Hi chaps, out here in the sticks like many houses I've got an off-mains sewage thingy, a digester, an old one. Can just see the top of it, it looks like a World War 1 concrete machine gun post but sunk in the ground and full of you-know-what. Even with new builds around here they seem to put up a deck above the sewage digester / cesspit / processor or whatever.
Dunno if this is just to hide it or cos it can't carry weight on top of it.
Anyhow, ours had a wooden deck over it which has just rotted away. I'm clearing that and want to more or less do what they call in the movies a shot-for-shot remake - just build a replacement.
I don't want to mess about breaking out the original post footings cos they are near the sch-you-know-what container corners. So I'd like to just put new posts in a bit further away from its corners.
Question is, looking at the post-and-beam idea for the deck underpinnings, how long can the beams be? I think I need 3.5 or 4 metres to clear the digester - I don't want anything to rest on it - the previous builders didn't!
Working in post-and-beam, can I have a 4 metre run only supported at the ends and if so in what timber, e.g. 2 X 10 inch or what?
Thanks in advance.
Terry.
Dunno if this is just to hide it or cos it can't carry weight on top of it.
Anyhow, ours had a wooden deck over it which has just rotted away. I'm clearing that and want to more or less do what they call in the movies a shot-for-shot remake - just build a replacement.
I don't want to mess about breaking out the original post footings cos they are near the sch-you-know-what container corners. So I'd like to just put new posts in a bit further away from its corners.
Question is, looking at the post-and-beam idea for the deck underpinnings, how long can the beams be? I think I need 3.5 or 4 metres to clear the digester - I don't want anything to rest on it - the previous builders didn't!
Working in post-and-beam, can I have a 4 metre run only supported at the ends and if so in what timber, e.g. 2 X 10 inch or what?
Thanks in advance.
Terry.
