Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - wooden posts to concrete

I'm planning a wooden stucture over my concrete patio and need to know the best way for attaching the posts to the slab. The slab slopes away from the house. I'm looking for the best method for attaching the columns that allows some movement for plumbing the posts and compesating for the difference in elevation. I'm wondering if I should shim and grout underneath a plate of some sort. This is an open beam structure that will be free standing.

If it was me I'd cut the ends of the posts to match the slope and set a Hilti bolt into the concrete where the center of the post will be. Just leave the bolt sticking out of the concrete a couple of inches or so and drill into the center of the post to allow the post to set over it............. Anyway you'll need to fastened to the concrete somehow to get a solid base, or the posts are apt to move around some.......... Keep checking in, someone else may have a better idea.

It depends on the "structure" you are building over your patio. If it is a deck, the thickness of the patio may not give the structural strength you need for the vertical pressure that will be exerted. Depending on where you live, each post will have to be resting on a footing a certain depth (local code), which means everywhere you have a column, you will have to bust out a portion of your patio and dig down the prescribed depth and pour a footing. In Florida, most guys use dek blocks on the ground, while up north, the frost line can be as deep as 36 inches.