Is there such a thing as having too many footings for a cabin deck?

Over-engineering a deck to this extent usally creates more problems than it solves when you move from digging holes to acutally framing the floor. The biggest headache you're going to face is **alignment**. Every single pier you added is another point of failure for your layout. If one of those orange tubes is off by half an inch or slightly tilted, you'll be fighting your beams for the next three weeks. Most people think more concrete equals more safety, but once you go past a certain point, you're just creating a nightmare for the post bases and hardware. And then there is the soil load issue. By putting these footings so close togather, you're essentially creating a concentrated slab. If that soil settles unevenly, you'll have some piers carrying the entire weight while others just hover. It's actually better to have fewer, deeper footings that reach below the frost line and hit undisturbed soil. That's what gives you real stability, not just a dense grid of shallow concrete. When you start setting your beams, you're going to realize that your ledger connection at the house is where the real stress is. If the old deck failed under a guest, it likely pulled away from the rim joist or the joists rotted at the hangers. Focus your energy there. Use **ledger bolts** or a tension tie system to pull the deck into the house structure. All the concrete in the world won't help if the connection to the house isn't locked down. If you haven't poured the concrete yet, I'd seriously consider pulling every other form. A standard 6x6 post can support a massive amount of weight if the beam spans are calculated right. You're making your life impossible with the hardware. Trying to line up dozens of post bases in a perfect grid is a recipe for a deck that looks like a roller coaster. Stick to an 8-foot spacing and you'll still be able to park a truck on it without losing your mind during the framing phase.

Spot on about the alignment. I did an over-built grid like this once and it was a total disaster trying to get the post bases to line up. One tiny detail to watch for is the wet-setting. If you're pouring a dozen holes at once, you've got about twenty minutes to get every single bracket perfectly squared and centered. If the mix starts to set and you're even a fraction off, you're stuck buying a diamond bit to drill for epoxy anchors later. It turns a "solid" plan into a $500 hardware bill real fast.

Have you ruled out whether the old deck failed because of the footings specifically or just simple wood rot? If it was rot, all this concrete won't save you if the new joists aren't flashed right. Also, I'd be worried about all those pier forms acting like a dam for groundwater on that slope. If you’ve got a super dense grid, where is the runoff going to go? You might accidentally create a swamp under there that eats your posts from the bottom up, regardless of how much concrete you poured. Just somthing to check before you commit to the pour.

Since you're going for overkill, don't ruin the structural integrity by using old-school lag bolts that can split your lumber. Switch over to Simpson Strong-Tie SDWS Structural Wood screws for all your beam-to-post connections. They have way better shear strength than standard hardware and you don't have to pre-drill every single hole, wich saves a ton of time on a project this big. If you're worried about another collapse, these are the only fasteners I'd trust to keep those heavy beams locked onto your posts for the next twenty years.

Update: You guys were right about the alignment—getting these brackets perfectly squared is a nightmare. I’m definatly switching to those SDWS screws to save my sanity. One thing though, the point about groundwater really hit home. Since I’ve basically built a concrete dam on this slope, is there a specific type of gravel or drainage pipe I should put between the piers before I start the framing?