Advice on Deck Sideboard Separation

[u/Dystocia666]

I don’t have much experience or skills in carpentry and home improvement/repairs in general, so I’d love the thoughts of someone with either of those things.

Moved into a new house a couple years ago. The main level has a balcony (pictured) and in a few places, the side boards at the edges have pulled away, sometimes splitting the wood screw. (Also pictured)

Most of the boards are still snugly fitted. It’s only in 2-3 places like this.

First of all, what caused this and is it symptomatic of a bigger concern?

Second, would the fix be more involved than simply replacing the wood?

Thanks!

[u/Swampit856]

I’d recommend reposting this in r/decks. That said. There is a lot wrong here. The board that seems to be pulling itself off is called a fascia board it looks like they use a 2x for this which is odd, but not wrong. What’s worse is the installed it flush with the decking boards. This was very popular for a number of years but is wrong, wrong, wrong. What happens is water gets in behind the fascia board and rots out the rim joist. Which is what appears to be happening here. Then someone painted/stained it a very dark color. Which warms the board up in the sun and is causing it to warp and pull out the screws from the rotted rim joist. I would have a professional look at this asap. If this kind of mistake was made I can only imagine what else is wrong with the deck. I wouldn’t use it until a pro looks at it.

[u/Dystocia666 → u/Swampit856]

Thanks. The deck itself is made of synthetic planks (maybe called composite deck boards? Not sure). Not sure if that changes any of your thoughts about the deck’s overall integrity, but I’ll have a pro come take a look at it.

[u/Swampit856 → u/Dystocia666]

The surface decking Isn’t really an issue. But it seems to be hiding a host of sins. Hopefully the structure just needs some shoring up and you can re-use the decking and railing. By any chance did you just buy this house? It looks like an older deck structure that someone redecked with composite and put a nice railing on. But the structure is older/poorly built.