Stone foundation piers can bring beautiful touch to rustic cottage
BUILDING COTTAGE FOUNDATION PIERS
Q What kind of foundation piers can I build for a raised cottage? I’ve seen people use concrete poured in round forms and others use concrete blocks.
A Both poured piers and blocks are options, but there are a couple of things to consider. If you’re building on bedrock that’s sloped even a little (common in many areas of cottage country), you’ll need to drill into the rock and use corrosion-proof rods to anchor the foundation. If you’re building on soil, you can’t assume that an 8-inch or 12-inch diameter concrete pier offers enough surface area to support your building. Ask your building inspector for recommendations on the size of footings required for your soil type before you begin.
If you live in a place with loose stone and you feel adventurous, you might consider building your foundation piers out of stone, the old fashioned way.
Once again, talk to your inspector first, but a short, wide stone foundation pier can be a beautiful part of a rustic cottage and quite durable.
I’ve built stone piers on several projects within plywood forms that both hold the stones while the mortar cures, and define the top of the piers.
Install the forms in their proper location so they’re plumb, then trim the forms so all top ends are in a level plane. This way you have a visual level to build up to. Lay the stones one by one into the form, with stiff mortar between each layer. Offset joints between stones by three or four inches for strength.
An 18 inch x 18 inch size is about as small a footprint of stone pier as you’ll want to go. When the mortar has cured, remove the plywood, trowel more mortar into the joints so they’re filled and flat.
DECK REFINISHING TIPS
Q Is it necessary to do more than a light sanding to prepare my deck for refinishing ? I’ve stripped the deck only to discover that it’s made of pressure treated cedar. Sometimes the sander exposes untreated wood which is quite a bit lighter that the treated layer.
A Actually, there’s no such thing as pressure treated cedar as far as I’ve ever heard or discovered. Deck wood is either pressure treated to resist rot (typically pine, spruce or fir) or naturally rot-resistant cedar (typically western red cedar or sometimes eastern white).
What sort of sander are you using ? It sounds like it might be too weak for the job or you’re using too fine an abrasive. The darker layer you’re encountering may be just some old weathering on the surface. The colour left behind by pressure treatment goes way too deep to ever sand off, even with a powerful sander.
Sanding is vital for the longest lasting deck finish life, and there are two kinds of machines that make sense for this work. For large, flat areas, consider renting a walk-behind square buff floor sander. Normally a tool like this is used for interior floors, but a square buff floor sander works well on decks, too. Choose a 60-grit abrasive for this machine.
If you’d rather not rent a sander, or your deck is fairly small, the minimum practical handheld machine for the job would be a 6-inch random orbit sander. Use a 60- or 80-grit abrasive on this tool.
Even if you do rent a floor sander, the 6-inch random orbit is what you’ll need for corners and tight spots.
You know you’ve sanded the wood properly when it’s bright and clean and even looking. My personal preference is to pressure wash the deck first, let it dry for a few good days, then sand. Remove all dust with a leaf blower, then apply your finish on a cloudy day.