Hello, previous owner had built a nice deck but made the mistake of attaching the clothesline from the deck end post to a large maple tree. The tree movement has shifted the deck (outside the line on a bubble level. Any remediation to this or should I leave it alone - clothesline removed. Was thinking of trying to level it up with a come along attached to the truck.
What kind of truck?
-TES
It doesn't seem to me that a clothesline would be strong enough to pull the deck off level. A typical clothesline would have a lot more give than the deck. You may have a problem with the foundation. You might want to check that before you go too far trying to straighten it up.
Bill
I think he means "plumb" not "level".
We use #10 wire for clothesline which would be plenty strong to move quite a lot of stuff over time...
As for putting it back, it would all depend on how it is built and from what and what actually moved. Need far more info to judge (which is why I didn't respond to begin with).
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It's a deck that's free standing with cross bracing thats up to code. The deck is roughly 10x16 and 5 feet off the ground. The posts are bracketed atop footings that are 3ft down. Typical 4x4 brackets at the footings. The clothesline was attached to the corner outside post. The tree is about 60ft in height. There is a lot of movement in the tree. Yes - plumb / not level. Eventhough the deck has moved it has not affected the footings. They are still plumb and no cracking where the bracket bolt goes into the cement. There is some apparent movement where the cross bracing is bolted to the 4x4 posts. I was planning on lossening the bracing bolts, hooking a come a long to the truck. Tighten the come along until a 2nd party with a level indicates that the deck is plumb again and then repositioning the bracing.
jim wrote: ...
Is it far enough off plumb it's discernible by eye? If not, I'd probably not fool with it.
Is "apparent movement" swaying w/ people moving on the deck or the result of the tension force left it in a new but solid position? If the former, it's the other reason I might mess w/ trying to reposition it, but if it's not obvious and it's solid, quite likely not worth the effort (imo, ymmv, of course).
For no heavier of a structure than that, should be moderately trivial to shift it some if chose to do so. Whether the bracing will tighten up sufficiently again to hold it in the original position for long will be the question I suspect.
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If you can fix it from below, I'd use a turnbuckle and cable, maybe a few depending on the situation.
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