It seems like all remodel efforts turn up ancillary issues to deal with. In our own, they have, thus far (and with fingers firmly crossed) been few, but critical. Phase one of our plan was to remove the screened in porch to give more flow and options for dressing up the yard.
Upon removing the porch wood, I discovered the exterior support post was... termite rotten! No active colonies and they hadn't reached the roof timbers, but the post was ugly and badly compromised. I decided it would have to come out in order for me to feel comfortable with the safety of the yard and roof line.
Upon removing the porch wood, I discovered the exterior support post was... termite rotten! No active colonies and they hadn't reached the roof timbers, but the post was ugly and badly compromised. I decided it would have to come out in order for me to feel comfortable with the safety of the yard and roof line.
Post damage - old old termite damage
rotted out bottom of post
Knowing I really only had a few hours a night until this weekend I decided to work on Phase Two until I could dedicate a big block of time to dealing with the post problem. Phase Two was the removal of tons of concrete; A walkway 3' x 15' and a concrete pad 8' x 9'.
This was the concrete pile after the walkway was removed...
pile after walkway removed
And here's the pile after the pad was removed...
concrete pile after all concrete removed.
Saturday rolled around and, after the girls' T-ball games, I was able to start on the post problem (Phase 1.2). It started with bracing the roof beams with 4x4 posts. Next step was cutting out the old post. Then came drilling through the existing pad to weaken it so that whatever was underneath could be removed. I was expecting a huge column of concrete (like it should have been). Instead, I found whomever had built the house had rested the Douglas Fir beam supporting the corner of the porch on an 6" thick block of concrete! The patio pad was only 4" thick with an inch or two of dirt between the pad and the block - accounting for the rot and likely the accessibility to termites.
the little block holding up my porch.
While this made things easier for me to do the work today, it was a little disconcerting. It reaffirmed I was doing the right thing. I chiseled out a 12" circle around the posts position and, using a digging bar and post hole diggers, made a 26" deep hole in about 40 minutes. Not bad.
I tamped down the bottom of the hole to make a more stable base. In the bottom of the hole I dropped a 2" thick concrete paver to provide a barrier between the post and the dirt - NO DIRT CONTACT!!!!
The hole doesn't look all that impressive like this.
Hmmmm... How best to put the hole in perspective... Ah, I've got it!
Yah. That should give some perspective.
Anyway. I purchased a 4 x 6 x 12' redwood beam. Cut down to appropriate size. As an extra measure, I went ahead and put copper green on the part of the post to go in the ground. I also added some Simpson Tie corner braces on the top to give some extra strength - the old one had been toe-nailed into the headers (ugh!).
It was so much fun, Patti got into the act as the sun was going down.
I did manage to finish up concreting and leveling the main support (after only 310 lbs of concrete).
