Concrete – rescue leaning concrete forms

concrete

I'm adding to my deck. I marked off 6 holes, and dug them about 30" deep. Then I set tubes in, letting them extend about 8" above ground. I put a couple inches of rock in the bottom. I made sure the tubes were level. I mixed concrete and filled the tubes while tapping concrete. I had back filled aroind tubes first. We had heavy rain that night and now I have 3 tubes that are leaning about 1/4" to the inside of new deck. The deck is about 5 feet off ground. Can I save these or do I need to destroy these footings and start over? I have about 140 pounds of concrete in each tube. I set 6 tubes for a 10 x 12 deck. I live in the St. Louis area.

Best Answer

Actually, now that I think about it, I've seen pros pour posts that were worse than that, and it didn't rain! lol. Don't think you're in bad shape. You can certainly use them. Try packing the downward leaning side hard with a dirt tamp, you just might get that 1/4" back. Don't be afraid to use the pull and grunt method. Brute strength. Being only 30" deep, you may be able to force them back to plumb and compact the voided side with a tamp and some fill.