledger zone. If there isn't one, add it — it's inexpensive insurance. - **Post bases**: Crouch down and look at where your posts meet the footings. Is there a standoff? Is the wood sitting directly in or on concrete? If it's the latter, probe the post bottom with a screwdriver. Soft wood means rot has started. - **Joist ends at the ledger**: If you can see the joist ends from below, look for staining, soft spots, or visible decay. These are early indicators of a moisture problem at the ledger. The broader lesson from this Westhaven deck building job is that the surface rarely lies, but it rarely tells the whole truth either. Cupping boards were the symptom. A failed ledger and compromised rim joist were the diagnosis. --- *Names and details are illustrative; the problem and fix reflect real jobs we do.* If your deck has boards that feel soft, move underfoot, or show signs of moisture damage, don't assume it's just the surface. Call The Franklin Deck Building Team at {{phone}} — we'll walk the structure with you and tell you exactly what we find before any work begins. --- Canonical URL: https://deckbuildingfranklin.com/pages/what-we-found-under-a-wobbly-deck-in-westhaven-and-why-the-boards-weren-t-the-re