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I like the look of concrete deck and building support piers in square
rather than round sono-tube shape. I’ve frequently seen this done
in photos but don’t know the process. Some may be stuccoed, but some
appear to be cast-in-place. I assume a plywood form could be used, perhaps
with pipe-clamps or the steel banding used on shipping containers. Could pier forms 8 ft long be built and inserted in drilled holes to a 4 foot frost line depth, leaving a required 4 feet from grade to the bottom of
an elevated deck? What about edge treatment? Cove molding rabbeted into
plywood before form assembly or grinding after form removal? There may be
established techniques for this but I haven’t found with any searches on the concrete sites.
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Replies
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m baker - Did you consider using flue liners for the exposed parts of the piers (filled with concrete)? You can set up a sonotube for the below-grade portion, brace the flue liner and set post anchors in the top. The red color blends in with landscaping better than concrete.
Jeff
*Jeff,Have you tried this?I always assumed the clay flues would split and delaminate from the concrete over time due to differing expansion/contraction rates.Does it work?Eric
*Don't be so picky, Jeff's an Architect. :) Joe H
*At the railroad museum we had obtained for free from the plane a lot of "second" concrete culvert piping, more than we needed for our drainage project.Then, we needed forms for concrete pillers. We gasped at the sonotube prices. "Say--look at those left-over concrete pipes!"Worked really well, but damn they are heavy unless you have a crane!
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I like the look of concrete deck and building support piers in square
rather than round sono-tube shape. I've frequently seen this done
in photos but don't know the process. Some may be stuccoed, but some
appear to be cast-in-place. I assume a plywood form could be used, perhaps
with pipe-clamps or the steel banding used on shipping containers. Could pier forms 8 ft long be built and inserted in drilled holes to a 4 foot frost line depth, leaving a required 4 feet from grade to the bottom of
an elevated deck? What about edge treatment? Cove molding rabbeted into
plywood before form assembly or grinding after form removal? There may be
established techniques for this but I haven't found with any searches on the concrete sites.