LESLIE: Jeff is giving us a call today to talk about cinder block walls. What can we do for you?
JEFF: I have a problem with a deck, a proposed deck, and what I’m trying to do is my home is a 1950s-era Cape Cod and what was popular in that time, in my area – in my location – was they would build the first floor out of concrete block on the exterior with stucco and that was it.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Right. OK.
JEFF: And what I want to do is I want to build a deck and I want to attach the ledger board and I have two questions. I didn’t know if I should try and bolt into the hollow of the concrete block wall or if I should try and get a long bolt and sandwich two (inaudible at 0:22:43.7) on both sides.
TOM: Yeah, I would bolt right through the block wall if it was my house. I would make sure that I got the right kind of bolts, the right diameter heavy-duty, galvanized bolts and I would bolt the ledger right through the concrete block right to the other side.
JEFF: (overlapping voices) Sure.
TOM: You would use a big – essentially like a big, metal washer; usually has a big, square, metal plate that goes on the back of those. And that – if you do that at the appropriate interval, that will hold the ledger board quite nicely.
JEFF: Great, I appreciate your time.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
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