Raising Day - Porches

Porches are a good way to project some of that timber flair to the outside of the home. There are a 1000 ways to build a porch and we have probably done most of them. The things to focus on are the wear and tear of exposed wood and how the posts are mounted to the foundation below. We will never bury a post in concrete or stone work. This only invites rot. We do not want the base of the post to sit on anything that will collect and hold water. This also invites rot. We like to mount our posts on elevated mounting plates that keeps the post base from sitting in wet conditions. These 'riser plates' can be set before porch, or deck, slabs are completed because they sit on the footing. They do need to be encased in concrete after they are installed to resist wiggle (structural engineering term). Determining the best way to accomplish all of this depends on the design.