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When put an 8’x12′ deck on our cabin in NW Wisconsin, some of the locals warned us not to put a ledger board on the cabin – just asking for trouble, they said, with frost heaving. But, of course, we thought we knew better, and figured if we did a bang-up job on the posts, we wouldn’t have any frost heaving to speak of. We followed directions METICULOUSLY, using 4′ long cardboard tubes with an additional space for a “concrete foot” on the bottom. We were proud of our efforts, because some of the DIY’s idea of a footing in our area involves a 5 gallon bucket and two bags of Quickrete! Anyway, we filled the 4′ cardboard tubes with concrete, added 5″x6″posts on top of that, and built the deck on top of the posts, and for a few years, we were just fine. This winter, however, the deck has heaved noticably! The side farthest from the cabin has heaved about 1to 2 inches up, whereas when we built the deck, it sloped about 1/2 the other direction (away from the cabin). I know the heaving will subside somewhat in the spring, but what should we do then? By the way, one of the problems might be related to our water table, which is very high, and our soil, which is heavy clay. Any suggestions short of a hand grenade? Another disheartening thing is that our neighbor’s deck, which he constructed WITHOUT cardboard tubes for his footings (he told us those tubes were a waste of time and money), and who didn’t put his footings as deep as ours, hasn’t moved a hair!!! Is this related to Murphy’s Laws for building, or does he know something we don’t know? And what about the two decks we’re going to build this summer on the front of the cabin? To ledger board, or not to ledger board, that is another question! Even more important, how do we prevent frost heaving on the footings to be constructed in the front of the cabin as support for the two new decks? We are a Zone 3 where it gets as cold as -20 to a -40 (although we have a good snow cover, even this winter, which has gone on FOREVER.) Ideas and thoughts are welcomed and appreciated!
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I spent a lot of time in Northern Alberta and Northern Ontario, Canada and standard practice there if you use sonotubes is to wrap them with building paper or poly to create a slip plane. The frost will push the wrap out but you just cut it off every few years.
I also built a deck which sat directly on a gravel pad 2 feet thick with no frost heave as the granular is not frost susceptible.
*Whoa! Where did this come from? I remember posting to this back in Feb., and I wasn't the first poster.
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When put an 8'x12' deck on our cabin in NW Wisconsin, some of the locals warned us not to put a ledger board on the cabin - just asking for trouble, they said, with frost heaving. But, of course, we thought we knew better, and figured if we did a bang-up job on the posts, we wouldn't have any frost heaving to speak of. We followed directions METICULOUSLY, using 4' long cardboard tubes with an additional space for a "concrete foot" on the bottom. We were proud of our efforts, because some of the DIY's idea of a footing in our area involves a 5 gallon bucket and two bags of Quickrete! Anyway, we filled the 4' cardboard tubes with concrete, added 5"x6"posts on top of that, and built the deck on top of the posts, and for a few years, we were just fine. This winter, however, the deck has heaved noticably! The side farthest from the cabin has heaved about 1to 2 inches up, whereas when we built the deck, it sloped about 1/2 the other direction (away from the cabin). I know the heaving will subside somewhat in the spring, but what should we do then? By the way, one of the problems might be related to our water table, which is very high, and our soil, which is heavy clay. Any suggestions short of a hand grenade? Another disheartening thing is that our neighbor's deck, which he constructed WITHOUT cardboard tubes for his footings (he told us those tubes were a waste of time and money), and who didn't put his footings as deep as ours, hasn't moved a hair!!! Is this related to Murphy's Laws for building, or does he know something we don't know? And what about the two decks we're going to build this summer on the front of the cabin? To ledger board, or not to ledger board, that is another question! Even more important, how do we prevent frost heaving on the footings to be constructed in the front of the cabin as support for the two new decks? We are a Zone 3 where it gets as cold as -20 to a -40 (although we have a good snow cover, even this winter, which has gone on FOREVER.) Ideas and thoughts are welcomed and appreciated!