What amazes me,is how many people build decks,that have no idea how to properly construct one! When you pull a permit here they have stacks and stacks of info on how to build a deck and all of the hardware allowed,with pictures!
Good information. Wish this kind of thing was available when I was young. I think you do a great service for people looking to learn for consumers and contractors. Thank you
This isn’t a job required inspection. It’s only required because they aren’t qualified to do load calculations, but if they had a good bit of experience with loads and I thought they did,…they should know what the code is already…I’d also think they would know that a regular drill isn’t effective when drilling tap cons. Wow. Just straight up bugard this one
We know load calculations, the effects of structures and the surcharge it creates on the soil. BUT WE DON'T DO DECKS for customers. We stay in our lane. The person inspecting the deck was the person going to do the repairs on it.
I'm retired. 63 yrs. old and now I'm working for my best friend who's a general contractor house builder, that ditch work is hard but I love it! Learned to operate a backhoe frontend loader, skid steer, and excavator at 60, Most don't want to work these days, Lazy. so, I jumped on board to help him out! It's a lot different than the work I use to do but it's nice seeing the fruits of your labor! Total respect for the men and women that work hard with their god given hands! Love this channel!
Stan, couldn’t you have just stacked Brussels blocks (or similar) in the place of the 2x12? It would last as long as the wall, give a nice concrete reveal instead of the wood, and cost would be low since you’d just be stacking plain square units one on top of another
kind of looks like the deck was a catwalk at one time and someone came along and added a huge chunk out over the driveway, it looks far from right or anywhere near code compliance. I'd say they're looking at a complete tear off and new deck 🤔
Your guys do nice work and you do a great job of explaining things. Thanks. PS based on Blain's comment to the young worker, he seems to have a lot of first hand experience with grip and enthusiasm of the hand tamper. Lol
Why would anyone put wooden posts (treated or not) directly into dirt? I can't think of a worse way to set deck posts. The posts will wick water and rot out. Even in this video, the top of the deck corner post is warped and split wide open. I know from experience. Our Lowe's built deck only took 1 year to blacken, start rotting and sinking into the ground, and turn to rubber. We used the tractor to pull them out. One was so rubbery, we bent it over nearly 90 degrees. Other than breaking, it stood right back up when we released the tension. Of course, the whole deck looked like it was built by a kindergarten class who had never heard of a miter-saw, level, square, nor of securing part flatly together. The stair railing looked like a multi-angle ramp for Evil Knievel, the entire deck sloped 2 inches from one side to the other, and the wooden steps and risers had sunk into the dirt. It took 2 months for us to rebuild the entire thing. We had to tear it completely apart and suspend the 10x12 platform in place to remove the 7 legs, then pour concrete pilings with screw-adjustable jacks to install 9 new legs, re-skin the outside with Trex material, install steel stair risers(old ones varied up to 3 inches), replace all the railing posts with new ones that were the same length, and most of the railing. We also poured a concrete landing pad and built own custom stair planks out of Trex material.
get what you pay for if cost is a factor....ot sure why so much rock was used when two 2" drainage tube would have sufficed buried in 1'x4" stone beds at 3' depth and 2' depth. not that they would be needed that wall would weep just fine for the soil it's in.
Awesome vid as always. Contractor experience tip, use an SDS drill when making a hole through concrete blocks or any sort of cement (even an old foundation). Game changer! I don't know if you have one in your arsenal or it was not on site that day, but I used to burn though bits and struggle until I found the magic of and SDS drill (and drill bits) to make my way through any kind of cement.
I used to install safes in my early 20s and used SDS bits. Hilti made excellent (pricey) drills and bits but it was worth the price because it saved time and was more reliable. I don't drill into concrete much anymore and surprisingly get by with a cordless Ryobi SDS drill. It would melt if I used it continuously like I did back in the day, but for small tapcon holes and so forth it works great. It's nice to not have to drag a cord around either!
In my experience, I would never ever butt PT timbers to a house or any kind of structure. When the chemical starts to leave those timbers in about 10 years, the carpenter ants love to move in and get a nice highway to the structure.
Leveling that base reminds me of when I built my freestanding 10sq ft deck. Had the back a foot lower than the front and I used concrete footings for the 4x4 posts. My thighs burned for a couple days after finally getting them leveled side to side for both front and back.
