Are ther alternative to Wooden Post on Deck Foundation

Nice looking deck backglass! I'm going for something similar, a basic rectangle with one set of stairs. (a bit smaller 8' x 10').
Yes 48" down (my frost depth, I'm south of Rochester) is a long ways down. We have clay and rock here, not sure how well the auger will perform, What kind of soil do you have there?
At this point I am still planning and have many considerations.

1. How to attach and properly flash the ledger, and reinstall the vinyl siding.

2. How to dig the holes and what method to use for the posts (sauna tube, footer/with sauna, no sauna).

3. What decking and rail system (wood or synthetic)

4. How to level things (transit or am considering using a water level)

5. Overall deck, rail, stair design. (I am familiar with the beam system in backglasses photo, for appearance purposes I am wondering if that could be used as the face joist for the deck, and the joists coming from the ledger could attach to it with hangers eliminating the beam underneath)

It is tough to get advice the building inspector, He is super busy, and has spread himself to thin, (perhaps the village doesn't pay him enough). Either way, I would love to hear from any body on this forum with advice/experience with these issus of consideration.

Thanks in Advance,
Molo

molo said:

How to level things (transit or am considering using a water level)

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A water level is working just fine for my own project. I bought some 3/8" id vinyl tubing and filled it with windshield washer fluid. Have someone hold the tube in place over your reference point, then raise or lower the other end of the tube until the fluid is at your reference point, then mark your own end at "level".

To measure differences in elevation (such as with footer pads), attach yard sticks to some broom handles or pieces of pipe or whatever (and at equal distances from their bottoms) and use a given number (such as 24) on one stick as your reference point. The number on the second stick will be lower if your second pad is higher than the first -- the difference is how much -- and vice-versa.

molo said:

Nice looking deck backglass!

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Thanks!

molo said:

Yes 48" down (my frost depth, I'm south of Rochester) is a long ways down. We have clay and rock here, not sure how well the auger will perform, What kind of soil do you have there?

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Rocks, rocks and more rocks...hence the line about the auger "beating the crap" out of you. It took us all day to drill those three holes.

molo said:

How to attach and properly flash the ledger, and reinstall the vinyl siding.

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Siding snaps off. Lag bolt the ledger directly into the sill or studs. Again my inspector wanted to see a lag bolt on every center.

molo said:

How to dig the holes and what method to use for the posts (sauna tube, footer/with sauna, no sauna).

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Rent the auger or hire a crew to do the footers for you. It was by far the hardest part of the whole job. The sono-tubes are better that nothing IMO as they raise the footer off ground level.

molo said:

How to level things (transit or am considering using a water level)

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String, stick and string bubble level. $2.99!

Good Luck!

Proposed deck site

Here is where I plan to do this deck.

As stated before, here are some of my considerations:

1. How to attach and properly flash the ledger, and reinstall the vinyl siding.

2. How to dig the holes and what method to use for the posts (sauna tube, footer/with sauna, no sauna).

3. What decking and rail system (wood or synthetic)

4. How to level things (transit or am considering using a water level)

5. Overall deck, rail, stair design. (I am familiar with the beam system in backglasses photo, for appearance purposes I am wondering if that could be used as the face joist for the deck, and the joists coming from the ledger could attach to it with hangers eliminating the beam underneath)

6. Appropriate fasteners (as well as coating/wrapping cut ends that will be exposed to air/joist hangers)

It is tough to get advice the building inspector, He is super busy, and has spread himself to thin, (perhaps the village doesn't pay him enough). Either way, I would love to hear from any body on this forum with advice/experience with these issus of consideration.

Thanks in Advance for any advice,
Molo

8x10 ft deck. 80 square ft x 50 pounds per square foot = 4000 pounds. You can use 2000 pounds per square foot in almost any soil so you need 2 square ft. Four posts with 9.6" diameter footings. Bell out the base to 12 inches and you have lots of margin.

Here are some ideas that I used, which you may be able to adapt.

I poured the posts for my son's deck in New Hampshire where 4 ft is the standard for frost resistance.

Get one of those two-handle post hole diggers and go down at least 4 ft. Then, bell out the bottom to maybe 12" if possible. That will help prevent frost heaving because the earth is pushing down of the column. You want to clean out all of the loose soil. I used a shop-vac.

If you have rocks use the two-handle digger and get a heavy steel spud (HD has them). Power diggers don't handle rocks well and four holes can be easily dug by hand. With 4 holes I would use the two-handle digger for all of them.

I did a free-standing deck (not attached to house). It was easier than messing with siding and attaching to an uncertain rim-joist in the house. If you use the cantilever design (overhang as shown in the pictures) you can get by with 2x6 joists and double 2x8 for the beam. About 1 ft of overhang would be food for a deck that goes out 8 ft.

An advantage of attaching to the house is that it provides the necessary bracing. If you have posts you must attach to the house or use diagonal bracing.

Where I could make a clean hole I used 8" Sonotube for the top foot in the ground and up as high as I needed. In my case it was a low deck so there were no posts and the concrete came about a foot out of the ground.

You want to have a set of level strings when you pour the concrete because that is no time to be figuring out how high to make each pier. You do not want to have to "adjust" the height after the concrete sets.

Mix the concrete (Sackcrete or Quickcrete) as dry as possible. It should all be moist but you should be able to shovel it without it running off the sides.

Slope the top away so water doesn't puddle on the column.

I reinforced each column and made a tiedown bolt in one piece. HD sells 10 ft lengths of 1/2" threaded rod in the electrical department (cheapest place) and I made 5 ft lengths for each post. I was using double 2x8s for beams and the reinforcement/anchor bolt came up between.

I used old disk brake pads with the lining broken off as big washers to span two 2x8s. You need to be able to drill a 1/2" hole in them. You might get by with 3/8" rods and holes to make it easier.

Bob NH said:

I did a free-standing deck (not attached to house). It was easier than messing with siding and attaching to an uncertain rim-joist in the house. If you use the cantilever design (overhang as shown in the pictures) you can get by with 2x6 joists and double 2x8 for the beam. About 1 ft of overhang would be food for a deck that goes out 8 ft.


I reinforced each column and made a tiedown bolt in one piece. HD sells 10 ft lengths of 1/2" threaded rod in the electrical department (cheapest place) and I made 5 ft lengths for each post. I was using double 2x8s for beams and the reinforcement/anchor bolt came up between.

I used old disk brake pads with the lining broken off as big washers to span two 2x8s. You need to be able to drill a 1/2" hole in them. You might get by with 3/8" rods and holes to make it easier.

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The free-standing deck sounds good, I won't have to expose the house, and won't need to deal with flashing. I will need to dig two more holes!

Bob, could you please tell me if the threaded rod, with brake-pad washer and nut was the only way you secured the beams? I'm assuming these beams were stood on end. I also like the idea of using the concrete as posts rather than wood poss. I'm trying to determine how to attach the beam (s) to the concrete post.

TIA,
Molo