Posts for Decks

An integral part of a deck - they can be made either from square or round piles. In the ROBO Deck Designer website square piles are used, using 125x125 H5 rough sawn timber posts. There's three main types of piles - Anchor, braced and normal piles used in the drawing generated by ROBO Deck Designer. The locations of braced and anchor piles are determined using bracing calculations. Please see the section on bracing for more information. There are also two other types of posts - driven timber piles and cantilever driven timber piles, but they are not used on decks designed using ROBO Deck Designer.

Anchor Piles

Used for lower decks, with ROBO Deck Designer these are used with decks between 400-700mm in height. These are deeper piles with the posts reaching a minimum depth of 900mm.

Braced Piles

Used for higher decks, with ROBO Deck Designer these are used for decks between 800-1500mm high. The posts have a minimum depth of 450mm and have bracing attached to these in both longitudinal and lateral directions. For the other end of the bracing these attached to an adjacent post, bearer or joist. For drawings using ROBO Deck Designer they are attached to the bearers and joists only.

Normal Piles

Like the braced pile, but with no bracing.

Depth of Posts

As mentioned above an anchor post must have a minimum depth of 900mm. Other posts must have a minimum depth of 450mm. Other factors which can affect the depth is if the adjacent land is sloping (please see the drawing) and the type of soil. It is best to seek advice from your local authority.

Post/Bearer Joins

There are a few different methods in connecting bearers to posts. With ROBO Deck Designer the bearer/post connection method for anchor piles as set out in NZS3604 6.9 is used for all connections. Please see the relevent drawing.

Post/Bearer Joins between bearer lengths

As a bearer does not generally come in lengths greater than 6.0m, if a Deck is greater than 6.0m long a special butt join is required. As some of the decks that be designed using ROBO Deck Designer are up to 7.5m in length these joins are shown on the drawings. For more information please see the relevant drawing.