Question for the engineers/structural people

[kaylie]

This is the front of our house. There are two posts there that are dark green.

There is some slight wood rot at the bottom and I'm trying to figure out how to address it. I'm pretty sure I can use this treatment thing to kill the rot and then fill it and paint. I really don't like the squareness of them now and would ideally like to change them out for something else.

Three things I'm wondering if anyone can tell me:
1 - Is it likely that these have some sort of metal running through the middle of them to make them stronger/more supportive? How can I determine that?

2 - If not, how hard would it be to replace these ourselves? Ideally I'd like to swap out with something PVC or otherwise rot resistant.

3 - If there is something complicated holding it in place, what kind of professional would I call to replace them?

[vanillahip]

I'm sure there's no metal, it's not terribly difficult to replace support beams but you have to be very careful not to jack your porch roof up too high (if you use jacks) or if you just hammer some temporary supports in you just need to make sure they're a good size, then the replacement beams really need to be perfect.

I'm an avid DIYer/ novice carpenter, and I personally would have a contractor come do it on my house. (a GC should be able to do it no prob) it shouldn't be too expensive because it should be an extremely quick job.

[auntie]

That's a Shrenk house.

I have a couple friends with some version of the house.

The porch posts are easy enough to swap out. We had to do this at out old house; we lived on the Neshaminy and a flash flood washed one of ours away.

They do not have a rod in them, btw. The wood is substantial enough to support the small bit of porch rood they carry. When we lost 2 of our 4, the roof overhang didn't even sag while we waited for the special order posts to come in.

When you buy them, beware of less expensive, slimmer versions at the millworks. They come in different sizes and your house will look ridiculous if the scale is too small. They should have a little metal "foot" that holds them off the concrete to prevent rot in the future.

Replacing it is really easy. Any competent DIYer or contractor can do this. Ours weren't attached in any way. When the contractor took the remaining ones out, he tapped them out with a mallet.

[kaylie]

Thanks ladies!

Yep, 85% of the stuff in our school district is Shrenk. The fact that there aren't metal supports in there makes me thing the wood rot is a bigger problem, then.

I was thinking about replacing them with something like this:


That's from HD, but I'd probably go to the local lumber yard and talk to them about options.

H's uncle is a civil engineer, so I'm going to see if he can help.