# Concrete Piers for Decking....



## exigetastic (16 Mar 2008)

I am putting in a 16'x16' deck outside the back door, and the ground is not exactly what you'd call level, so I put my thinking cap on and thought it would be a good idea to create neat concrete piers using drainpipe....

To back up my idea I did a bit of googling and came across this Concrete Piers

I wonder if anyone on here has used a similar approach in the past?


Ta

Si


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## Rich (16 Mar 2008)

Hi Si, I'm no builder, but if I were you I would think of using 100mm soil pipes as moulds, drain pipes are only about 70mm i/d, or better still make some shuttering out of ply, after all the wider the pier the less depth you have to go down if you see what I mean, It's all about mass, I think?
Rich.


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## chippy1970 (16 Mar 2008)

I tend to use concrete gravel boards the 300 x 1800 ones, just bed them on sand and cement then lay your decking joists across them use them like sleeper walls in a house.


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## exigetastic (16 Mar 2008)

Rich":jel3v2vc said:


> Hi Si, I'm no builder, but if I were you I would think of using 100mm soil pipes as moulds, drain pipes are only about 70mm i/d, or better still make some shuttering out of ply, after all the wider the pier the less depth you have to go down if you see what I mean, It's all about mass, I think?
> Rich.



Good spot I was planning on using soil pipe.

The lie of the land means I can only use 4x2's without a massive amount of digging and the associated soil disposal (skip lorries can't get to my house  )

So I'm looking at 50ish supports ( at 1.2m centres) so will be a lot of shuttering and leveling  The pipe solution would reduce this somewhat.

Si


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## harryc (16 Mar 2008)

Hi there Si

I put up a 35X12ft deck last year with the garden 4ft below the dpm.
I used engineered blocks onto which the the posts rested. I also attached the posts into the engineered blocks via some metal deck post fixings from screwfix and then attached the cross beams.
Fairly simple!

Harry


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## dennis (16 Mar 2008)

Si

Even with 4inch pipes you would need to dig down to solid ground it
would probably be easier to drive in 4inch square pointed posts

dennis


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## StevieB (17 Mar 2008)

Another option is to get some 2' x 4' concrete paving slabs - the big 2" thick jobbies beloved by the council. Jewsons stock them and they are fairly cheap. Level one of those and just sit your 4" by 4" post on it. Worked for me on the last deck I constructed. Dont worry too much about getting them all level with each other, make your 4" by 4" support posts over length by 6" and trim to the correct height when you fit your cross members. Much easier than digging holes, cutting pipe and mixing concrete IMHO. Exactly the same principal as the concrete piers you can buy from the decking centres but far cheaper.

Steve.


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## Karl (17 Mar 2008)

Si

What I do is to make a concrete footing 12" square, and as deep as it needs to be. Then set half a concrete block into it (before the footing has set, obviously). Each block can be levelled with its neighbours in its footing. Your joists can then rest on these concrete blocks, and the job will last for years. You can fix to the footing too if you wish, but it isn't always necessary.

It does take a little time, but it makes for a really sturdy job.

Cheers

Karl


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