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Just to be clear...100K plus PER MONTH!? Talk about a gold mine.
Independent of covid, building permits for decks are disgusting in terms of costs, hassle and delays incurred. If you are low enough I would probably not attach it to the house and legally build it without a permit.
Check the municipality. Most have a shed and deck flyer to answer the common questions. At our old house, IIRC no permit required for low, detached from house, no roof, no electrical.
I have had great experience with screw/heli piles. Cheaper than post holes with concrete. They are completely DIY (muscle and a long 2X4 is all it takes to drive them in). Last I looked at code they cannot be used if the deck is attached to the house (floating deck only).
If you're using them, eyes wide open. They say xxxx lbs per post but when you are done sifting through data, some of them are only good for a few hundred pounds a post. On my last deck, I used eight concrete piers, I would have needed more than 40 screw piles according to their math. Ignore the marketing number, it is garbage and roughly a factor of 10 above safe bearing capacity in most situations.
You mean like this?
That's annoying. I was more referring to a relatively high cost, requirement for footing inspection (meaning you have to get people to come back if you are paying for them and having open holes that dont like rain), need to have a complete set of drawings prior to construction start (that they theoretically hold you to) etc. Mostly ridiculous bureaucracy. Maybe with good intent, but they could make some modifications to make it easier and cheaper for all. For instance, submit pictures of a tape measure in each footing hole, picture of the bottom of the hole, etc. Cleans up delay, expense of a return trip and you dont need to pay an inspector. The last deck I built started construction with a design concept but the far side changed as construction progressed due to obstacles and figuring out a better way to solve a grading issue. Being held to preliminary drawings would have made the end project substantially worse. I understand the need for a formal and rigorous approach when life safety is involved but most backyard decks are not in that position. There was a crosship roof on my deck that I didnt have designed until well in the project, it ended up have 10 facets and two different pitches to look the way I wanted. If i had submitted complete drawings, i would have been on the hook for thousands in permit fees for a ~200sq ft deck and they would have had so many questions (low voltage lighting with junction boxes and switches, circuits for lights and power, sail on angled 16' angled posts with structural guardrails for support etc). I was already at $50/sq ft for material.You mean like this?
My last house came with a deck too. The *&%*%&*^% had attached the ledger board to the house with five concrete nails into the door sill. Approximately 5' unsupported cantilever on each side of the door sill. Wtf. I knew it sucked when I moved in and built brick piers to catch it if it fell (I wanted it to drop 1" to make it obvious that it had failed). Eventually that happened (FIL stepped on the deck and kablammo). Other end of the deck was supported on three 6" concrete posts 2.5' into the ground. I doubt that was ever code, they just didn't feel like digging further. Wankers.
I used a couple last year, super easy to install. But they both sunk almost 4 inches over the winter. Mine have top collars so I can recover, I won’t use them again.
I have cursed the previous owner many many times over the last 2 years....damn you Kevin....damn you indeed. For all your shortcuts.
I could write a 3 season comedy series for Netflix if I outlined all the shortcuts and diy dangers I got when I bought this house.
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