I want to build a deck off the back of my house. The door is near grade level, about 1' above. The grade doesn't have very large slope, so that means that the beam at the far end would be below grade:
Note: Forgive the crude pen-drawing i sketched out at work. Didn't really want to bother with plenty of workspace, pencils or rulers.
Am i allowed to use beams when they are this close to grade? i was thinking that metal bracket holding up the beam, and the lower part of the beam, can be filled with crushed stone:
My question is: is this allowed? Even if the beam is pressure treated, and even if it is surrounded in whatever is desired (from nothing, to earth, to crushed stone), is this allowed?
Tags: desk, beam, footing, crushed stone, below grade
Best Answer
Sure, you can do that. Rather than using a beam though, just use some of those pre-cast concrete pier blocks (like in this article).
If you really want to use a beam instead (it might be cheaper) you'll want to make sure the treated wood you use is rated for ground contact. You might have a hard time finding ground-contact rated 2x6's at a local home store, but they probably do carry ground-contact rated 4x6's that you could use instead.
Another option would be to use railroad ties for your "beam". just dig a trench, fill it with gravel, level it out, compact it, and set the railroad ties on top (note - railroad ties are much heavier than they look).