Appreciate the info on the Deckstone, I like how the tiles look and the materials sound so much better than composite deck materials. Never understand the logic of putting material that would rot or go bad into a product for exterior use, like putting wood in the composite wood, and those masonite sidings that had paper in it? It is like waiting for disaster to happen. Tried to figure out if 'regular' exterior tiles weight less than Deckstone, and found this site:http://www2.daltile.com/exteriors.cfm. It lists a lot of choices just not able to get the info of the weight per sq.ft. like Deckstone has listed. John made some excellent points, I would need steel frame for a concrete deck. That would be costly. I am leaning on tiling the deck. So far after talking with two contractors, I basically had to redo the decking to hold the extra weight of the tiles. I am waiting for my handyman to come and confirm the cost and whether he is comfortable to do it or not. I think he is pretty honest to let me know his comfort level. I will let you know how that goes. If you find anything else please let me know.

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.

Thanks for the detailed response. On the last question about drainage. Then plan is to put a patio cover with gutters. So roof run off will not be an issue. Current concrete patio has slight slope (forget the word for that). As for clearance and the upper part there is barely room. About 1.5 inches by the wall and goes to about 2 something at the end of the upper level. I could start the freestanding just on the lower portion but I wanted it all to be one (aesthetics in addition to function). After looking closer looks like upper concrete is different than the main foundation but that is my unprofessional analysis with a quick look. I say that because looking at the side wall the upper slopes down. And you can see the difference better. again thanks for all the feedback. I'll take it into consideration.

On the patio, the 2 x 4s would be laying flat on the concrete patio, with spacers every 12” or so. the alternative is to put the 2 x 4’s on edge, making the deck surface 2” higher. I’ve read of other people doing it with 2 x 4s laying flat. I can’t see any reason why laying them flat would be a problem, because the 2 x 4’s are never spanning more than 12” between supports (less, actually, since the spacers would be 12” OC). The problem is the part of the deck that would extend beyond the patio. The ground surface is currently just a bit below the patio surface, sloping away from the patio. At the point that would be the edge of the deck, the ground surface is about 4” below the patio surface. The only way I can think of continuing the deck beyond the patio at the same level is to use most buried concrete blocks, which would also have to be very close so that the 2 x 4’s are not spanning much between blocks. But that’s a lot of blocks! I’m thinking I might just have to give up on a deck…