Nancy Davis thought the Big One had finally hit Kansas.

One minute, the 75-year-old Lawrence resident was sitting on her deck in the northwest part of the city with three of her children. The next minute her deck had collapsed, throwing her and her surgically repaired hip off her chair and into the side of her home.

“I thought it was an earthquake,” Davis said.

No, nothing that complex. Turns out it was just a poorly built deck, probably like hundreds of others in the city that were built before 2000.

Davis’ 12-year-old deck – attached to the back of her home at 3918 Tumbleweed Court – was inadequately secured to her home with simple nails. Today, city building inspectors require that decks be bolted to the side of a home.

The builder of the Davis home, including the deck, was Tim Stultz, of Highland Construction. He said using nails to secure decks was common in Lawrence up until about 2000 when the city started doing more builder education about the need to use stronger lag bolts.

“Unfortunately, there are probably a lot of other decks like that one,” Stultz said.

Nancy Davis, Lawrence, on Wednesday looks over the remains of her deck, which collapsed June 15 as she and family were sitting on it. No one was injured in the collapse. So far, her insurance has not agreed to pay for the accident because of how the deck was built. Davis is urging residents to check their decks and insurance policies.

Neither Davis nor any of her three grown children were hurt when the deck collapsed June 15. The deck had only about four feet to fall before it hit the ground. Stultz has offered to rebuild the deck for Davis for free, but she hasn’t yet taken him up on the offer. She’s peeved that the deck wasn’t built better than it was and now is leaning toward having another deck builder replace the structure at a cost of about $7,500.

But she said she wants to do what she can to make sure a similar accident doesn’t happen to others.

“The moral of the story is in order to be safe and keep your family out of harm’s way, you need to check your deck,” Davis said.

Davis also is urging people to read their homeowner’s policy closely. Thus far, her insurance company has not agreed to pay for the accident because of how the deck was built.

“You need to read the fine print on your insurance policy,” Davis said.

Eric Schmidt, with Lawrence-based Deck Doctors, estimated that 25 percent to 30 percent of the decks he’s replaced in the city have lacked the adequate number of lag bolts or haven’t had any at all.

City building inspectors don’t dispute there are probably a number of decks in the city that could benefit from reinforcing. Tim Pinnick, senior plans examiner for the city’s Neighborhood Resources Department, said nailing was a much more accepted practice before 2000. Since then, though, the department has seen enough evidence from failed decks across the country to make the use of lag bolts a priority.

“Building practices are an evolution that is based on what we see from practical use,” Pinnick said. “We feel like we have some tried and true methods now.”

The builder who constructed Nancy Davis' deck nailed the back of the deck to the siding of the house. The nails pulled out, causing Davis' deck to collapse earlier this month.

Davis’ home, like all other new homes in the city, was inspected by city building inspectors before it was put on the market.

Stultz said he’s sorry about what Davis has had to go through. The home was only the third one that his company had built after being founded in 1992. He’s urging everyone to check their decks, but he doesn’t want people to think that builders were just being cheap when they used the nails instead of the bolts.

“It’s really just a $10 fix to go buy 10 lag bolts at the hardware store for a dollar apiece,” Stultz said. “It’s not like it is a big cost-saving cut from a builder standpoint. I think it was just assumed that a 16 penny nail was strong enough.”

Barry Walthall, the city’s building safety manager, said reports of decks collapsing were rare in Lawrence. He estimated that his office received reports of deck collapses less than once per year on average.