New Porch Flooring...

bujaly

Now, I was called out to an estimate to what I thought was something that I might be able to do...
Not the case. I didn't take this because it what beyond my scope of knowledge..

This lady had a 12' x 30' porch, she wanted the flooring of it to be replaced. The thing was, I didn't know how to replace the wood that was beneath the FOUR columns that held up the porch overhang... I've done a few flooring jobs, but nothing that involved supporting a roof above, while working.. How does this work? I'm sure I could've made a few bucks, but I didn't want to jeopardize someone's house, just to make some coin..

Ya feel me?

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shed-n-deck

It really depends on what the job is....When you say that there is flooring beneath 4 posts, maybe it isn't as you perceive....Did you get a look at it from the underside? What kind of flooring was it? Usually, posts are continuous to their foundation, although that's not always the case. What do you mean by posts? Back in the 20's, 30's and 40's, they applied a lot of wainscoting(ceilings) and t&g hardwoods on porches. But in those cases, the floor was framed around the supports(posts). Since then, there have been instances that I have seen that the support was placed(usually a 6x6), a porch was built and decked, and a faux column was built around those posts....Could that be the case in this situation? Could you perhaps provide us with some images of the project?

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Shed

neolitic

SOP would be to jack it (slightly) to relieve the load, then run temp braces to temp pads on the ground around the porch. Course you have to know what kind of load your holding, and where the stresses are, i.e.--how the structure was framed to begin with.

bujaly

You are correct here in a few points.
It is T&G flooring, 2"x3/4" I believe. Also, the columns/posts are actually resting on the wood. The post have a 10" radius at the bottom and they are resting on 12"x12" metal....brackets?? (can't think of the word). In which you can plainly see how the posts are resting on the wood. It looks like they built the overhang, AFTER the house was built..

I wish I could post some pics, but didn't take any. As I only take pics if I'm actually thinking of doing or do perform work.

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neolitic

I can't see the house, but suppose that it was concrete slab on the porch instead of t&g. You have seen houses like that, right? With columns holding up the porch roof, right? You don't suppose that they poured that porch slab and then built the house around it do you?
They framed up the house and used (probably a series, but at least two sets of) temporary braces to support the roof/second floor/whatever 'til they poured the slab/decked the porch---then installed the permanent decorative columns.
Depending on the situation, I've commonly used doubled up 2X6's with a bird's mouth notch at the top to bite the beam, and rested the butt end on 2X12 scrap temporary pads---outside the footprint of the porch.
You've pretty much gotta know how to build it before you can figure out how to fix it.

PA woodbutcher

This is a 3 year project...last year the floor, this year the ceiling and next year new posts, railings and wrap the header in aluminum.

I think the same situation going on underneath. They originally had a metal post bracket with a double joist setting on the bracket and then the flooring and then the posts on the flooring. I jacked it up, dug for a for 1X1 footer underneath where the posts go and went with the same kind of structure. It worked for 125 years why mess with it. The only thing that I saw wrong underneath (besides the joists rotted at the end) was the , Metal post brcket had sunk. Thats why I went with the concrete footing. If I had realized at the tiome that it would be a 3 year project I would have put some more of the concrete pads under it to carry more as he has 1 railing section that spans almost 14'

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bujaly

Sorry for the delay here.. But no, it's ALL DIRT under the porch.. I'm gonna try to get a picture for you all!!

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neolitic

I understand that, apparently I wasn't clear enough. I was just trying to tell you how the posts got on top of the T&G. The speech about the slab was just a way to explain via an example I thought you might be able to relate to more easily.....seemingly it was not so.
Try this. Providing the beam that supports the roof doesn't break on the posts, you can put in a temp post near it, remove the post, deck under it, replace post, remove temp post, repeat as necessary,....lather and rinse.
Earlier post I was just trying to explain hoe to do it all in one shot.