First thing I would do # 1, replace all the wood post with a metal post, 2nd thing would be an (I) beam all the way across the front of the deck, as long as the wood isn't rotten for the floor joust. I stop the video at 3:15 to say something!
just curious, is there any one inspector that always gives your guys a hard time, or is it generally just a whoever shows up to inspect kind of thing and it generally goes alright?
i would not even start the job/ mobilize until that deck is repaired. They will most likely have to dig for new footings if they're above a frost line..too close to your base course. That town inspector is on a mission.
Yeah that deck was in pretty bad shape. Hopefully they fix it before it falls down in a few years and they don't mess up your new wall lol. They probably need to just give up on having full access to that garage door and put in way more piers if they want to keep that deck. Would be way cheaper than rebuilding the whole thing.
Why would you put a trim board of wood between cinder block and your retaining wall block? You should have done a felt or other expansion material and a grout joint to seal it up!
I used 3 inch lifts in packing behind my wall with watering in-between to make sure the packing was very strong behind a very complex engineered wall next to a multimillion dollar home.
As an electrical contractor I’ve learned to only answer questions the inspector has for you. Never volunteer any information without being asked first.
There is no way I would accept a 2X12 as part of the wall. If I spent that kind of money on a wall I would want it to last forever and not rot out in a few years. Should have taken the time and put in the 2' section of wall with a corner.
@@Dirtmonkey I do agree with Devin020. All that work and it just gives the appearance of "Skimping", even if it will last a decade. All of your videos up to this point exude quality craftsmanship. If I saw that while surfing the youtube, not knowing who posted the video, my first thought would be that Dirt Monkey would never allow that! yikes. Just constructive feedback.
Maybe you should get with Joe juidice in Italy. A great combination. Watched his videos rebuilding his family home for his girls. Doing it painstakingly by hand abuse of the height of the land.
8 courses of Versa-Lok square foot units, plus a cap would put you at 5.67-ft tall. Even if you had put in a 1H:1V of crushed stone (you didn't)...that wall would at a 1.1 factor of safety (min. is 1.5) for overturning (assuming a generous phi 32 for the onsite soil). I would've put 4-ft of grid in that wall and disassembled his timber landscaping to finish that off right instead of sticking that board in there. Just my 2 cents.
Hey I got a talking with someone and we was wondering do those blocks you use come on different colors and if not could you dye them or something? Thanks love the video as always.
as I understand you, there's a possibility frost footings may be needed to be installed? if that's correct wouldn't it be better to do that before the wall?
Stan why didn’t Sam or Blain make filler blocks to match up against the foundation wall instead of that piece of wood and that deck is a mess wouldn’t send my enemy out on it post rotted out and not lag bolted to the rest of the deck 🤦accident waiting to happen
That's going to increase the job cost as you have to get into the small retaining wall above the current work. Plus you're farther into the slope which may require increasing the height and complexity of the wall. These are compromises that are made after discussing options with the owner.
Hey hey Stan, hope all is wellzc last week was my birthday week, Tuesday it was, it was a great birtdhay, to celebrate we went to Texas Roadhouse, it was great , got me a ribeye steak and a half rack of ribs combo, it was delicious, today we went and did some shopping, and two malls, and omg man, it was something else, but I have my lawns this weekend coming up, and I start college Wednesday, I have one night class, and then Thursday I have one in person and two virtual and one I do by myslelf, gotta get that degree, and the good news is, I have so many people to look up to, so much knowledge I have gained from you and so many others, so hey, let’s show these college kids what it’s really like to work, infact when I was at the college I was not very fond with the mulch job they had done, some spots they didn’t even bother putting the propper amount of mulch to prevent weeds, And nasty nutsedge is showing it’s terrible nature and growing crazy, and that’s not a weed you just pull, you have to spray because of you pull the seeds fall back into the soil from where you pulled, anyways , Stan, have a great week, god bless and go get ‘em, your pa and friend Alexander costa
@@Dirtmonkey I figured I would do a minor in political science, understand how the country works, and maybe a little later on I might pick a major up in engineering or maybe agriculture
Stanley question here. at what point do you need to get a permit for a repair? when do you have to bring it up to code if you are just doing maintenance on the deck? my understanding is you are just doing minor maintenance you don't need to bring it up to code. in Minnesota
That’s called a check. And though they look scary, they’re rarely more than an inch deep, meaning, they’re cosmetic more often than not. A split is a different story, meaning it’s split all the way through, which is rare with lumber that dimension.
