Ron Saves The Porch From Falling In...

This was a repair that I really needed to do before winter. Especially since we had quite a bit of snow last year. The posts holding up the porch
were just about completely rotted out.

Luckily for me, my buddy Doug has a sawmill, and he milled me up 3 posts from some fir logs that he had.







We build some bracing around the center post, and built some 12" squares as forms for the cement pours. I decided on the outside post to put the new cement right next to the old posts. I also raised it up a few inches. The old posts sat right down at dirt level. That's probably why it wicked up water and rotted. Lifted up a few inches, the new posts should last a lot longer.







First off, we had to grind out the old metal strapping that was on the old rotted post.


Here's the new post out in the shop. I wanted to plane the posts down to remove the saw marks from the mill, but the planer only goes to 6". The post is about 6 1/4". So it was time to hand sand them.


I used a forstner bit to put a hole in the bottom of the post to go over the stainless bolt we set in the cement. Then to prevent water from wicking up the post and rotting it out, I put two layers of metal flashing tape on the bottom.


Here's the tape.


I had to flip the post over and run it under the chop saw on all 4 sides to make the cut. It worked ok. It was a bit uneven, but nothing too bad. I little sanding and it was all good.


I had to remove one side of the brace that we made to lean the post in there. I just banged on it with a piece of scrap wood and a hammer. A bit of tweaking, and I finally got it plumb and level.


I was able to get two out of three of the posts done today. I couldn't do the third because I had to re-pour one of the footings. It wasn't deep enough. So once that it set up, I'll do the 3rd post.

I also need to buy a piece of fir to make a moulding detail around the top and bottom of the posts.

Check another thing off the never ending list.
See You Next Time...