Fixing Rotted Porch Post - Pics of my contractor's work

17717 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Leah Frances, Jul 11, 2009

Leah Frances

Discussion Starter · Jul 10, 2009 (Edited)

One corner post of our 1805 farmhouse porch was suffering from some rot:

According to my contractor (who is AWESOME :hammer

only a 2x2 inch portion of decking was still supporting the post:

Thankfully the porch is built like such a bricksh*t house it probably wouldn't have torn off the house if the post sank, just torqued some of the trim. It had sunk around 3/4 of an inch.

My contractor and I decided not to replace the entire post, just the rotted section. The joists of the porch were connected with through tenons and square nails. He jacked the porch up 1 and 3/4 inches.

As it happened my exterminator was around this week to do my annual termite inspection. He assessed that the wood was damaged by powder post beetles as well as rot (no termites or other bugs! And the powder post beetles are long dead! YEAH!).

Continued below...

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Leah Frances

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jul 10, 2009

More pics and description of post replacement

He reset the loose brick and filled in the damaged wood with pressure treated posts:

(before he lowered the jacks and set the column on the new tenoned post I stashed an envelope with four quarters inside the column :santa

He replaced the facia board on one side with some cyprus that he ripped down to the same dimension as the old timber and mitered it to match. I decided I want to keep the facia board on the front. As it turns out, the mitered board on the front was around 3/8 short of the corner.

My contractor was horrified that the miters didn't match. But IMO no one will care (except him) once it's puttied, primed, and painted.

The railing's back up and it will get caulked primed and painted this weekend.

One down, 2799 projects to go.

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Scuba_Dave

· #3 · Jul 10, 2009

Nice, my project was more fun today
Now I can finish roofing

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Gary in WA

· #4 · Jul 10, 2009

WOW!!! All I can say is----

I'm coming after those quarters!

Looks good. Be safe, G

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Leah Frances

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 10, 2009

Scuba Dave - What in god's name were you doing? Cupola? Will the 'lights' be windows?

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Scuba_Dave

· #6 · Jul 10, 2009

Yes - 3 windows will go in
The 4th side will be louvered venting
An exhaust fan will be able to blow air up out of the attic/house

There will be a light in there & access from the attic

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Gary in WA

· #7 · Jul 10, 2009

You might think about re-nailing your roof sheathing, those non-galvanized nails are almost gone. Lol
Put it on two flat 2x4's to reduce the surface drag by 80%. Work smarter, not harder! Be safe, G

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Thurman

· #8 · Jul 11, 2009

Dave, I put one of those on top of my 24 x 36 shop to help with airflow, mine had louvers on all four sides. I was hoping to get some type of decent air flow through my cupola but I was amazed at how much hot air was being drawn through it from the shop area. I eventually exhausted my whole house attic fan in my shop through the cupola and it work very well. Just goes to show that those old folks knew what they were doing back then with HVAC. Thanks, David

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PaliBob

· #9 · Jul 11, 2009

Leah,
Do you have any pics of the temporary post?
How was it done?

That PT blocking is going to last forever.
.

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Leah Frances

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jul 11, 2009

Your wish....

My contractor used the dimensional lumber as the temp supports. The 4x4 and jack that he used to raise the porch is shown in the pic too. The dimensional lumber was 2x6 and a 2x4 and he secured these to the ground with some beefy stakes.

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