Designing a 400 sq ft ground-level floating Ipe deck on helical ground screws over compacted gravel — no ledger, fully self-supporting. Ipe at ~4.5 lbs/bf has me double-checking my ground screw spacing. Engineer says 6'6" grid is fine but that feels generous for the dead load plus live load. Anyone built floating hardwood decks on ground screws? What spacing did you land on?
6'6" is fine on paper but I tightened to 6' grid on my last one purely for deflection feel — hardwood decks telegraph bounce more than composite because the boards are so stiff they span between soft spots. Client walks on it and 'solid' is what sells.
Make sure the installer torque-logs every screw. On gravel, one under-torqued screw settling 1/4" shows up as a visible dip in a dead-flat Ipe field.
I've installed plenty of Ipe on helical piles and honestly, I'd tighten that up. While your engineer isn't wrong on paper, Ipe is dense and moves, and you don't want any deflection or bounce over time. I generally run 4' centers for the main joist grid, especially if you're using 2x6 framing. It keeps everything rock solid and avoids any sag if you’re doing tight-spaced hidden fasteners like DeckWise. Spending a little extra on a few more piles upfront is cheap insurance compared to re-leveling a 400 sq ft deck once that heavy timber settles into the gravel.
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