Not a question, but an interesting observation, so simple it was painful.
The local concrete plant makes what could only be called “blocks” out of partial loads of ready-mix that they couldn’t get rid of at a job site. These blocks are 2′ wide, 2′ high and 7′ long, and weigh in the neighborhood of 2 tons each. They’re ugly but solid.
Yesterday I was at a house under construction, inspecting the septic system installation, and the excavating contractor had dug a trench about 6′ deep all the way across the front of the house, and about 12′ out from the foundation. He was taking these blocks (which can be had for about $25 each) and placing them vertically in the trench where normally you would put a sonotube and footing. He simply backfilled around them. The homeowner planned on drilling for a post anchor and epoxying the bolt somewhere in the 2-foot-square top of each pier for a deck post.
So it’s simple, because you don’t have to buy the sonotube and/or Bigfoot footing, don’t have to mix concrete or pour tubes full, all you need is a big hoe with a hydraulic thumb. Check your local ready-mix plant and see if they make these things, you can get yourself ‘precast’ deck piers at a fraction of the cost of pouring round tubes.
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A problem with them could be that these kinds of things are often made from "hot" concrete that comes back in a truck (or is rejected for some reason by a contractor) and sometimes the quality suffers, and they tend to deteriorate with time. don't know if they still do, but many of the concrete parking lot blocks used at the front of parking spaces were made from concrete like this. That's why you often see some that are falling apart along side others that are in great shape.
The batch plant here has a set of metal forms for those interlocking highway dividers. Looks like they take maybe a yard each. I've always assumed they used leftover mud to pour them.
man, that's an awful lot of work for deck footings.
Local mason supply house just started selling 'pre-cast concrete footings'. They're 5ft long, have a larger base and are tapered to an 8" square pad on top that has a pre-drilled (or cast) hole for an anchor bolt so you can attach a Simpson deck tie. The post are $82 each - less than materials alone if you go the Bigfoot, sono tube, cement route. Of course, then you gotta get them to your site and lowered into place...no problem with a small backhoe or bobcat, or lots of cheap labor.
-Norm
I used those on my new home and thought they worked great. $55 each and the excavator set them when he was there to backfill the foundation. Took very little time. Quick and easy and no other trades to schedule.Tom
Douglasville, GA