TL;DR
A deck footing is the concrete foundation element, a poured pier, a bell-bottomed shaft, or a pad under a post base, that transfers a deck post's load to undisturbed soil below the frost line. Size follows tributary area and soil bearing capacity, with 12 to 24 inch diameters common, and frost depth ranges from nothing in the South to four feet or more in northern states.
What it means
A deck footing is the concrete foundation element, a poured pier, a bell-bottomed shaft, or a pad under a post base, that transfers a deck post's load to undisturbed soil below the frost line. Size follows tributary area and soil bearing capacity, with 12 to 24 inch diameters common, and frost depth ranges from nothing in the South to four feet or more in northern states. The inspection of the open holes happens before any concrete goes in, and footings poured shallow are why freestanding decks heave and racked railings appear after the first hard winter.
Where it sits in the glossary
Deck footing is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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