Re-Leveling a Deck

[LoonASea]

We have a rather large deck that encircles about 2/3rds of our pool ...well over the last few winters it has raised on the north side (im thinking the footings have heaved) having come up a few inches it is now almost impossible to get the door open to our hot tub enclosure,,,My delima is how would one go about re leveling the deck,,or would it be better to raise the hot tub enclosure?? BTW the hot tub enclosure is on a 12 in slab so that hasnt sunk

Thanks In Advance

Randoid

[minneman]

The first thing that needs to be done is determine what exactly has moved. a 12" thick slab with a hot tub full of water is a huge amount of weight. have you checked the deck/tub with a level on all sides/directions?

is the ground in the area of the deck low lying, wet alot?

I have seen decks that raise when the ground is frozen and go back to near normal when thawed. one had a drainfeild problem nearby and the other was a situation where the area under the deck was lower than the surrounding grade and held water when it rained etc.

[LoonASea]

Well the deck is between the pool and house ,,,no gutters on the roof so not a lot of water and it isnt low ,,,Im sure its the last ground to thaw in spring since it gets no direct sun light and the ice in the pool will keep it chilled till it melts,,,running a string line and level the center area has heaved up close to 2 inches and I am absolutly sure the hot tub enclosure has not moved

I suppose I could trim the door on the hot tub enclosure

Randoid

[minneman]

if the bottom of the posts are sitting on pads or footings above grade you could use a jack to take the weight off the post and cut the posts off with a sawzall.

if the posts go into the ground to the footing/pad you could take the needed amount out of the middle of the posts and re suport it with a 2x? and bolts to hold both halves together on the back side of the post. not pretty but would work.

[LoonASea]

Thats kinda what I was thinking of doing ,,the posts do sit on footings but have a galvanized plate on the bottom that I think had a threaded rod thru it and bolted ,,,This isnt going to be a winter project ,,,Ill wait till spring ,,,pull off a few boards and geta better look at it from there

thanks for the info

Randoid