#8
I need to rebuild my deck this spring. I had hoped to just redo decking and rails, but upon inspection today I think the posts need replacing. 

They are 6x6 set in the ground and cast in concrete, I am guessing they are 25-30 years old and show significant rot. The rest of the structure is in great shape and I don't want to do a full tear down and rebuild, so I would like to replace the posts in place. Looking at about 10-12 that need replacing.

What is my best option here? I am thinking I could pull the existing posts out of the concrete using a high lift jack with some chain and then pouring a new footer over top of the existing footer and embedding some threaded rod and using a post box to mount the new posts to so the new posts are all above grade.  What I don't know is how much a pain in the butt pulling the posts will be. The deck is about waist high above grade so I do have some room to work and the posts are not too tall.

Has anyone done this? I assume as long as I clean the old footer well and use a sonotube pouring the new footer over the old one and filling in the hole where the post was it would bond with the old concrete and be sufficient.

I have zero desire to dig out the old footers......
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who can read binary code and those who can't.

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#9
ive never had luck pulling a post out of concrete. i helped do a repair about 20 years ago on rotted posts set in concrete. jacked up the deck at each post,cut post off flush with concrete,  then drilled some holes for rebar into the concrete the old posts were in, framed up some boxes to pour 6" thick new footings on top of and  tied into the old ones with the rebar. set new posts on simpson raised posts bases. havent seen the deck in 10 years but it was still good then.
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#10
(03-18-2019, 08:02 AM)tomsteve Wrote: ive never had luck pulling a post out of concrete. i helped do a repair about 20 years ago on rotted posts set in concrete. jacked up the deck at each post,cut post off flush with concrete,  then drilled some holes for rebar into the concrete the old posts were in, framed up some boxes to pour 6" thick new footings on top of and  tied into the old ones with the rebar. set new posts on simpson raised posts bases. havent seen the deck in 10 years but it was still good then.

I also have doubts if you could pull the post out of the concrete.  If they are rotted you will just pull the tops off the 6x6's .   Sounds like what tomsteve did is a good way to go.   Roly
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#11
Me too, also never had any luck pulling posts out of concrete.  What I did was cut the post flush with the concrete, drill out the wood(spade bits worked best) as deep as possible, then fill the hole with fresh concrete. Then used stand off post bases.
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#12
(03-18-2019, 09:24 AM)K. L McReynolds Wrote: Me too, also never had any luck pulling posts out of concrete.  What I did was cut the post flush with the concrete, drill out the wood(spade bits worked best) as deep as possible, then fill the hole with fresh concrete. Then used stand off post bases.

Ok sounds like a consensus. That was my backup plan. I have one post that appears to be purely cosmetic as its only tied into the outside band board with 2 nails, but appears to be placed purely for cosmetics for visual symmetry. I can easily test the pulling of the post there to see if that is going to work.

Thanks for the input guys!

Steve
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who can read binary code and those who can't.

"To be against hunting, fishing and trapping you have to be spiritually stupid." Ted Nugent
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#13
Depending upon the way the structure was originally built, you can run a cross beam under the 2" x 8" and cantelever about 14" or so outboard.

This image shows what I am talking about.

[Image: 1405474551217.jpeg]

So you can leave the original posts in place and run the new ones along side them.  Once the new ones are in place you can remove the old ones.

Here is another example and it might be clearer:

[Image: tech-deck-feature-.jpg]
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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