Replacing my covered porch's floor?
Question:So I have a covered porch on the front of my house; it's 10' deep and 40' wide. The second story of the house overhangs the porch by a foot and a half or so. There are four wooden columns, not particularly anchored or anything, that run along the front of the porch between the floor and ceiling.
Now, when we bough the house, the owner had just put a new "floor" on the porch. It is made of painted plywood, and (no surprise) is rotting. We need to replace it.
We intend to use hardwood; probably tongue-in-groove oak. (Oh, by the way, there is an actual room underneath the porch that is just used for storage. Not really relevant to my question, though).
Anyway, will I need to jack up the roof when I go to pull the old flooring and remove new? I'm assuming that these four-inch wooden columns that are available at Home Despot are not load-bearing, but do I need to support it anyway? What do I use?
Answers:
The over hang should not be sitting on the roof. It is probably canti-levered with the up-stair floor joists. I would use pine tongue and groove,(cheaper than oak, or Jump to cedar tongue and groove for superior insect and water resistance. Be sure the porch floor slopes at least 1/8 to the foot ( approx. 1 1/2 inches from back to front. I would design the flooring so the support columns are left in place until the last thing. One last thing. Make sure water is not pooling under the porch and helping to rot the floor.
The posts should go through to a base of some sort. Rip up a sheet of plywood and look. and the columns at Home depot will have a load bearing rating right on the package. And the Oak will look awesome. Good Luck.
One comment, don't USE oak, if there is any kind of moisture there, It will cup and be terrible looking in just days!! Use either pressured treated, or tongue and grove ceder or better still, use T & G fir, if the floor has to be water tight then don't use the PT decking. No matter what you use be sure to use a sealer or good porch floor paint.
I agree about the "do not use oak" if there is any possibility of getting wet. Hearing what happened to the plywood, it sounds like it does. Possibilities to use are: cedar, redwood, composites as Trex or the like.
It sounds to me like the posts may be carrying the roof of the porch, be cautious.
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