My wife wants me to rip out our porch

Our house has a 45-year-old wooden porch. It used to be an aluminum greenhouse, but I took the walls out and installed wooden posts to hold up the aluminum roof. They (the posts) are attached to the wooden deck, which is rotting away.

My wife wants to rip out the wooden deck while retaining the aluminum roof.

The trick will be to keep the roof up while I dig the holes for the pilings and pour the cement. It might be possible to attach a temporary post to the external posts, then cut out the old porch and pour the pilings. I think, since I only have about 18 days until my summer is completely booked with family visits and regional travel. I'm worried that it is more complicated than I realize and will take longer than I plan (when has it not?), and that's if I don't even do something to meet the building code.

The porch roof is pretty light. It almost fell on me when I was ripping out the greenhouse walls, and I was able to hold it up. That said, I don't want to screw this up and have the whole thing collapse on my family and kill them.

www.hometips.com/diy-how-to/concrete-foo...s-piers-pouring.html

Just looking at this link, about pouring pilings, makes me want to pay someone else to do this. Of course, we have no money and won't have any more money until my wife finishes her thesis (August?) graduates, and starts working. But then we have to pay off the $6k furnace we just bought.

unrelated:
Teen son told us he was getting a job this summer. So far he has been binge watching Star Trek Voyager and "working on an RPG". He has been obsessed with doing some kind of youtube martial arts by spinning around a metal broomstick. Yesterday I bought three pieces of rebar, which we duct-taped together and wrapped in tennis racket grip tape. So now he's spinning that around and will probably be sort of ripped after about two months. I got the idea from Snow Crash.

How many footers? If you're buying a yard of concrete to do it it's easy. If you're mixing your own it's a little more difficult.

Take care with your underdrain if you have one. Don't collapse the pipe.

There are three footers. I do not know what an underdrain is.

I'm thinking this will be the plan:

1. Attach temporary posts.

2. Rip out existing posts

3. Dig holes, pour cement/rebar for pilings. Fill those wax tube things to make the thing that goes on top of the pilings.

4. Install permanent posts

5. Rip out remainder of rotting wooden porch/deck

6. Replace with cement or slate.

Step 6 sounds big. Footers aren't very hard, but "replace deck with cement or slate" does.

For houses your age underdrain is a perforated pipe that goes around the entire perimeter and comes to an end in your sump hole. If you have a sump you likely can see the two ends sticking through the sides. Water coming down the sides of your foundation fall through the holes in the pipe and flow to your sump. It keeps your basement or crawlspace dry. You may not have one, depending on how your house is built.

That pipe likely wraps around where you're going to pour footers. It may be under where your porch is and not matter. But you don't want to collapse the pipe with concrete, so it's likely worthwhile to figure out where it is. Dig with a bit of care.

I keep seeing this as "My wife wants me to rip out YOUR porch" and I'm like cool, come on over dude.

I've seen the temporary post process done a lot around here in Michigan. It is pretty much as easy as you make it.

As it is a light porch roof, you can attach the posts directly to the poured cement porch if desired. In Michigan it is code to do it, but your mileage may vary.

the_jake_1973 wrote: I've seen the temporary post process done a lot around here in Michigan. It is pretty much as easy as you make it.

As it is a light porch roof, you can attach the posts directly to the poured cement porch if desired. In Michigan it is code to do it, but your mileage may vary.

Can you describe the temporary post process?

I don't think we'll pour a patio. We'll probably put flagstones down and pour that cement/epoxy stuff in the cracks.

This is probably a bad idea: Screw in Post holders .

Can't you just use bondo?

If you have a chimney, loop a rope around the far end and tie it off. That way, if it's windy it WONT drop on someone like it might if it was temp/posted. If NOT, screw a sistered 1x2x8/12/16 (as needed) or 2x4 (on end, not flat!) into the Aluminum(so it's sitting on the aluminum) and then put your temporary posts beneath that so you have room to work beneath without being encumbered.

The rest is cake. Just make sure to put a French drain in since you're already there...doesn't cost much and isn't much work but will keep the new concrete from moving due to water erosion.

Edit: John is talking about drain tile. It's generally buried 4-6' deep (minimum) around the perimeter of your house. It's essentially a corrugated 4"-6" pipe wrapped in a cloth like material which relieves hydrostatic pressure in the soils, as well as diverting percolating upward water and downward penetrating ground water from ever seeing the foundation (or if basement, the foundation wall). It keeps your footers from eroding and having your house sink and move unevenly.

