Low Lying Deck

ejpascall

I'm looking at building a deck 5" from soil to underneath of deck boards. Any ideas on construction method? Major concerns-not enough room to have bearers. It's not over concrete so can't baton it.

neolitic

If that's what it must be,
4X4 flush beams 4' on center, with
piers 4' on center, and 2X4 joist
16"o.c. hung between the beams.

I don't do metric, but 2X4 is
1½"X3½" here.

Sounds like a mares nest, but
doable.

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Meetre

why not take out enough dirt to get framing under the deck, put down some rock and landscaping fabric to keep out water and call it good?

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redwood

You can do it as Neolitic describes or eliminate the 2x4's and use more 4x4's. Which method you use might be determined by the decking you use. If you use 5/4 ipe, you can probably span 32", thought we usually go 24".

I'm not a huge fan of the JH method because of squeeks and movement, especially with little 2x4 JH's.

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John Hyatt

One way I have done it>>>rip a 2x6, construstion adhesive, fasten the two 2 5/8'' into one, use them with a 6' span flush framing.

5'' is plenty of space to do this, provide cross ventalation when using ipe that low to the ground a couple of ways to do this>>> screen vents cut in the rim, floor vents cut into the decking, or for really low projects install black flex pipe coming from under the deck to the outside with china caps. J.

Stone Mountain

Several methods can be used
1] dig trenches and sink the footings to the bottom of the trench, then put the beam into the trench. Fill with gravel and filter cloth to minimize water problem

2] Put all the joists directly on 6x6 sleepers buried into the ground: no concrete footings as such

3] double up the header and use it as the beam, supported by footings. Then, at the point where you might need a second beam, again double up headers and put footings under that, then hang the joists from the header/beam.

Any one of the 3 works fine. I have done hundreds of ground level decks.

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