Deck will be off the house ten x twelve feet and six feet off the
ground.
I plan on using cones four feet into the ground, I figure a little
more then five bags of concrete per hole.( It is in a hard to get area
a concrete truck out of the question.

My question is what is the maximum length I can go using 2 x 8
pressure treated joists between 4 x 4 pressure treated collumns ?

Depends on several things including how far apart they are. You need a
span calculator, here's one example I got (putt the words maximum,
span, and calculator into google):

http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/...rcalcstyle.asp

Here's a less scientific one:

http://www.southernpine.com/pdf/table15.pdf

Edward wrote:
Deck will be off the house ten x twelve feet and six feet off the
ground.
I plan on using cones four feet into the ground, I figure a little
more then five bags of concrete per hole.( It is in a hard to get area
a concrete truck out of the question.

My question is what is the maximum length I can go using 2 x 8
pressure treated joists between 4 x 4 pressure treated collumns ?

Your local building department should be able to help you with
this. My county building department had handouts at the front door
detaling information for decks and basement finishes. They also have
engineers you could ask questions of during certain hours of the day.
I know in my case I had to go with 2x12s for a 12 foot span.
Mark

On Tue, 10 May 2005 16:09:25 +0000 (UTC), someone wrote:


I know in my case I had to go with 2x12s for a 12 foot span.

16" or 24" on center? And they must assume a pretty severe loading
for a deck (for having a party with wall to wall people), as for usual
residential loading, as little as 2x8 and no more than 2x10 is common
for that span.

In urban areas, there have been famous collapses of upper story decks
(like a 3rd floor porch type things) with fatalities, during parties.



Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.