What's the best way to attach a deck to a brick home?

I don’t trust attaching anything load bearing to brick. I always try to locate either studs or the ribbon board if possible. Or bolt through the brick and exterior wall with all thread or carriage bolts.

Drill through the brick with a masonry bit then through the ribbon board and attach with all thread or carriage bolts so it is all sandwiched together. If this is not possible you will need two beams, one in front and one in back of deck. So that deck is structurally free standing.

Personally I would not attach a deck to a brick face. I would do free standing due to possible removal down the road. I.E. house sells and new owner does not like location.

Carriage Bolts

Depending on what area of the country, and sun direction, you might cause cracking because of expansion / contraction factors—best to have piers----Under present contract, and waiting on plan revision, as soon as permit, I’ll be building 1025 sq.ft covered deck / porch in Florida—Architect has piers, because of expansion / contraction factors…, best to have piers or concrete anchored posts, also things here are built for uplift and micro bursts. with hurricane force winds, if your deck was attached to your house, if a tornado, micro burst, hurricane force winds----better to lose the deck, than the deck and part of your exterior house…If you absolutely want attachment to the brick—best to drill in the center of brick, not in joint, attach ledger, seal all fastener holes, from bugs, especially water—if the deck is uncovered, you certainly do not want rain water to seep past the wood and on to the fastener and go into the wall…I have rebuilt many of these, I believe, dumb mistakes. Years ago, I had to rebuild almost the entire exterior wall of a house, homeowners built a deck with a ledger board, their penetration holes were drilled slightly downwards, allowing rain blown water to seep into the exterior, meanwhile, mold was growing on the back side of the drywall, eventually appeared in the front.-----A big mess

Play it safe, make the deck free standing. If you must attach to brick, only do so with a structural engineer involved and do it EXACTLY as prescribed by the structural engineer. CYA.

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We build plenty of rooftop decks that require using the brick for attachment of a wood ledger
The structural engineer we use always requests use of carriage bolt that are drilled thru
the brick and attached to the wood framing members of house.

so yes threaded rod, long ones.