New codes require X-deep footers for your new work - be sure to find what your frost line depth is and go 4" deeper. ALWAYS use a Quik-Tube/Sonotube, and always use one 4" larger than the dimension (actual, not nominal) of your posts. The tube should extend 4-6" ABOVE the ground level if you're setting posts on them. Make sure they're level and plumb before pouring. When pouring, screw a 12" J-bolt into a piece of scrap wood and sink the J part into the concrete. Set the wood across the top of the tube to hold it centered.

Make sure to wiggle it and add a bit of water te ensure it gets encapsulated.

Then, when it cures, bolt on a post holder

www.amazon.com/dp/B001B1CHO4/ref=asc_df_...gid=pla-319649083629

And then screw or nail (I always use screws) the post onto the holder. Cut the tube to ground level with a sharp ass knife.

Finished product will look like a 4-6" cylinder of concrete, with that bracket on top, with the post on top of that, and the roof lag bolted to the top of the post.

The tubes are designed to inhibit ice lensing which is when ice pockets impinge on the footer and when it expands, it pushes it up. The reason for no ground contact (and why you don't bury posts into concrete) is because the new PT lumber is fucking garbage and rots quickly when in contact with concrete. That, and wood on the ground is to termites like a free candy sign is to a fat kid. Or me.

FaceTime me if you want and show me what youre working with. I'd be happy to help. I can show you what I just did - same shit but my posts are holding up an addition onto my house

cheeses. Best of luck!

SuperflyTNT wrote: Pete's extremely detailed post

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is technical knowhow.

The only thing I can add to Pete's post is regarding the flagstones. Since you are using epoxy/cement between the stones rather than slag, be doubly sure of the patio grade. To assist in draining, you can install a grate in with the flags to move water away from the house. There are small ones that are relatively unobtrusive.

Best of luck, but I think you will find it to all be pretty easy.

If you're doing flagstones (which is miserable fucking work) you need to do a little prep.

First, you dig and rough level. At least 2" but 4" is better. Just ask my wife.

Then you fill the void with playground sand.

Then you either rent a water roller or make one out of a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Press that sand down like your life depends on it. This has to be flat as you can get it and pressed down, packed hard. Otherwise your beautiful flagstone will look like tectonic plates creating mountains. "More fucked up than two twin boys fucking" as my landscape buddy says.

Then do whatever you want as far as bedding the rocks in and grouting or whatever. I, personally, think digging 8", 4" of sand and then using Portland cement mix as a base, then grouting after. Use Sikaflex 50:50 with water and it becomes more flexible and resistant to cracking. If you really want to be slick you can use Schlüter Ditra as a base and then mortar in the flagstone, but the flags have to be really flat for that to fly.

No matter what material you use, seal the living fuck out of it.

Ideally you'd put a French drain beneath it and direct groundwater that penetrates (and percolating water) the hell out of there but that's more digging and without seeing the grade it may be more trouble than it's worth.

I did a similar project with bricks instead of flagstones when I was a teenager, except that we didn't seal it afterwards. Leveling the bricks was a real pain, so it was a shame to see when the concrete between the bricks started to wear down over time due to the lack of sealing. We moved away from that house before it was a real issue, and the buyers were whackos anyway. They had two little boys but elected to repaint the entire interior of the house with white paint.

Alternative process:
<qualifier: used to lay pavers, slate, ect, in another life.>
Slag is a better medium for under flags brick than sand in my experience. It compacts better.
4-6" excavation depending on traffic.
Compact the surface. This is optional. I've done this step and not done this step and saw little difference. If the soil is looser, compact it.
Cover with landscape fabric. Nature always finds a way.
Fill with slag, compact, level, compact, level, until the satisfied. Moisture at this stage helps the binders in the slag....bind. There are mixtures that are half slag, half dolomite that are more expensive, but have a greater ratio of binding agent. I never had a problem using slag and it will provide a much firmer surface than sand.
Lay your stone.
Fill the gaps with remaining slag and run the compactor over the stone. Again, crushed dolomite has more binding agent and will set in the cracks well. Seal as desired.

Look at using tumbled bluestone. It is a great look.