Porch Post Rot - Causes and Fixes?

I'm far from an expert, but I would replace the post, fill in the hole that it's sitting in then put a plinth below the new post to prevent water wicking into it.

quote:

---

I'm far from an expert, but I would replace the post, fill in the hole that it's sitting in then put a plinth below the new post to prevent water wicking into it.

---

This man knows. I would never put posts that have their terminal ends directly on ground level on a slab. Use thse stand-off brackets like pictured and avoid the rot.

Those tiles placed around the post only served to form a pocket for water to collect and destroy the post integrity.

Handyman is your best bet. The jobs way too small for a licensed contractor to take on.

I replaced mine with wood look fiberglass post. Its not hard and anyone with a minimal skill set can do it. The hardest part was cutting the fiberpost square. I stained mine with 2 coats 1 afternoon and installed it it the next day. Took about 2 1/2 hours total.

Several years ago, I had 6x6 box columns doing the same since they rested directly on patio concrete w/out a plinth. A good carpenter temporarily removed 4 columns. Then built simple wooded molds that included decorative trim bits and poured new cement base for each column. When set, he knocked off the molds, painted the bases, cut off the rotted wood from the original columns and reset the columns. There was minimal material costs. They've held up 20 years. Unfortunately, that great carpenter has retired.

Resetting columns is not difficult. Rig two roof jacks from small bottle jacks and 2 4x4's long enough to reach ceiling. At two places adjacent to the column, slowly jack the roof just enough to push the column free. Cut new column to length and insert.

Be careful.

I have square columns on my porch and the wood rotted like yours. I have replaced the plywood sides with Hardy board.

The center boards are 2x4's and they were in good condition. I just needed to replace the "outside" wood.

For your post, you could jack up overhead beam and take out the post. Then, if there is a "hole" created by the tile... fill in the hole with concrete or other material. Then put in something to raise the post up.

A handy man would be able to do this job for about $ 2000.

That is just a really bad design. I would get it fixed right. My first house had those cool wood beams you see. They rotted from the feet in about 4 years. My current house has 7 of them along the back porch. They are on cleats and have 5 years of age with zero issues.