Yurt Deck Foundation

Oct 17, 2021 Last reply: 4 years ago 5 Replies

My son wants to put a Yurt at the bottom of the garden on some sloping ground not really accessible by a normal vehicle. He wants some help building a platform, basically a small square wooden deck boarded with those grooved, tanalised decking boards, to make it level and keep it off the wet ground. Should be simple, but...



...What's the best first step, eg the stuff on the ground? He said we will put 4x4 fence posts in and cut the tops off level. I said no, you will want the stuff at the bottom to rot last because you won't be able to replace it and a bit of wood in the ground won't last long. I wondered if we might cast concrete staddles but thinking about it what's the point when we could use concrete breeze blocks? Even paving slabs might spread the weight enough if they are set on a bit of gravel but maybe water would pool on them. Would the whole thing need to be fixed down? I wouldn't want it to blow away in a gale.



Advice welcome! We can do the carpentry without much problem I think. I don't really want to leave a lot of concrete on the ground - it might be me who has to remove it in 20 yrs time!


I built a hen house on sloping ground. I was prepared to make up some rough shuttering squares and drop each one (there were eight) into a hole, then make concrete pads. However by chance I saw some concrete blocks 400x400x250 in an overgrown corner of a building supplies yard. The bloke scratched his head and said, "Well I don't know, how about twenty quid for the lot?" So I used them. I set then at levels to suit the ground level at that point; I just made sure they were level. I found some galv steel post bases at a farm supplies place.

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(0923RESET&utm_term=4587437394979017&utm_content=test They were made for 120x120 posts, so I got some 120x120 timber and used that. I reckon if ever the posts rot I'll be able to replace them quite easily.

I made some tree guards (quite big ones). I got some 2" dia aluminium aerial masts and cut them across at an angle so they had pointed ends. I banged them into the ground then bolted the wooden uprights to them, about 6" above the ground. That worked well.

Bill

You could use concrete repair posts these are short concrete posts used for repairing broken timber posts. You could use them as ground posts concreted into the ground then use the holes to attach the wooden posts keeping them out/off the ground.

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Look at the gallery to see how they are normally used.

Richard

Concrete blocks worked very well for our snooker room - a wooden shed with a full size snooker table in it. Old roofing slates on top acted as a DPC and helped with levelling around 50 piers.

Have a look at "ground screws"... great big galvanised screw, good for sloping ground.

No idea as to cost...

Googled a bit: from 14 L for a Krinner D68mm x 550 mm, up to "lots more"...

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Thomas Prufer

The bloke who does 'Oakwood Garden Rooms' on Youtube has an interesting approach. He casts 20mm (I think) threaded rod vertically into holes with postcrete, and then screws his floor timbers to that. The thread allows fine adjustment of levels. These 'piles' require minimal digging (less than a fence post) and aren't too difficult to remove later on (since the lump of concrete on the end is small, and you can always screw something to the thread to give it a tug).

The only thing I'd worry about is where there's ground movement, like on wet clay soils or with tree roots, which might put pressure on one particular pile because the building isn't on a solid raft.

Theo

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