Canton still has porches built as rooms rather than as entrances, and they are worth repairing properly.
- Fails first
- Column bases and step treads
- Two finishes
- Stain on the floor, paint on the woodwork
- Often load-bearing
- Columns may carry the roof
A deep porch on an older Canton house is usually structural. The columns are not decoration; they hold the porch roof up. That matters because the place these porches fail first is at the column base, where water sits on the deck and wicks upward into end grain. By the time paint is flaking at ankle height there is often softness behind it.
Repairing a load-bearing column is a different job from replacing a decorative post, and it needs the load taken before anything comes out. We will tell you honestly whether what you have is a repair, a replacement, or outside what we take on.
Where to look
Column bases — press the timber at deck level
Step treads, which take weather and every footfall
The outer edge of the floor where rain blows in
Porch ceilings, usually ignored until they flake
Skirting and lattice at ground level