A New Porch in Spencer

We built our first energy efficient house in the early 1980’s on 40 acres in the countryside outside of Spencer, Indiana. We have owned the property for over 40 years. But we recently decided that we should sell. This photo is dated 2012. The corner of the front porch is beginning to settle.

Spencer House
Spencer House

In 2017 we visited and the porch had settled more.

Porch sinking 2017
Porch sinking 2017

I went to work on the house for a couple of weeks this summer and the porch was in sad shape. The deck boards were beginning to rot and the post had sunk even more. Friends gave me some planed oak boards that they had hoped to use for the last 40 years themselves. But I had a more urgent need so they generously gave them to me. I knew there was a reason I needed to rent a truck. I brought them home in two loads.

Truckload of oak boards
Truckload of oak boards

Not only did they give me the boards for the decks, they also came and helped tear the old decking off. We put it in the truck and took it up to a friend’s burn pile.

Tear out old boards
Tear out old boards

We thought jacking up the floor would allow the deck to get leveled out. I drilled a new hole to attach the leveled framing.

Jack up floor
Jack up floor

But just a little digging around the post revealed that it was completely rotted at the bottom. Another friend stopped by to help and cut off the worst of the rot. We jacked up the post to the original bolt placement. Then the dirt underneath the post was removed enough to cut off most of the rotten area of the post.

Jack up post
Jack up post

Then the hole was dug deeper and wider to insert concrete blocks to hold up the post. The new boards were cut to length and using a couple of borrowed drills. I bored holes for the deck screws and installed them with a hammer drill that made short work of the process.

Fixed Porch
Fixed Porch

After the boards were installed I treated the wood with water barrier and filled a few areas on the leader board that were starting to rot. The porch was fixed making the house look much less worn.

This entry was posted in Construction, Diversions, Maintenance and Repair, Spencer House. Bookmark the permalink.