Constructing Deck Foundations

There are 3 methods of constructing deck foundations.

1. Wood post on a solid concrete pier and footing.



2. Post embedded in a concrete pier.



3. Post on pre-cast concrete pier and footing.

Which method that you use for constructing your deck foundation is relative to the dead and live load on the deck and the soil conditions that the foundation will rest on.

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Pier & Beam Foundation Problem

Q: Is there anyway I can stabilize wobbly areas in my house without having to pay a foundation company $2,000 to do the whole house? I need to do this until I can save up enough to pay a pro.

A: You are going to have to tell us more about the problem. Are the piers crumbling? Are the beams cracked? What are the piers made of? Do they sit on footings? How high off the ground are you?

Q: From what I can see in some areas the cement blocks have moved and are no longer stabilizing the outer area's of the house. I don't know about the beams, I can't see way under the house. As far as how high I am above the ground....at the front of the house I am pretty close to the ground, but the ground slopes and by the time you get the back of the house I would say we are about 3 feet or a little more off the ground.

A: There are some pages that I have put together on my website for jacking up homes, follow the link. However, those pages are based on jacking in the basement or crawlspace and you really don't have room to do that. You need solid ground to do the jacking, in your case you will need to rent some steel plates about 4' square, at least 3/4" thick to place on the ground. Place the steel plates on the ground, remove any grass or loam and place the jack on the plate under the house about 2' from the problem. Jack until the jack is tight, then jack about an 1/8" at a time until the building is off the current support and being supported by the jack. You will then have to dig down to install a footer, and then a column to support the structure, the following page is for deck foundations, but the it applies to a home as well. http://www.renovation-headquarters.com/deck-foundation.htm. The columns have to be level, I suggest you use a laser level, they are relatively inexpensive. You have to be extremely careful, the house is only supported by the jack and you will be digging, don't allow yourself to be under the structure unless you are a 110% sure that it is stable.

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Foundation Wall Cracks

Q: I'm embarrassingly clueless about the cracks in my basement walls, and who to call for help with them. What do you call the folks who repair them?

My other question is, can I call anyone else for a more impartial inspection? I don't know how bad the cracks are (they don't leak) and I'm worried that someone who repairs walls would say sure, they need repair, when they really don't. I'm also worried about them wanting to do more work than is really necessary.

I'd call the city housing inspector, but then I'd have to do it to their specifications, right?

A: Although it will cost you a few dollars you can get a competent impartial inspection from any of the house inspection services. You can find one close to you in the yellow pages.

It sounds like you need a contractor that works on "foundations". Once you get the report from the inspector you will know much better what type of contractor you need.

If you follow the link, you will learn a lot more about basement water problems and foundation cracks.

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Repacing The Foundation On An Addition

Q: My wife and I have been working almost non-stop to fix up our little hovel to make it a comfortable retirement cottage. At this point we're focusing on the exterior. It's got old clapboard siding that we've been scraping old, priming and painting (and fixing up when the need arises).

There's a small addition that was built onto the house some time ago and the folks that did it didn't do a very good job of providing sufficient foundation or footing for it. It has since fallen away from the main house at the top by almost four or five inches and the floor inside is very un-level. We're thinking of jacking it up and working on the support to level it out, but haven't done this kind of job before. Any ideas on how we should go about doing this (including things not to do) would be greatly welcomed.

A: You have to be very careful when jacking up an addition as the addition is joined to the main house and you can do major damage to the areas where the two buildings are attached to one another. Without seeing the addition the best method, if logistics allow, is to run a temporary beam under the outside edge (inset the thickness of the foundation) of the addition, longer than the addition and jack the building from under the ends of that beam. That gives you full clearance under the building to rebuild the foundation and basement floor.

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