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NANNY BUG
Joined: 29 Jun 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Central New Jersey
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 Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:41 am Post subject: Porch Columns From Hell |
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My fiance bought a home a while ago and it needed so much work. He is a carpenter by trade, so he thought it would be a challenge I guess The whole house was not at all level...some rooms are lower than others, so when installing new floors, he had to "build the surface up" to match the adjoining rooms/halls. He also had to replace the support columns in the basement (ugh - hate going down there) as well as some of the beams. I really really HATE this house, but he has managed to make it not only beautiful, but sound as well. I have been on him to redo the large front porch that spans entire front of the home since the nice weather has started.
There are four support columns spanning the porch and they are the ugliest things I ever saw. While he has been redoing the deck portion with new wood, and yes that was as unlevel as the rest of the home, I have been scratching my head over these columns. From the ground to the bottom of the porch they are cinder block/brick. From the surface of the porch to about a foot and a half they are wider (almost 2' x 2') and covered in dull crumbly concrete. As if that wasn't bad enough, there is a concrete "cap" on top of the column which is even wider than the column itself. Then, from the surface of this "cap" there is a wood column that extendeds to the top of the joist running across the roof of the porch...it's not even 1' x 1' !!!! Can you get a picture of this scene in your head yet? A freaking disaster. I swear, if I wasn't 120 pounds of pure chick, I'd sledge hammer these damn things out of the way myself.
I have surfed and surfed, but no sites offer me any suggestions on keeping the current columns (which we need to do so this doesn't end up being a time consuming nightmare like the rest of this money pit) and cosmetically "covering them up". I would love to be the one to offer him a solution to this dilemma instead of just saying, "Gosh, honey I don't know what we should do!" Any suggestions guys?? Thanks! |
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ArchiMotion
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| It would be interesting to see photos of your front porch and these columns, to see if we can come up with any suggestions for you. It may be possible to engineer some type of new look to them, either by enveloping them in some new materials, or chipping down some of the surfaces, removing some of the elements and replacing them with new materials, without affecting the structure of these columns. But to determine this, will need to see photos. Check the resolution you post them, so that they are not to large in size. |
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mx2
millennium club
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 1968
Location: Miami, Florida
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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Post some pictures and we could comment. I'm concerned about those cinnder/concrete blocks. You may indeed want to hack off the whole porch and start over...and re-use as much material as possible.
mx2.5
_________________
*Art of Architecture: The conscious use of skill and creative imagination in the production of an aesthetic building.
*Science of Architecture: The calculated use of technical skill and knowledge in the construction of a functional building. |
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Kevin
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 1117
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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Pics would help. And it would help to be quite clear if the issue involves structural soundness, or just aesthetics.
Assuming the later, I wonder if a kinda-Craftsmanish tapered box-in of the wood part of the columns - like a tall thin truncated pyramid, maybe 1.5x or so wider at the base than the top - would not be too much work, and would mediate between the out-of-scale peices.
Then paint or stucco or something else, to clean it up and tie it together, depending on what other finishes you've got going. |
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