This past fall I replaced a carrying beam supported by steel tubes that were buried directly in the ground sometime in the 1970’s. The beam was rotten and the ends of the steel posts had broken at ground level.

I began by removing the old beam and leveling the structure using a temporary girder and bottle jacks. Then new 8″ diameter concrete footings were placed 48″ below grade to support 6″ x 6″ posts. A seat notch supports each side of the the beam which was constructed using three plies of 2″ x 12″ Douglas fir.  Copper flashing on the top and ends prevents water and ice from entering the space between the plies.

I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the final step – I added cleats below the splice on each side of the 6″ x 6″ post to support the ends of the beams’ center ply. The cleats are attached to the posts with 5/8″ galvanized threaded rod.