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In between trying to keep the place half way neat, we run into some interesting repair projects.  One of the latest has been to begin replacing rotted posts on the front porch.  As you will read below, we are going to do most of the work ourselves, so one section at a time is all we can tackle.  Be sure to check out the bathrooms and basement door projects too. (See navigation bar above)

Pillar Rot

Sometime in the 1960's, the previous owner of our house had the front porch worked on.  Bear in mind that this particular 1895 house was never suppose to have pillars holding up a roof over the porch.  The original design called for an open porch...no roof except directly over the entrance way to the house.

Whoever did the repair work in the 60's did not use pressure treated lumber.  Combine forty years of rain, sleet, snow and neglected gutters and downspouts and you create wood rot. As you can see from the picture above, the base of one of the pillars had turned to mush.  I discovered that one day when trying to repaint the porch (for the fourth time!).  At first I thought just my fingernail might ease into the wood a bit, but with the slightest pressure my whole finger tried to disappear into the wood.   That is not good. 

My first plan was to simply remove the rotted base and replace it with pressure treated wood.  I happened to have just the right wood thickness down in the basement.  Maybe now Anna will understand why I run around saving all the bits and pieces from professional repairs to our house.  Now this is the part that was really scary.  Even though the replacement base was exactly the size it should be, it would not slide under the post you see hanging in the air.  That meant raising the roof a bit.  I hate this stuff.  Fortunately, there are two pillars in great condition that easily hold up the roof, so all I needed was just a little nudge.  Got that by gently wedging in a long beam, also found in the basement.  I would not even THINK about raising this roof on my own.  There are plans for me to one day retire in reasonable working condition.  

The bottom of the pillar was in great shape, despite the rotted base it rested on.  Now came the really bad news.  The wood board on which everything rested were also rotted in several places.  I tried using that Minwax wood strengthening liquid (yellow can in picture above), but the wood was just too far gone. 

After finding that the wood holding up the base that held up the pillars was rotten too...I had to go sit down for a bit.  This was a huge setback.  I had expected to just replace the pillar base and maybe add a little of the Minwax wood strengthener for grins.  Now I was facing replacing a bunch of wood...stuff I no longer could find in my magical basement.

Before I went for more wood, I had to find out just how bad this mess really was.  That meant cutting away two big pieces of wood so I could see what was underneath. The alternative was to try to cover up the rotted wood with a larger pillar base...not to my liking because there would still be rot there.  Hidden maybe to others, but still in my mind eating away at my pride.   That created another decision: remove all or part of the wood?  To remove it all would mean jacking up the roof.  No way.  

 Now what!?