I am about to start building my first deck and have was wondering how much load can they carry?
I intend to build a 2 tier construction (one on the ground 12'x16' with a 4"x2" frame throughout and the other 12'x15' approx 24" off the ground with a 6"x2" frame and 4"x2" joists). I will be concreting the 4"x4" posts for the upper deck into the ground (clay soil) to a depth of 2'. BUT...
As I have a couple of mates who are rather rotund (over 24st) my wife reckons that I should be altering the spacing for the posts and rather than the normal 1200mm centres I should put them closer together to make sure that it doesn't sag if we are all on it.
So I was thinking of doing them at 900mm centres (as that will fit evenly with the overall sizes of the deck)....
1) Is it necessary to change the spacing of the posts?
2) If so then does 900mm seem reasonable? If I carry this on under the entire frame then it means I have 30 posts supporting the deck.....Have I over engineered the structure?
3) Any other advice would be very much appreciated.
OF course I could always restrict the big folk to the lower tier!!!
Many thanks.
I intend to build a 2 tier construction (one on the ground 12'x16' with a 4"x2" frame throughout and the other 12'x15' approx 24" off the ground with a 6"x2" frame and 4"x2" joists). I will be concreting the 4"x4" posts for the upper deck into the ground (clay soil) to a depth of 2'. BUT...
As I have a couple of mates who are rather rotund (over 24st) my wife reckons that I should be altering the spacing for the posts and rather than the normal 1200mm centres I should put them closer together to make sure that it doesn't sag if we are all on it.
So I was thinking of doing them at 900mm centres (as that will fit evenly with the overall sizes of the deck)....
1) Is it necessary to change the spacing of the posts?
2) If so then does 900mm seem reasonable? If I carry this on under the entire frame then it means I have 30 posts supporting the deck.....Have I over engineered the structure?
3) Any other advice would be very much appreciated.
OF course I could always restrict the big folk to the lower tier!!!
Many thanks.