Porch reno

[neddy]

Am replaceing my old pocrh (concrete slab) with a timber deck. I'll be using concrete stumps....but do I need to put stumps where the deck meets the house or just bolt the deck bearers onto the existing house bearers via a couple of botls?

[ozwinner]

Bolts.............

[ChrisH]

well.....
Normal practise is to attach bolt a bearer (ledger?) to the building.
BUT
In Vic at least if your project is under $5000 and doesn't affect the structure of the house, you don't need a building permit. So there is an incentive to build the deck free standing (in its own stumps) so that it doesn't rely on the house for support. (so it can't be taken to affect the structure of the house.)
So it depends how much of a hassle it is to get a permit, whether it is worth the extra cost.
There is an excellent book called the Deck Framing Manual, by Allan Staines. You can get it from Bunnings and many other big hardware stores. Sounds like you need it.

Chris.

[Eastie]

Following on from what chris said, I too had a feeling that attaching to the house meant obtaining a building permit. I ran this past our building surveyor at work and he confirmed that a deck would have to be substantial to "affect the structural stability" of the house. As the existing bearers would only be taking half the floor load width (span between the existing baerer and the first new bearer) the dead load is hardly worth considering and unless you plan to keep elephants on it the live loads are the same. The $5k is spot on though.