New Deck question,

[123maxbars]

I am building a new deck on the back of my house. Rather than use pressure treated 6x6post for the rails I would like to use 6x6cedar post. The post will come from a local sawmill and will be green. My questions are, do they need to be treated, also the deck will be covered. Also is there any other things I need to do/know before I use this cedar for the deck post? Thanks for any help,

[Jeff]

Lots of people use Cedar in Michigan, but its Northern White cedar. Cedar posts will generally last 15 to 20 years or even longer depending on the soil type and drainage. If it were me, I would use them, but treated would probably be better.

[WildDog]

Would concrete footings and galvanised saddles/post shoes (not sure what you call them up there) be an option?

[Magicman]

That is a better option than any wood post, treated or otherwise.  I used pipe for posts and bolted them to the joist.

[tyb525]

Eastern red cedar will last longer than those treated posts, so will black locust. Concrete and pipe works too, if you don't mind that look. When I rebuilt our deck last year, I used black locust for the corner posts, they still look great, haven't grayed yet.

[Magicman]

If I was putting wood in the ground, Black Locust would be my only choice.

I put skirting around mine so the pipe doesn't show.

[caveman]

If it were me, and I was determined to use wooden posts, they would be pressure treated.  I am not familiar with black locust so I have no opinion other than what I have read on the FF.  Using pipe and wrapping with wood or hiding pipe behind a skirt would be my preference.  When we built our mill shed last summer, we used 4" pipe for posts, coated with tar below soil level, surrounded by 240# dry weight of concrete.  In my part of the world, southern red cedar posts do not last incredibly long.  Good pressure treated posts will last several years if they are tamped properly.  You now have several opinions on the course to take.  Let us know what you decided on.  Caveman

[Lud]

Back in 88' I built my porch. I dug deep enough and used corrugated plastic pipe for forms and centered some large threaded rod , taped on top and rebar criscrosses  below, filled with concrete.  Frozen ground locks around the uneven corrugation better than sono tube.   I center drilled the bottom of treated posts and with a plate, washer, and nut on the threaded rod, I'd built a series of jacks under the porch which allowed me to tune the pitch of the whole porch for drainage.

I hid it behind lattice,  wooden early on but replaced with plastic later.  That's an easy material to love.

[Bill Gaiche]

 123maxbars, welcome aboard. I built a ERC fence last fall and used the same for the 4" post. I dug my holes extra deep 6 to 8" and put 3/4" rock in the bottom added post and added the same rock all the way to the top. Tamped the rock in as I filled in. Real soild and this lets the water drain away from the post and not rot in a million years, I hope. bg