Overview

It is time refresh the front porch. We will remove the cladding and check the structure. Repair any issues and re-clad.

Supplies

Prior Work

In 2013, the porch roof was lagged into the house.

Structure at the front (ceiling) was added:

Teardown

We removed the plywood floor and the cladding around the front supports.

Front Supports

We discovered that our metal support posts were rusting out!

As you can see, the left post was completely rusted through. The wood cladding around the post was probably all that was holding up this corner.

We started by added a 4x4 to support the roof and then placed jack posts near the other posts for added support. I had some drywall jacks, so I added them as well.

After securing the structure, we use a bottle jack and a 4x4 to jack up the corner.

We then proceeded to cut out the old post which was cemented into the pier. The old metal post was full of water, so we vacuumed out the water and then cemented the hole. At the top, we left the top plate which joined the two sections of wood.

First support done. Now for the others.

Second Post

Third Post

Make it Level

Roof

Using a laser level, I levelled the root as best I could. The centre and right post as level with the left post is up about 1/2 inch.I ended up jacking up the centre using a bottle jack to make it easier to crank the floor jack.

Floor

Using a laser level, I levelled the back (closest to the house) part of the deck by jacking up the joists and shimming with wood. Repeated with the front of the deck. Left an incline in the deck towards the front for water drainage. Managed to get it all pretty perfect.

Securing the Posts

The post were connected to the piers using concrete screws. For the top, we threaded the metal plate and bolted the jack to the metal plate.

Make it Square

So, the deck portion of the porch is not very square.

Original measurements

Measurement	Length (inches)
Length (Back)	230 3/4"
Length (Front)	232 1/8"
Width (Right)	89 1/2"
Width (Left)	91 1/2"

After Ajustments

Measurement	Length (inches)
Length (Back)	232 1/2"
Length (Front)	232 1/2"
Width (Right)	89 1/2"
Width (Left)	91 1/2"
Corner to Corner 1	254 1/2"??
Corner to Corner 2	255 "??

Blocking

Since we are not removing the old structure, we needed to add blocking at 16" intervals to give us something to secure our deck boards into. This also adds strength to our structure.

Deck

For the decking we used the CAMO Marksman Pro to install the deck planks which allows us to drill in small head screws into the edge of the board.

This tool also sets our 3/8" gap between boards.

We did a "picture frame" at the front of the deck. The house is not perfectly aligned with the house meaning that the distance from the front to the back gets larger as we move from right to left. For this reason, we did not trim the house side.

Found some of the planks were up and down. Removing them, I discovered that the blocking moved and was no longer lined up with the top of the joists.

Shimmed the block to fix in some places.

Found a knot in the main deck board of the picture frame. I am going to replace this plank...

TODO

Fixing the Door Flashing

We removed the old banged up flashing in front of the door. It had been kicked and had nothing behind the aluminum flashing to support the abuse it regularly received.

Will need to build this up (TBD) and re-flash.