Driving Nails Inside 18" Footing

Posted by Cwatters on July 30, 2009, 3:37 pm

> Not in Calif.
> Although we have built several pole barns with treated lumber when it
> comes to residential construction, the building dept. requires all wood to
> have a ground clearance.
> It is only a better way to build.
> I have seen treated lumber turn and wrot in the ground.
> john

Same here in the UK. The only wood you might allow in the ground is oak.

Several ways to raise the wood out of the ground depending on what you want
it to look like...

a) Find some 18" pipe (or make some formers) and pour the concrete so the
top is around 8" out of the ground, or

b) Make the concrete level with the ground, push a SS bolt in head first and
use SS metal fittings to raise the post...
http://www.mcfeelys.com/img/stainless-steel-post-SDB-0144.jpg

c) Concrete just below ground level then build a plynth made from bricks
capped with 45 degree plynth bricks (and perhaps a bit of lead to prevent
frost damage). This isn't the finest brick work but you get the idea..
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9868/img1773s.jpg

Posted by Mike Paulsen on July 28, 2009, 12:35 am

Cabot wrote:

>> I'm planning a deck for my new house. I think I've got pretty much
>> everything figured out, but I'm concerned about one thing. My county
>> requires 18" round, 24" deep footings with 8" of concrete. If I only
>> use 8" of concrete, the post bases will be 16" down in an 18" hole.
>> There's no room to swing a hammer down there. How can I attach my
>> (6x6) posts to the post bases?
>> I have a couple ideas. Obviously, I could just pour enough concrete
>> to raise the post bases up to the surface. That's a LOT of concrete
>> to mix by hand, but it's not impossible. Another possibility is to
>> use screws instead of nails with a 90 degree drill attachment.
>> Anybody have a better idea? I'd really appreciate it.
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Bill

>
> I'm guessing you're in the southern part of the states. We have a frostline
> of 42", in the part of the Midwest I'm in.
>
> I have no idea where the people which said the lumber has to be above
> ground, get their information. With the properly treated lumber such as ACQ
> 0.40 retention, it is made for ground contact. Here's a couple links, and
> the net is full of ground contact lumber. Pole barns are commonly built
> this way, along with decks.

.40 is for "Non-critical components" (UC4A)
Pole barns, permanent foundations, etc. require .60. (or better)

Depending on your location, code may allow burial of .40. Then again,
code is a minimum, not optimal, standard.

When practical, I like to keep wood above ground. From the top of the
footing to 2" above grade is 18". At 10" diameter, that's .8 ft^3 per
post. At 8" diameter, it's .52 ft^3 That's not much, even when hand mixing.

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Driving Nails Inside 18" Footing - Page 6