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Porches & Decks

Can elevated deck rest on concrete patio?

13 years ago

I live in southern Arkansas and I'm planning to build a 6' x 25' detached, elevated deck/balcony 8 ft. above my walkout basement patio. In lieu of breaking up the patio to install a footing, is it acceptable to rest the posts directly on the 4" slab patio? If not, is there any other method short of breaking up the concrete?

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

deckman22
13 years ago
No, a 4" concrete patio can not support an upper level deck.

No need to bust up the concrete tho. Go to home cheapo & buy you a diamond tipped concrete cutting saw blade for a circular saw. Use that to cut sections of the patio out for your footings. A typical 7 1/4" saw will only cut 2 1/8" deep you may have to rent a larger saw, 16" will cut all the way thru. If you have a hammer drill you could also drill a series of holes along your saw cut to finish out the holes if using the small saw.

To cover up the uglinest you created on your patio making the new footings you can wrap the bottom of the deck post with a half column of rock or brick, or even box them out with wood.
gopintos
13 years ago
We had to do something similar. For some reason the deck was overlooked when the foundation guy was doing his bit.

We tried to cut out with the saw, but for some reason it wasn't working, can't really remember now, it has been awhile.

So we had to dig out underneath where the footings needed to go, then filled with concrete. Cost us a day of labor and another truckload of concrete but needed to be done.

We still havent landscaped or final grade yet but the plan is to cover up the lower elevation of extra concrete.

{{!gwi}}
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