Deck Pier Forms
Deck pier forms like this make the job easy and fast. These come with pre-cut reinforcing steel that snaps into holders! CLICK THIS PHOTO to purchase these amazing deck pier forms. Copyright 2018 Tim Carter
"A few years ago, I stumbled upon a new invention that makes installing deck piers as easy as working with snap-together plastic building blocks children play with."
Deck Pier Forms - Get Ones That Snap Together
DEAR TIM: My wife has instructed me that I no longer can put off the deck project. I got the confidence to do all the work above ground, but I’m worried about the deck foundation.
What do I need to know about deck pier forms so my deck posts don’t sink into the ground and my deck falls to the ground? I see round and square pieces of concrete under the posts at other decks I look at.
It that all you do, just place a precast concrete disc under the post and be done with it? Help me so I don’t disappoint my wife. Eric B., Long Island, NY
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DEAR ERIC: It’s an overused statement, but it’s so very true: Happy wife, happy life. Let’s work together to get this deck done so you don’t have to spend time in the doghouse folding laundry forever. Watch this video to see what I mean:
Why Does A Deck Need Piers?
A deck needs piers to transfer the weight of the deck across a wider area of soil than just the bottoms of the wood deck posts.
Think of your deck as you would any structure. Perhaps you’ve seen houses next to the coast where you live that resemble tables. The houses sit up above the ground on large wooden or concrete posts so the storm surge flows under the houses. These support columns are not really any different than your deck posts. They all transfer the load of the structures to the soil below.
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Does A Deck Need A Foundation?
Decks need foundations just like a house, detached garage or skyscraper. The concrete deck piers support the concentrated loads that you find at each deck post.
Imagine how much weight is pushing down on the few deck posts you’ll have! By the time the deck is complete and you have lots of people, furniture, snow, etc. on it, the load at each post can exceed several thousand pounds. Properly designed and constructed deck piers ensure the deck doesn’t sink or get uplifted by the wind!
How Far Down Do the Concrete Piers Go?
The concrete you see at the surface under the deck posts you’ve been spying at other homes should continue deep down into the soil. The depth the concrete extends is a factor of the frost line in the area and the bearing capacity of the soil.
What’s more, there’s a good chance that deep in the ground the concrete is wider than what you see at the top to help spread out the load across more square inches of soil.
How Many Deck Piers Have You Installed?
I’ve installed all sorts of deck pier forms in my career as you might imagine. Going back decades it was not unusual to dig a large 2-foot by 2-foot hole and pour about 6 or 8 inches of concrete in the bottom of the hole. This concrete was a small spread footing.
The next day we’d then lay the concrete block on top of the hardened concrete. The hollow cores of the block would be then filled with more concrete. A steel anchor bolt would then be inserted in the wet concrete. This anchor bolt would hold down a metal connector used to fasten the wood deck posts to the new concrete pier.
Are There New Deck Pier Inventions?
Many years ago inventors tried to make all this easier. Round concrete forms that look like giant paper towel roll cores were sold to contractors. You can still buy these thick paper tubes. This was set on a similar concrete footer in the ground and acted as a handy form for wet concrete. You no longer had to lay concrete block.
Are Round Sonotubes Easy to Work With?
No, in my opinion. They require at least two different pours and you need to be an expert at bracing to work with a sonotube.
The issue with using one of these giant tubes is that you had to figure out how to brace it so it wouldn’t move as you poured concrete. It’s not as easy as you might think to do this. Then you had to figure out how to get reinforcing steel into the tube in the right position.
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Have You Seen Easy DIY Deck Pier Forms?
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a new invention that makes installing deck piers as easy as working with snap-together plastic building blocks children play with. This ingenious deck pier form snaps together in less than a minute with no tools. But wait, it gets better.
The plastic form comes with internal slots and rings that support pieces of pre-cut steel reinforcing bars that come with the form. In years past, you had to get long bars of steel and then struggle to cut them. At least two pieces of the steel need to bent to connect the vertical concrete pier to the wider concrete that forms the footing for the pier. It’s not as easy to bend this reinforcing steel as you might think.
CLICK HERE to order the snap-together deck pier forms that I have at my own home.
There are other types of plastic deck pier forms you can buy, but the ones I prefer are the easiest I’ve ever used in my forty years of building. All you need to do is carefully place the form at the correct depth so you meet the local building codes for frost protection and soil bearing capacity. Once you have the form in place and it’s level, then you carefully backfill the dirt around the form before you pour the concrete.
What Do You Like about The New Deck Pier Forms?
What I love about this product is how much time and effort it saves. Everything you need, except for the concrete, is shipped to your home. You don’t have to drive to different places to get all the steel, forms, bracing, etc. Using the form I use, you just dig the hole to the correct depth, place the form, carefully backfill so as not to move the form and start mixing concrete! It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Be sure the anchor bolt you install in the wet concrete is hot dipped galvanized. You don’t want the bolt that holds the deck post connector to the pier to rust out over time. Take your time and double check all measurements to ensure you have your deck piers in the correct location. The margin for error is usually less than 2 inches in any given direction!
CLICK HERE to get FREE & FAST BIDS from local deck contractors.
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