I just had my deck rebuilt and repaired. The deck is partially built on a concrete slab with a big portion of it that extends out into the soil. Due to poor drainage over the years it has caused soil to be eroded away from the border of the patio slab and also next to the house foundation where a portion of the deck resides. The contractor was unconcerned about it and felt like it wasn't an issue and rebuilt the deck without pushing any dirt into these areas. He mentioned something about the cantilever strength of the concrete being strong enough to prevent any problems.

I've tried to upload a picture but have not been successful. However, I did find the link below for an idea of what I'm talking about. However, my issue is not even close to this severe.

http://geotechfoundation.com/wp-cont...09/erosion.gif

Thanks.

Barry

 

Sounds like a problem to me as well as wood too close to the ground based on your description of the deck.

We need some pictures of your yard: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...rt-images.html

 

Thanks for the link but I tried that. I get an upload file error message.

 

Here is your picture:




I assume there is more to the story that we are not hearing. Can you post more pictures of the area? Hopefully a photo further back to show the surrounding grade and where that water may be coming from.

But... that's not a little erosion. It has undermined the slab and it's footer. I am very curious how you have so much erosion localized to such a small area and without damage to the lawn immediately adjacent to it.

 

me, too,,, is that a membrane lying on the grass ? while its true conc does have flexural strength, how do you know yours is of sufficient strength ? i'll answer for you - you don't til it breaks,,, i'll also bet your contractor can't see your house from his house

 

You're probably trying to post pics from your phone. They're too big. The board has a 50kb picture limit. It will resize pics up to 100kb down to 50 but anything over has to be hosted elsewhere and linked to here or resized smaller.

 

That picture is not my house. This is some random picture that I found on the internet to help me describe my situation. The erosion on my house is not anything close to that in the picture. I should have made myself more clear. I do find it comforting that, compared to my house, there doesn't appear to be any damage or cracking to the house in the picture despite the lack of support.

With a little patience I can figure out how to post a picture. I've posted pictures on forums many times but this one has got me stumped with the error messages.

 

Below is a picture of when the deck was being repaired. You can see where the soil has eroded a bit from the concrete slab. There is a section by the house that barely worse than what you see but is not seen in the picture. My concern is that these areas are covered by the deck and I cannot see any potential issues that could arise from further erosion. Is this much ado about nothing?

 

The lack of good ventilation under the deck concerns me more than what erosion I see. If wood doesn't dry out in a timely manner after getting wet it's apt to rot [even PT wood] and get mold.