Deck Ledger board, flashing, and vertical siding - I'm lost.

[tbasc]

The Journal of Light Construction ran a piece soon after the Chicago failure. It included anchorage solutions with washers. TB

[Tim and Steph]

I've got a house with vertical board and batten siding. I want to build a deck, so I need to hang a ledger board. The only issue is the flashing. With normal siding, there's an obvious place to put the top edge of the flashing - it goes under the siding. But, with vertical siding, I haven't a clue where to put it - do I fire up the circular saw and run a kerf across the siding, and put the flashing into that? It seems somewhat counterintuitive to do this, but I don't see any other way to do it.

I've also been considering anchoring the ledger board somewhat off the siding by using several of those "giant fender washer" type things. I'd guess that this would give the water somewhere to go rather than staying between the ledger board and the siding, and would prevent rot.

Thoughts?

-Tim

[Art]

You ask interesting questions. I doubt the washers would be permitted by code since it would weaken the structure but you need to check local code and assuming you are in most states of the US decks require permits. One just collapsed in Durham NC last month.

[John/Charleston]

I'd have to see the situation but I can think of two options. One is to run the kerf as you suggested only I'd actually remove the strip of siding where the ledger will fit. If the deck is close to the bottom of the siding then you might remove the below-the-kerf section of siding and replace the whole space with ledger board even if it's a little oversized. Otherwise just "inlay" the ledger into the siding. Hope that's clear...

Option two would be to not attatch the deck to the house and make it a free standing structure with it's own posts right next to the house. This way you can leave a half inch gap between the deck and siding and not have any penetrations. Problem with this (and the fender washer idea) is that the siding behind the ledger can never be easily painted/stained behind the edge of the deck. Unless it's treated siding it will likely one day rot.