John Smith it can be as long as it wants, what I’m saying is I’m willing to bet that it’s only an inch deep. Which is absolutely nothing to worry about. It is very rare and unlikely for a 6x6 to develop a natural split all the way through unless it has an irregular knot.
The beam looks to be sitting on half the post due to the check which puts an uneven load further causing the check to increase. The grain structure is not clear from the video but it’s likely the post can straight up split down the middle like a log
Stan have you ever experimented with concrete entrained gravel footing (0-¾") for a wall? Wisconsin has used concrete added at 15% to the strengthen gravel under roads adding 20 extra years to road life.
@@joshuachipman4163 Got it. You know, I was down in Iroquois last week, the old canal caught my attention- massive quarried limestone blocks on an inclined plane, built in 1846- still there! With a bench block footing, same material, creating the actual lock still in excellent condition.
That simple wall -- simple, fast and easy, you say. What then about the inevitable redigging of the footings for that outside corner post for the balcony? The bottom of that post is rotten.
Having lived in Minnesota my whole life, I've no doubt that hunk of wood will keep dirt from slipping through for decades. Winter frost pushing on that wall will damage it before the board rots out. It's just a glorified plug. And to the people saying why not build the whole thing out of pressure treated - welcome to raised bed gardens which last at least 10 years when watered constantly.
lmfao...obviously you did not look at those 8x8 deck post and how rotted they were. that piddly board isn't even green or brown treated. i would have soaked that in used motor oil for a day before installing. some minnesotan you are. even the cedar docks get rotted out every 20 years. raised bed gardens all depend on the quality of the grasses and how they were dried and stored. most halloween bales last 5 years with the rot some as little as 2 years. hello from medicine lake.
Nice job, but that 2x10 against the house should be pressure treated. I saw that it was holding dirt back in that corner. Definitely gonna rot fast in that environment.
Gotta say, that vertical piece ain’t gonna last too long, wouldn’t be happy myself, either to do it, or asa customer. I would have put a concrete beam or fence post there to hold the soil.
~~Ah,used GE to caulk,not to bad or had problem when I used it. That being said,if the following 2-3 days were suppose to be clear w/no rain in forecast I would've personally opted for Vulkem. Whenever Buddy does a deck now secured to the house he'll lay cpl beads Construction across the middle backside. Followed by bead Vulkem around the edge&holes for the lags ever since I suggested it. After helping him tearing one out ,the owner claimed ,only around 10 years old deemed dangerous due to the board (can never remember the name) attached to the house on the verge of failing? Had flashing but being the Midwest w/ice&snow moisture still managed to get behind it before began rotting away over said years.
Damn I hate wene they say ok,hhmm ok I gota think about this one🤔 let me have a minute,,, it's time to ask what we need to do to make it right,, iv heard,, the difference between a pro and an amateur is that pros can fix thier own mistakes,, but after years in the field,, a true pro can not only fix thier own mistakes,, bit also fix the mistakes of those came b4 them🤔🤔😎😎🤘🤘👍 new construction is one side of a trade,, remodel, or as in Harrisburg PA , we call em gut and rebuild,, or various levels of said,, we are master's of rebuilding,, and it's a totaly differnt side of the trades😎😎😎😎🤘MFE,
Suprised to see the crew jam that board in there. I don't like how close that wall is to the posts either. Seems like a shortcut to avoid cutting blocks to me. Not a typical shortcut your crew would take in my opinion.
As I understood it, the original plan was changed due to issues with the deck. Putting in a row of blocks for a corner would require getting into the short retaining wall above the current work because you would need a base back from the corner of the garage. These are $ compromises you make after discussing options with the owner.
Clean loose gravel can certainly be compacted. It has nothing to do with individual pieces sticking together. It's about vibrating the material to reduce the voids between them.
How is the homeowner going to replace those rotted posts and footings now that the wall is built right next to them. Shouldn't the deck be repaired before you put the wall in.???
i dont like the whole deck placement in front of garage in the first place. that one post in front looks scary. all it takes is a slight error hitting that with car late night because accidents do happen. id rather have over kill than under and this is under in my book. Good thing Im not an inspector.
My son built an all Electric House. Every thing electric. The local power company had to repair some lines. Was off for about 4 days. No heat. Couldn't cook. Lost all of his food in freezer and refrigerator. No lights. Totally in the dark. The following 2 years later. He went to gas for cooking and install a stove 😅😅
