jpowell
Bronze Member
Hi all,
Would you check my reasoning here? 2018 IRC. We have an exterior deck-supporting column. It is sitting on a metal base plate, not on concrete, but the steel is basically flush with a concrete slab. So, it is not raised up 1" above the concrete. The deck is wood and has a roof over it. Would you require that post to be 1" over the concrete?
My train of thought is that R317.1 "Location required" tells us in which situations this section applies. The member is not covered by one of the seven situations, so sub-sections 317.1.1 through 317.1.5 might not apply.
If I don't apply the logic above, then 317.1.4 (wood columns) applies to ALL columns in a house, and the exceptions would not exempt most interior columns. It just reads "Wood columns shall be approved wood of natural decay resistance or approved pressure-preservative-treated wood." and then has some exceptions. Clearly this section is meant for wood at risk of decay, but the code doesn't seem to read that way.
This changed a little bit to the 2021 IRC. Removing the wood columns and geographical areas sub-sections, and rolling them into the Location required section.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Would you check my reasoning here? 2018 IRC. We have an exterior deck-supporting column. It is sitting on a metal base plate, not on concrete, but the steel is basically flush with a concrete slab. So, it is not raised up 1" above the concrete. The deck is wood and has a roof over it. Would you require that post to be 1" over the concrete?
My train of thought is that R317.1 "Location required" tells us in which situations this section applies. The member is not covered by one of the seven situations, so sub-sections 317.1.1 through 317.1.5 might not apply.
If I don't apply the logic above, then 317.1.4 (wood columns) applies to ALL columns in a house, and the exceptions would not exempt most interior columns. It just reads "Wood columns shall be approved wood of natural decay resistance or approved pressure-preservative-treated wood." and then has some exceptions. Clearly this section is meant for wood at risk of decay, but the code doesn't seem to read that way.
This changed a little bit to the 2021 IRC. Removing the wood columns and geographical areas sub-sections, and rolling them into the Location required section.
Thanks for any thoughts!