Raised Deck on Bedrock

by Brian
(Ontario, Canada)

We live in Ontario, Canada and plan to build an elevated deck at the back of our house with stairs to access the main floor - which is above our walk-out basement doors. The deck would be inset into a 6 foot deep, 14 foot wide "U" shaped space at the back of our house, approximately 8 feet above the ground.

The deck footings will be sitting on bedrock with about 18-24" of back fill because our house footings are also built on bedrock.

Originally we had planned a simple 12X14 rectangular balcony but are now thinking that stairs are going to be essential. However, we have an 18" high ridge of the original bedrock approximately 20 feet behind the house that may interfere with a straight set of stairs - depending on the size of the deck.

Since we just built the house, the cost of the deck is a consideration in order to make it affordable for us to go ahead with it. Plus, we would like to build it ourselves if possible.

Do you have any recommendations in the way of footing design and creating deck plans?

Because we are altering our original house plans, we will have to provide code-compliant deck plans to the City once we settle on a design.