First Footing Deck Co. · Birchall Hollow & Tarnhead · Built from the dirt up
Every deck is two projects. Only one of them shows.
First Footing spends the first day of every build where nobody looks — helical piers torqued to the gauge or concrete poured at forty-two inches, below the frost line this county publishes, carrying joists at twelve-inch centres on beams that were sized before they were bought. The boards are the easy part, and by the time they go down, the hard part has already been done for twenty years.
Free footing read anywhere in the Hollow or on the Tarn — we auger one test hole, show you the soil, and quote the foundation before we ever mention a board · (555) 023-7719 · build@firstfootingdeck.example
Services & rates
The rate card — per square foot, installed, footing to handrail
One card, footing to handrail. The fixed quote that follows the soil test carries the slope, the access and the frost already — and it is the only number you will ever be asked to pay.
Composite deck, installedfrom $61/sq ft
Capped boards, hidden clips, picture-frame border
Cedar deck, installedfrom $53/sq ft
5/4×6 western red, plugged screws, oiled at handover
Helical pier foundation+$24/pier
Steel shafts torqued to refusal — no cure days, no spoils
Poured concrete piers, 42 in+$31/pier
Below the published frost line, bell-bottomed in poor soil
Cable railing, code packagefrom $142/ln ft
36 and 42 in guards, 4-in sphere rule, blocking included
Cedar pergola, engineeredfrom $6,900
Rafters computed to the county’s 40-psf snow load, not the shade catalogue
Helical or poured — read the dirt
Helical piers are steel shafts screwed to torque refusal: instant capacity, no curing, no spoil heaps — right for most Hollow slopes. Poured piers belled at forty-two inches win in the Tarn’s wet clay, where screwing finds nothing to bite. The test hole decides, and you watch it decide.
Composite or wood — read the calendar
Composite where the deck lives hard — mower lines, grill grease, shovel blades, sun — and cleans never. Cedar where the smell and the feel are the point and you will oil it every second spring. By year ten the money lands close; the honest difference is whether your Saturdays belong to the deck or to the stain.
Cantilevers — read the span tables
A joist may run roughly two feet past its beam for every sixteen of backspan — the rule of thumb we treat as a floor, not a ceiling. Past it, on the Hollow’s drops, the overhang gets engineered: the cheapest drama in deck building when it is computed, the most expensive when it is guessed.
How it goes
From soil test to first dinner outside
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0 — the footing read
One test hole, one verdict
We auger, you look at the soil, and the foundation picks itself: helical on the Hollow’s slopes, belled concrete in the Tarn clay. Free, and yours to keep whoever builds the deck.
Week 1 — the drawing
Scaled, priced, fixed
A plan with your table and chairs drawn on it, joist directions marked, cantilevers noted against the span tables, rail heights to the code section — and one price that already carries the slope and the access.
Week 2 — the footings
The day nobody photographs
Piers torqued or poured to forty-two inches, beams hung with brackets never toe-screwed, posts braced before lunch. Everything from here up is arithmetic already done.
Weeks 3–4 — the frame & boards
Twelve-inch centres, then the finish
Joists at twelve, blocking at every bearing, ledger flashed — not just bolted — then boards gapped for this valley’s humidity and a picture-frame border so no cut end ever faces the garden.
Handover — the codes & the meal
The sphere block and the tape
Guards to height, the four-inch sphere tested everywhere a child could think of, rail returns closed, stairs with grip. Then we leave, and you eat outside for the first time.
Birchall Hollow · Tarnhead · the gap between
Built this season
Six builds photographed at handover, nothing styled, the footing photos filed with each. Four of these households will show you under their deck on request.
Since 2012
The crew, in figures
They augered a hole in my yard before they said a word about boards — showed me the clay, said “belled piers or nothing,” and the fixed quote that followed never moved. Three winters on, the deck is the only thing on the Tarn that does not tilt in April.
The cantilevered seat over the slope was their idea and they showed me the span tables to prove it — no posts at the drop, engineering instead of optimism. My engineer brother-in-law went under it with a torch and came out doing that slow nod.
Our last deck’s rails failed the daycare inspection — gaps a toddler could thread. These ones came with a four-inch block they tested everywhere, and a pergola sized to actual snow. The card at the bottom of this page is the first trades copy I have ever forwarded to my sister.
The five we hear first
Asked before the test hole
Anything deeper, the yard line answers between seven and five, or build@firstfootingdeck.example any hour at all — usually from under a deck.
Why does the footing decide the whole build?
Because everything above it is catalogued and everything below it is geology. A deck fails from the ground — frost heave lifting a pier, clay shrinking in a drought — long before a joist ever complains. One test hole tells us which foundation your yard is offering; from there the build is arithmetic.
Helical piers or concrete — which is better?
Neither, universally. Helicals screw to refusal and carry immediately — right for slopes, tight access and most Hollow soils. Poured piers belled at the base win in the Tarn’s wet clay, where a screw finds nothing to grip. We quote both against the same hole and the dirt picks.
Composite or wood — what do you actually recommend?
Composite where the deck lives hard: mower lines, grill grease, snow shovel, sun. Cedar where the smell and the feel matter and you will oil it every second spring. By year ten the money lands close — the honest difference is whether your Saturdays belong to the deck or to the stain.
How far can a deck cantilever?
Rule of thumb, a joist may run two feet past its beam per sixteen feet of backspan — but on the Hollow slopes we engineer it rather than thumb it, because the view that wants a cantilever is usually over the drop that punishes a guessed one. It is the cheapest drama in deck building when it is computed.
Do I need a rail, and to what height?
Any walking surface more than thirty inches off grade needs a guard — thirty-six inches tall on the residential read, forty-two on the tall and commercial one — with no gap a four-inch sphere passes. At or near grade, none is needed, which is why our grade-level platforms spend their rail budget on benches instead.
The first thing they did was dig a hole and the last thing they did was hand me a sphere block. In between: piers at forty-two inches in clay I had personally cursed for years, joists I could sight down like a rifle, and a cedar surface they oiled before they left because “the first year drinks uneven if you don’t.” Our last deck was cheaper. This one is still level.
Free footing reads across both towns · (555) 023-7719 · build@firstfootingdeck.example · the test hole is yours whoever builds the deck
Start with the dirt
Address and a photo of the yard — we bring the auger, you look at the soil, and the foundation picks itself before anyone mentions a board. build@firstfootingdeck.example