Deck Spans and support positioning

justme729

We are designing a deck...it will be 10 feet high, over our basement garage, for a new construction home. It is 12 X12 on both sides and 24' X 6' (the great room is a bump-out of the other 6') in the center = 48' wide. Can we use a header to eliminate the support post, if so, how long can the runs be? If not, often do we need to put in a support post?

Thank you!!!

Daniel Holzman

You are essentially asking for deck design help. You have not stated where you are located, what codes if any you are designing to, and whether you need a permit. My suggestion is to discuss design standards with your local code enforcement official. If you don't have any codes where you are, you can safely base your design on the Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide (http://www.awc.org/Publications/DCA/DCA6/DCA6-09.pdf). This guide will give you allowable spans, construction details, and most everything else you need to construct a safe, code compliant deck.

robertcdf

Anything can be done... As long as you have the money for it. I could design it to only have 2 posts holding it up (expensive) I could also design it to have 0 posts holding it up (very expensive) but there are a lot of other options in between that could serve you well. What kind of clear spans are you looking for? 10'? 12'? 16'?

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fltdek

Nice!!

efficiencyhomes

Check with local building codes. I've seen so many cases where decks are built very solid but not to local code and it can become a real headache when you try to sell. In some cases they may even force you to tear it down. Best to build it to "code" the first time. Your local building dept will tell you what to do.

Taylor Rae

I would have a little better plan before consulting your officals. Buy some reference materials that will provide span charts (you can pick them up at home improvement stores) and have a few try's at the design based on what you can determine from the books. Once you have a pretty solid preliminary design you can bring it to your construction official for some help. Usually, the official will be more apt to help if you go to him with at least a preliminary design. That's my experience, it could be different in your area.