My buddy's deck collapse taught me a lesson about joist spacing
My friend in Denver built this nice looking deck last summer, posted pics, everyone loved it. Cut to last month, he throws a small BBQ and the thing just gives way under the grill and cooler... maybe 8 people nearby. Nobody got hurt bad but it was a mess. I helped him rebuild it and we found the joists were spaced like 24 inches apart instead of the standard 16. The wood was also some untreated pine from a big box store. Over the winter, the moisture got in, warped the boards, and the screws stripped out. We switched to pressure treated 2x8s with 12 inch spacing and used structural screws instead of nails. Now it feels like concrete. Has anyone else dealt with a friend trying to cut corners on something like this and it backfiring later?