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Dek Blocks vrs. cement footings Duke1973 07-20-2006
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Posted by Duke1973 on July 20, 2006, 7:49 am
I live in the Toronto, Canada area and am planning on building a deck
in the next few weeks. I have two co-workers who used dek blocks to
build their decks and also anchored the deck to their houses. They
swear by using the deck blocks and have had no issues with their decks
moving or any damage caused by the floating deck and the anchoring to
the house.

I am debating using the dek blocks vs. cement footings. Dek blocks
certainly do seem easier then cement footings. I am wondering if
anyone in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) has used dek blocks and
anchored their deck to the house and if it has caused any issues. I
don't know how much movement would occur from frost in the GTA.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Duke1973


Posted by RayV on July 20, 2006, 8:25 am

Duke1973 wrote:
> I live in the Toronto, Canada area and am planning on building a deck
> in the next few weeks. I have two co-workers who used dek blocks to
> build their decks and also anchored the deck to their houses. They
> swear by using the deck blocks and have had no issues with their decks
> moving or any damage caused by the floating deck and the anchoring to
> the house.
>
> I am debating using the dek blocks vs. cement footings. Dek blocks
> certainly do seem easier then cement footings. I am wondering if
> anyone in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) has used dek blocks and
> anchored their deck to the house and if it has caused any issues. I
> don't know how much movement would occur from frost in the GTA.
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks
>
> Duke1973

Doesn't seem easier to me, guess it depends on how you are building
your deck. If it twer me I would much rather drill three holes, fill
the with concrete and go up from there. leveling 20 blocks on the dirt
seems like it would be much more time consuming especially if the deck
isn't at ground level:
http://www.deckplans.com/howto_bracing.html

Dek blocks? NIMBY


Posted by MDT at Paragon Home Inspection on July 20, 2006, 10:52 am

Duke1973 wrote:
> I live in the Toronto, Canada area and am planning on building a deck
> in the next few weeks. I have two co-workers who used dek blocks to
> build their decks and also anchored the deck to their houses. They
> swear by using the deck blocks and have had no issues with their decks
> moving or any damage caused by the floating deck and the anchoring to
> the house.

Don't know about Canada, but per Dek in the US:

"The Floating Foundation Deck System conforms to all national and
regional building codes when the deck is *unattached* from the house."

http://www.deckplans.com/buildingcodes.html

Michael Thomas
Paragon Home Inspection, LLC
Chicago, IL
mdtATparagoninspectsDOTcom
847-475-5668
>
> Duke1973


Posted by EXT on July 20, 2006, 5:33 pm
The deck WILL move in our Toronto area weather, with all the freezing and
thawing we get at the end of winter, the decks will move up and down. The
type of soil will affect how bad this will be as well as the amount of water
in the soil. This will slowly loosen the nails and/or fasteners at the house
wall even if they haven't noticed any movement to date. My deck has concrete
down to 4 1/2 feet below the soil level, and I get no movement. Just to
illustrate the problems with frost, I have had chain link fence posts pushed
a foot out of the ground.


>I live in the Toronto, Canada area and am planning on building a deck
> in the next few weeks. I have two co-workers who used dek blocks to
> build their decks and also anchored the deck to their houses. They
> swear by using the deck blocks and have had no issues with their decks
> moving or any damage caused by the floating deck and the anchoring to
> the house.
>
> I am debating using the dek blocks vs. cement footings. Dek blocks
> certainly do seem easier then cement footings. I am wondering if
> anyone in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) has used dek blocks and
> anchored their deck to the house and if it has caused any issues. I
> don't know how much movement would occur from frost in the GTA.
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks
>
> Duke1973
>



Posted by Calvin Henry-Cotnam on July 22, 2006, 7:04 am
EXT (noemail@reply.in.this.group) said...
>
>The deck WILL move in our Toronto area weather, with all the freezing and
>thawing we get at the end of winter, the decks will move up and down. The
>type of soil will affect how bad this will be as well as the amount of water
>in the soil. This will slowly loosen the nails and/or fasteners at the house
>wall even if they haven't noticed any movement to date. My deck has concrete
>down to 4 1/2 feet below the soil level, and I get no movement. Just to
>illustrate the problems with frost, I have had chain link fence posts pushed
>a foot out of the ground.

Those Dek Blocks are designed to be placed on a stable surface. That
often means on top of a concrete footing that goes down below the frost
line, so they don't eliminate the need to pour footings.

If your house was built, say, more than 10 years ago, then I *might* think
about placing them on the ground since the back filling would have settled
well enough that the ground *might* be a stable enough surface -- but
*think* about it is likely all that I would do.

--
Calvin Henry-Cotnam
Richmond Hill, Ontario
"I really think Canada should get over to Iraq as quickly as possible"
- Paul Martin - April 30, 2003
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