options regarding putting up a deck by a house

Hi everyone.

I had a deck which was bolted into the wood which sits on top of the concrete foundation of the house. I detached the deck from the house to fix an leak behind the deck.


There is a sono tube at the far corner from the house which was used to support the deck.


See below for pictures before and after removing the deck.


Now I need the deck to be put back up. However, this time I don't want to bolt it back into the wood any more.


I think there are 2 options to support the part of the deck against the house.


1) use wall anchors to bolt a piece of wood into the concrete wall. Secure another piece of wood on top of the original piece. Then put the deck up on top of the wood.
My concerns are:
- The wood is not able to breathe when they are right up against the concrete or right on top of each other. Will it rot?
- Will wall anchors damage the rebars in the concrete wall?
- Will wall anchors be difficult to remove or hide if I decide to upgrade the deck or put something else there in the future?




2) install a couple of more sono tubes by the house to support the deck. It's more expensive, but if it's a better option for the house, I will do it.
Concerns with this options are:
- Do I need to dig as deep as the footing of the house? (which is 5.5 feet deep)
- How far away should the tubes be from the house? Will it disturb any structure such weeping tile underground?
- Are there any disadvantages of installing sono tubes close to the house?




Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!


Cheers,


Paul

picture before the deck was removed:

picture after the deck was removed:

I'd reinstall it using those above ground blocks designed to receive a 4x4 deck post and let it float separately from the house (detached deck). Patch up the house with some siding.

You are right in thinking there is a better way of attaching.What was likely missing was a flashing from under behand the siding and housewrap out ontop of the joist against the wall and under the decking, should have been vinyl or HTG steel.

You won't hurt the rebar and it would likely stop the drill and if that happens, you just move over a little. A little glue on a dowel hammered into the unused hole will protect the rebar from the air.

Threated lumber stacked together or attached to concrete is fine.

Removal of anchor bolts is near impossible you would likely have to cut them off and then they would rust.

The other choice would be to dig down a little and bolt posts to the concrete and have the anchor bolts below ground level. For this you would use ground rated treated lumber. Easily identified by hundreds of knife cuts on all four sides. Allways use HDG anchors

Sono tubes near the house can be a problem, many do it and usuall works but, they have to be at the frost depth for the area.
When they dug the hole for the foundation they dug out another five feet for working room so anything close to the house is disturbed soil and may not be suitable for support.
Depending on the width of the footing the outside of the weeping drain could be 10" from the foundation wall
If you use my post idea, 2 bolts a foot apart and any treated lumber should have the cut ends treated. End treatment is sold at lumberyards in small amounts.

KOK328's plan will also work but you will need angle braces between the post to stabilize them.

Thanks for all those details neal, I didn't include any of that in my post as with my suggestion, it takes all his questions out of the equation.
I suspect the OP will want to expand that deck and start all over.

P.S. - the back fill on a foundation is typically whatever is laying on the ground (including trash, lumber, boulders, concrete blocks, cans, bottles, etc....). Soil compaction is considered to be "virgin" after 10 years.

Thanks for the suggestions, Neal and Kok328!

If you did anything else to for a deck like concrete or something you would be close to the level of the siding and then you would still need a step at the door. With that in mind I would just bolt on a double ledger to set your deck on, anything you do in the future will hide the cut off bolts.

kok328 said:

Thanks for all those details neal, I didn't include any of that in my post as with my suggestion, it takes all his questions out of the equation.
I suspect the OP will want to expand that deck and start all over.

P.S. - the back fill on a foundation is typically whatever is laying on the ground (including trash, lumber, boulders, concrete blocks, cans, bottles, etc....). Soil compaction is considered to be "virgin" after 10 years.

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone!

Looks like the best idea is to use double ledger to support the deck on concrete wall.

Just out of curiosity, K0k328, when you say the soil compaction is virgin after 10 years, do you mean the soil regains its normal full load capacity after 10 years since it's disturbed?

Cheers,

Paul

It's been a while since it came up in conversation, but I have been told that a "freestanding" deck isn't taxed, but a deck attached to the house is taxed as living space. This may have changed over the years, and it may have to do with local codes, so I'm just throwing it out there for thought.

slownsteady said:

It's been a while since it came up in conversation, but I have been told that a "freestanding" deck isn't taxed, but a deck attached to the house is taxed as living space. This may have changed over the years, and it may have to do with local codes, so I'm just throwing it out there for thought.

Click to expand...

I hope that's true where we live as the deck I just built is free standing. 1 inch from house all around.


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