looking into digging some holes - one thing I have noticed is that the soil structure is highly reactive - more so than the old observatory. I was thinking of raft footings for the deck (3x3m) with the footings for the pier to be the same as I did for the original doghouse. my question is the depth of footing? do I do 600mm footing for the deck?
as for the pier - I will dig out a hole so that it fits me in quite comfortably, so that should be large enough
I will utilise the compost bin structure as it is coned in the first instance, though looking at what Strongman did for his, that looks a good way of doing it too
also managed to find some soil testing results near my property