Steve Botsio and his wife, Wendy, are still in shock after their upper-level deck collapsed from beneath him last week.
“There wasn’t any shake. There was nothing. The deck just collapsed,” Botsio said.
“I virtually took two steps,” he recalled. “First step, second step — and it was gone.”
“It was so quick – I was still talking on the phone with my wife. I said ‘the deck’s collapsed — I’ve fallen.'”
Wendy heard the boom of the deck collapsing as she pulled up behind the house.
Initially, she feared their four-month-old son, Adrian, was with Steve when it happened.
“Usually when the baby is upset my husband takes him outside and walks on the deck to soothe him,” Wendy explained.
Her husband escaped with only sprains and bruises, but the collapse left the couple locked out of their house with the baby still inside.
Steve was forced to scale the side of the home to make sure Adrian was okay and let Wendy inside.
A week later, ‘what-if’ scenarios keep playing over in their heads.
“I could’ve been on that deck with the little one,” Wendy said. “My parents stay with us sometimes to help with the baby — they could have been out here.”
“It could have been much worse.”
A family friend renting the basement often spent evenings relaxing on a couch beneath the deck. That same couch was crushed in the collapse, though the friend wasn’t home at the time.
The pair was surprised something like this could happen to their relatively new home in the Silverado neighbourhood.
The house itself was built by Excel Homes 10 years ago. The Botsios bought it in early 2017.
“Excel Homes was advised of this unfortunate issue and has been out to the home to assess the deck,” company president Sean Nolan told Global News in a statement. “While we are not able to confirm the specific cause of the collapse on the 10-year old deck, we are prepared to repair the deck.”
The response doesn’t sit well with the family.
“They said they would bolt it better and secure it better,” Wendy said. “It sounds like something wasn’t done the first time around.”
They’re also urging others to take a closer look at their own homes.
“Just go take a few minutes, go see if it’s bolted or nailed or screwed,” Steve added. “If it’s nailed, you know there’s the potential of this happening to you too.”
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