Who the hell cements deck posts 30" into the ground?

[TheHumanAlphabet]

The fuc&in& previous owner of my house, that's who...:texan:

Damn, have 4 holes 4 feet by 3 feet deep in the back yard to get these suckers out...Had to rent a cement chipper/hammer to bust up the concrete to be able to get the posts out. Am sore as hell, now I can't sleep for all the discomfort, 2nd round of aspirin please...

Okay, we live in Houston, the deck was actually a pergula for a hot tub the effer had (he also uses 4-inch toggle bolts to put up light fixtures, as we are discovering...). I do live in a hurricane area south of Houston, but damn, the house would be gone, but them posts would still be there... This wasn't bag cement shi'ite, but professional hydrolic? concrete, small aggregate and very white mixture. So hard, a 30# sledge wouldn't bust it, had to rent the chipper... :rcmad:

[Flagstaffsooner]

36" is code here due to the frost level. I would imagine yours are deep due to the water table.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

You watch those home shows and they are like 10" into the ground in frost heave areas. No code, this guy was not about codes...He is just a jerk. He left the wire to the hot tub under the old deck (which was warping) live and uncapped. Good thing I decided not to touch it and call an electrician...I had seen enough of his "Bob Vila-ing" to know better...

Plus the posts weren't doing anything other than holding up 4 2x6s he used to start the pergula thing and never finished. The deck was like 4 inches off the ground to hide the concrete pad (surprise!) for the hot tub.

[Flagstaffsooner]

You should call...

http://www.houstoneye.com/images/MarvinZindler.jpg
:D

[mdklatt]

You should call...

http://www.houstoneye.com/images/MarvinZindler.jpg
:D

Oh no, there was slime in the ice machine too?!

[Flagstaffsooner]

There is slime in everything in Houston.

[olevetonahill]

There is slime in everything in saxet.
fixed :D

[TheHumanAlphabet]

You should call...

http://www.houstoneye.com/images/MarvinZindler.jpg
:D
Spek!

There was slime in the hole because I started 2 months ago, thinking the deck would be a weekend project. Nope! A sawz-all and drill had the deck disassembled in less than a day. Tried jacking the post out of the ground with a 30-ton floor jack (our neighbor did it on his fence posts), Nope! Then dug and found out what I had. Then travel / work...So 2 months later, the thing is down...

[StoopTroup]

Mine are 36" in the ground.

I'm going to sell the house soon to some guy that will decide he wants to take it out. I'd like to see him do it. I bet he won't sleep for a week after finally getting those babies out. :D

The deck is around 20' x 25' and has a huge old pecan tree in the middle of it which I built around. Heck...if the roots of that baby have wrapped or grown around those posts...you'd maybe never get them out. I used a rented auger in some places until I finally had to cut through some of the roots.

I bet a tornado could take out my huose and that deck would still be ready for a party the next day.