How To Repair A Rotted Porch Post Base
If it feels soft and spongy it s rotted.
How to repair a rotted porch post base. The external rotten area starts at the post bottom and goes up close to around the column base s bottom bolt height. Now push a screwdriver into the wood. Temporarily support the porch roof on either side of the rotted post with a hydraulic jack and a long 2x4 post. I got two estimates to fix it 1 jack deck up and replace 6x6 s and put rubber sleeve on them.
We have been fixing issues that stem from years of neglect including issues that were caused by moisture including rotten porch posts. Porch column rot is pretty common along the base and eventually becomes a home for carpenter ants. It was soft internally and blackened by fungus infestation. Use a reciprocating saw to cut the top of the post free from the overhead beam.
You can find out how bad the problem is by peeling back a little more of the paint you have to repaint the column anyway. Unfortunately because the posts are situated along the exterior perimeter of the porch the wood is exposed to wind driven rain and roof runoff or splash up resulting in rot at the base. I dug some holes on a post with a screwdriver. Our front porch is poured concrete and has 6 6 wooden beams supporting the porch roof.
Over time some of those beams have sustained wood rot at the base and are no longer touching the concrete in places. Remove the rotted post and lay it across two sawhorses. Each cb88 column base has 2 bolts. The supports are sitting on top of concrete a foot down i think.
Repair it before it gets. I think inside these posts the rot may progress even higher. Concrete three 6x6 support posts under deck concrete above ground and a 10 diameter around existing 6x6 posts.