Category: Repairing the Porch (Page 4 of 5)

Yesterday we began Phase Three – working with the joists and other wood structures. But before we could do anything to the understructure, we had to remove the floor. Brent and I started pulling the nails one-by-one. It was slow and tedious. Then Karl came along and showed us a pry-the-board technique. It was WAY faster. We were done with the floor removal quickly.

Yay mechanical advantage!

This is the most dramatic change to the look of the porch so far. I will now show three befores and afters.

Front Before

Front After

Side Before

Side After

Top Before

Top After

We planned for a little while, then went out to get some lumber for various repairs and reinforcements we would be doing. Karl came over in the evening, and we switched into high gear. Karl was a whirlwind. Brent and I helped where we could. We worked past dark and got a LOT done. Whew! And yay!

I held the flashlight. It was a very important job.

Yesterday, we worked on Phase Two – we worked to fix one of the piers that a column will rest on. Three of the piers were in great shape, and some previous owner had made level surfaces for column support. The fourth pier was in bad shape, it was crumbly and saggy. We couldn’t really see what was going on with the pier until we lifted the roof and pulled out the post that was standing on top of it.

View still blocked!

But we still couldn’t see what was going on with the pier because there was a joist resting on it. We poked around a little, and saw that the brick construction was in bad shape. There was a lot of crumbly stuff. We decided we would cut the joist to give ourselves some work room, but keep the joist long enough so we could still support it on the pier. There will be additional support for the joist later, so the cut is okay.

The mess revealed.

The joist was resting on a rotting piece of wood. The bricks under that wood were a mess. We decided we would clear everything down to a solid base, and build the bricks up again. We started by dry-stacking.

Sort of level.

Brick, then mortar, then more brick. There were some adjustments to be made along the way, but we built a really nice looking pier. It’s just the right height, it’s solid, and it’s beautifully level. The patio block we’ll use as a pillar base sits just right.

Beautiful!

We will let the mortar dry a while before we put the pillar up, but Phase Two is complete! Today, we begin Phase Three – we will strip off the old floor, and work to repair any joists that need attention.

At the start of the day, we had one corner of the porch roof jacked up and braced.

We left the brace up for a while to see that it was sturdy

Our plan was to replace the post, and let the weight down slowly on top of the new column. It was also important to get each new column to put its weight on the cement and brick pier. We used a cement paver as a base. It worked wonderfully.

The base and cap pieces are only decorative, so they slide up and down.

After doing the first column, we wondered about the possibility of letting the brace boards to the lifting instead of using the post jack. It worked famously! We used this method for the rest of the posts.

Set the top, hammer the bottom, and the roof is lifted!

After we set the second column, it was time for lunch. We went to Gino’s burger joint. They have shakes there, too. As we were waiting for our shakes, Brent took a selfie with his iPad. Right as he clicked the button, the server walked up with our shakes. Awesome!

Ice Cream makes everyone smile.

After lunch, we got back to work on the columns. What made installing the columns so easy (and so awesome) was that some previous owner built up wonderful supports on the brick piers using cement. The support surfaces were flat and level. We just laid the cement pavers on top, and rested the columns directly on top. All the force from the roof is going through stone into the ground. Wonderful!

Thanks, person from the past!

The fourth column’s support is having some problems, so we didn’t do that last night. It was 8:45pm by the time we were finishing, and it was time to get something to eat. Still, we got three new columns installed yesterday, and they are solid and level and awesome! Woo hoo!

Form AND function!

Today, we’ll sort out the fourth pillar (Phase Two), then it’s on to Phase Three.

I have had little time to learn about porch floor construction since school was out. A cascading series of anxious thoughts brought on what was almost a full-blown panic attack. I called Brent and we chatted for a while. We decided that he would come in mid July and we would postpone the porch project. I was able to delay delivery of the decking, so that won’t be an issue.

In the meantime, I’ll try to learn more about decking construction, and maybe even do some groundwork before Brent gets here in July.