What Type of Post Base Connection Should I Use While Building a Deck?

in this video I'm going to try and provide you with four different examples of the post base connection and how some of the problems you might have with it or some of the benefits now let's take a look at I have four different types of post base I have one that's just buried in the dirt one that would be buried in a concrete footing something like a fence post one that is sitting on top of a concrete footing but has large brackets to provide you with additional strength and then one which would be the most common with a standard base plate and this would be a column base maybe a CB 44 that'd be a Simpson product this is probably the most common way that you would build a deck now the examples I'm providing you with here will be for a detached deck something that wouldn't be attached to a house a lot of times people try to get more strength by burying a post in concrete or burying it into the ground for a deck and there are other ways that you can strengthen it up strengthen the deck up laterally now this particular method here is not going to provide you with a lot of lateral support in other words if you built a deck like this a four post deck one post at each corner I would imagine wouldn't take long before something like this would fall down it would be extremely weak it would need some type of bracing I'm actually going to make another video on how you can use a variety of different braces or bracing systems to make a deck a little stronger this right here just to give you a heads up if I went ahead and poured a let's just say a 20 20 inch by 20 inch footing I'm going overkill here a 20 inch cube into the ground and put a CB 44 column base plate like this in here and then attached a 4x4 with the bolts that the manufacturer recommends I would imagine with you know I'm not the strongest guy in the world but I would imagine I could actually break this post I could pull on it hard enough to break it and it would just split and that would be gone so if you could imagine the weight of a deck something like this so in other words I would actually if I built a deck like this that would they let's go with a five foot post I could probably build the deck attach everything and push on the deck hard enough to knock it over and I'm not suggesting that it's highly probable but I have actually seen decks like this that are not attached to a building and you can go up and wiggle the deck you can just grab it and and move it it is not uncommon it is not the most structurally sound deck to do something like this now if you bury a post in the ground you're going to get a stronger deck if you bury a post in concrete I would imagine you're going to get even a stronger deck but the problem is and this seems to be a bigger problem than even I like I said kind of imagine is that somehow some reason I think people think that pressure-treated wood doesn't rot and that isn't always the case now I don't know if they actually make a pressure-treated lumber that is environmentally friendly and will hold up for a long period of time I just I haven't ran across it I've seen telephone poles rot I've seen them I've seen the termites tear them up and it's it's just it's a myth it's something that I think we get stuck in our head oh it's a 70-year lumber we can bury in the ground and I'm here to tell you that it just might not be so if there's moisture in the ground there's a good chance that the woods going to rot and that's just the way it is I mean I have not came across something yet that supports that in another way so what about burying it in concrete what about taking the post and burying it in a nice solid concrete footing to get the strength that you need okay that might provide you with the strength you need but as the concrete absorbs moisture out of the ground out of the air as it absorbs moisture you could end up with a post that is starting to rot now once this post rots and starts to decay or you might get some termite damage well you can say farewell to the deck this will be it for your deck it's not going to be holding up if you haven't imagine if you had two posts that were rotted this thing is going to come it's going to fall apart so and again I'm not don't don't get me wrong here I have seen so many different methods of construction last four years but everything that I'm providing you with the information I'm sharing with you is based off of my experience in the stuff that does work or seems to work the best or seems to provide us with the best alternative when it's time to repair this stuff now here's another method and this is something that I rarely run into I don't think this is a product that most building hardware manufacturers make but you could actually go and get it prefabbed at a metal a place that fabricates metal I would imagine you wouldn't have a problem with that now something like this if you're looking for some extra support works great get a large piece of metal embedded into the concrete maybe a foot to feet have it come out about a foot or two I mean I imagine have to be out least two feet to have something like this work I've actually seen post and with a 4x4 don't forget you could weaken it by cross drilling you know so if you put up if you were to have a strap like this you're not going to have a problem but now what if you put another strap because you're looking for some additional support on the other side you know so you would have one strap on each side of the post and then you would drill through it if that's the case you might want to go with a six by six you might want to go with the post that's going to be a little stronger and of course six by sixes might be your best option for something like this anyway to provide you with a little more stability let's go ahead and take a look at the most common method which would be a little ki the only only the number I have I'm just going to go ahead and throw it out there to Simpson CB 44 column base I don't recommend using a standoff post base something that isn't going to hold this thing down to the ground now you can use the standoff base place plates if your deck is connected to the building and you're not going to have a lot of lateral movement in either direction then or you're going to use some type of a bracing system knock yourself out almost every deck I've ever built requires this type of a system something to where the concrete is a minimum distance of six inches from the ground from the soil and so it raises it up six inches and then I usually raise the building hardware the CB 44 I easily raise this about a quarter of an inch off of the concrete just in case water pools up on the top here it's not going to soak into the wood so that's a that's a maybe that's another video I'll make but I think that makes sense raise this up just a little bit or wouldn't be a bad idea to just slope the edge of the footing down a little bit so that no water trapped there so anyway that's about it for this video I am going to provide a link here at the end for how you could brace up a free-standing deck or a port something that would be freestanding of provided with a few other ways to structurally secure it or at least hopefully so remember some of these tips aren't going to work for you if that's the case wouldn't be a bad idea to contact a structural engineer in your area someone who is familiar with your soil and of course deck construction you

Channel: gregvancom

Views: 760,005

Keywords: Post base connection, deck building, foundation construction, wood post, wood damage prevention, deck construction ideas, building hardware, post base, framing, education, learning, do-it-yourself

Id: bAmY1uThyLM

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2015