Hello, Great Forum. We are planning to build a deck this summer. We have a fairly good sized back yard that slopes away from the house (not really a level spot in the yard). We have dreamt about a deck or patio for years. The edge of the deck closest to the house will be within a few inches of the ground. The side farthest from the house will be about 18-24" off the ground. The deck will be free-standing. The place where we plan to build it happens to be very near the base of a 100 year old oak tree. I have a couple of questions... 1) One corner/side of the deck is within 2 feet of the base of the Oak tree. How much do we need to be concerned about damaging the tree roots? Since one of the sides runs near the tree, it is likely that we will be digging about 15 footings all within about 23 feet of the tree. 2) We live in MN, so I have been told that to get the cement footings below the frost line, we need to go 50 - 60" deep with 12" wide footings. Is there an easy way to check the codes on this for our area? 3) We are planning the deck to be 25 feet wide (the width of our house) by 18 feet deep. I am wondering about the basic layout of the framing on this. What is the correct placement of the footings? What size boards for the "beams"? What size for the joists? We are planning on 6" posts. See also #4 This is a very simplistic rectangle layout- just big. 4) We want to be able to place an inflatable "kiddie pool" on the deck when it is finished. The pool is 6 feet wide, 10 feet long and will be filled about 2.5 feet deep with water... and then usually 4 people sit in the pool. What special things so we need to consider for the strength of this structure in order to support the weight of the pool? Or should we skip the kiddie pool idea? What else should we consider on this? Thanks in advance for any advice!

I am planning a mudroom extension on the rear of my house and have a question about the foundation. The size will be 8' x 12', with the short side attached to the house. Rather than a standard poured foundation, I plan to use post & pier using sonotubes. There will be 6 sonotubes in 2 lines of three, 8 ft apart. On top of the sonotubes will be simpson brackets that will accept two 12 ft 4x6 PT beams. On top these two beams, I will build the floor, using 2x6s or 2x8s joists running perpendicular to the beams, anchoring it to the PT beams with some type of hardware. The long side of the room will be atached to a 16x16 deck that is also built using sonotubes. Does this sound like enough piers, or will I need some between the two rows (along the 8 ft joist span)? Also, are 2x6's ok for the floor joists (height may be an issue), or should I use 2x8s? Thanks for your input.