As most deck builders know, when the paper form on a tube-formed concrete pier is stripped off, it leaves a characteristic spiral imprint on the concrete. When the piers are tucked away under the structure, no one cares too much about their appearance. But what if you need to pour an "architectural" column — one that will be prominent in the finished work? Cape Cod contractor Dave Doddridge offers up a solution in this classic JLC article.
The project called for 10-foot-tall, 14-inch-diameter columns with a completely smooth finished surface to support a second-story deck, so Doddridge formed them with Sonotube Finish Free tubes, which have a special coating on the inside that eliminates the seams and spirals found in standard tube forms. In the article, he also describes how he braced the tubes and reinforced the piers with rebar cages.
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