Front Porch - Repair or Completely Replace?

DIYerIT

This concrete front porch is made of two separate pieces and has been for 10+ years. The porch has cleanly separated at the joint between them and the right side of it has sunk. I don't know if there is a correlation, but this occurred shortly after having a basement drain tile system installed.

I've done some research and have come across two options (1) remove the entire porch and repour it as one piece of concrete or (2) repour only the sunken part on the right and attach it to the existing porch with rebar. Irrespective of the best option, I'm not sure how to temporarily support the porch roof during the process given that the existing column in the picture sits on top the porch.

I'd like some feedback on the best way to fix this porch. I don't have the exact porch dimensions but believe it's not more than 9' long with the steps as shown. The other end of the porch (far left) is attached to the house.

Thanks in advance.

jklingel

Were it mine, I'd build a short beam to temporarily carry the load of that pillar, and support it w/ two pillars that are not in contact with the porch. I would then tear that porch out in a heartbeat and address whatever caused the sinking. That may require digging out unsettled dirt/whatever, filling and compacting my way back out of there. I'd compact in short "lifts" of 4 to 6" of gravel or sand, as you can not properly compact dirt. Once I had a good foundation, I'd pour a proper footer at the proper depth for that column (see an engineer for size and depth) and replace (or reuse) the column, sleeving it so that it was independent of the porch. I'd then pour a new porch, or build a wooden one. Building over a failure is, IMO, building another failure.