# proper way to replace post from post and pier foundation?



## sacseven (Nov 22, 2010)

I received several quotes to change out the some posts under my house. They ranged a lot in price.

They look like these, only the wood goes 8" above concrete
http://www.radconstructioninc.com/images/photos/rsd_isolated_good.jpg

The cheapest licensed guy told me that he could support the beam with jacks, cut out old wood and replace with new wood. Strap, etc to code.

The other guy said his company wont allow that type of repair, they have to put two new ones on each side of the. Its about 4 times as much.

Any advice?


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## cortell (Nov 27, 2010)

First, let's make sure we're talking about the same thing. There's two types of posts in the picture. One kind sits on a deck block; the other is embedded in the ground, in what looks to be a sonotube filled with concrete.

The effort to replace each kind differs greatly (assuming the replacement gives you exactly what you started with).

First of all, if we're talking about a house and not a deck, deck blocks are insufficient. You need a footing that rests as least 12" below grade (I believe Sacramento has no frost line). So, if this is the kind of thing you have under your house, what's probably happening is that one contractor is telling you he can do a straight replacement. The other contractor is probably being more conscientious and telling you there's no way he's going to do a straight replacement. It's also possible he may have determined you have an insufficient number of posts (i.e., your beam span is too large). So, he's willing to put in proper posts and footings and decrease the beam span by putting in one next to each failed one.

This is all speculation on my part. I don't know exactly what you have under your house (that's not an actual picture of your crawl space) and I don't know exactly what each contractor said to you. But, I'm providing a theory as to why you may have two very different quotes. If you can post pictures of your actual situation _and_ get a more detailed explanation from the pricier contractor, I can give you my opinion.


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## sacseven (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. I used the company that replaced the wood. It is actually more difficult than it looks. The 4x6 vertical supports sit on top of 2x6's, which rest on the concrete blocks. The concrete blocks are not perfectly flat. The guy had to fabricate the 2x6's to rest on the block with a chisel and hammer. It took him a while.


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## juryduty (Mar 10, 2008)

Interesting, it looks like your floor joists are on 48" centers like mine. I have a similar post and pier system. Why are you replacing the piers? I have been looking at hiring someone to install some additional cross-members between the joists as I have a lot of floor deflection. The 1970s were a time of great experimentation in California


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm surprized they would even replace what you had like that. I'm pretty sure that would not meet any type of building codes any place never mind in CA.
In my area that would not even pass a home inspection.
They want to see footings and block piers.


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