When my stepfather was setting the piers for the deck around his new house, he discovered that Joint compound box as pier block form he needed more pier blocks. Glancing around, he spied a pile of cardboard joint-compound boxes left by the drywall crew. The boxes were about the same size as a precast pier, so he folded back the box flaps top and bottom and filled one with concrete to test its ability to retain the concrete while it set. No problem. For pads, he used squares of redwood 2x6s with 16d galvanized nails driven into their bottoms. As shown in the drawing, the concrete should be tapered away from the pads for drainage.
Ken Morrill, Corralitos, CA
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