Street Side Front Porch | The ORC Continues

The alternate title for this post was “Boy, That Escalated Quickly.” By now, most of you know that the Street Side Front Porch reveal for the One Room Challenge was not exactly traditional. It ended up being just me and a couple of ferns. That is because the entire project went from bad to worse over the course of a few days. It felt like everything that I touched turned into a pile of rotten wood. The crumbling pillar base was just the tip of the iceberg.

I knew we were in big trouble when I was working under the top stair riser. As I was cutting it with an oscillating tool, water squeezed out of the wood. Who knows how long it had been soaking up moisture like a sponge?

Who Is Dale?

Before I continue, I want to introduce my friend Dale.

Two summers ago, Dale and I met at a running group. Now we, along with some other members of our group, run together a few days per week. Running aside, Dale is also an excellent woodworker and problem solver.

Initially, he took an interest in my project because I reached out to him about using Cumuaru hardwood for the porch floor. Last summer, Dale built a small Cumaru deck at his house. He became an excellent resource for me as I was planning the porch project, and throughout the One Room Challenge, he has generously opened up his woodshop to me whenever I need it.

About two weeks ago, I started running into flooring issues, and Dale offered to help me troubleshoot. One week later, he was elbow deep in porch rot, and half of his power tools moved to BHH. Sucker. Seriously, though, I appreciate Dale’s help so much. I could do this project without him, but I am glad I don’t have to. His input and problem-solving skills are invaluable, and I appreciate being able to borrow so many useful tools too.

Rebuilding The Porch

To restore the porch, we have been following these steps:

1. Tear out boards
2. Watch them crumble in our hands
3. Wonder what has been holding up the porch
4. Replace rotten boards with new ones
5. Repeat

Directly under the left-side pillar, we reframed the corner.

It is not visible in the photos above, but I also added extra vertical bracing under the door because the opening was deflecting (flexing) a little when we stepped on it.

Dale and I also replaced the header on the side of the porch. That side had a double header, and the outside one was trashed.

Check out this giant construction spike/nail. We removed several of them during demo.

Since the interior side of the first header was dry and perfect, we screwed a piece of plywood on the outside to compensate for the rot near the pillar.

Then, we sandwiched the plywood with a new pressure-treated header on the exterior.

That porch is going nowhere. It is solid as a rock.

Since the window below was soft and mushy, I removed it. I will need to do some research before I start restoring it, and making the repairs will take some time.

Dale and I are on the last few pieces of this rotten puzzle. Yesterday, we added a new 1×6 pressure-treated board all across the entire span of the front of the porch.

Although the wood frame behind that piece is in good shape, it is very old and dry. The pressure-treated wood will add strength. Later today, we are adding a solid oak stair riser in front of that. We will eventually screw the front edge of the Cumaru flooring to the oak.

This stage of the Street Side Front Porch project is a far cry from decorative doorbells and other delightful details, but it is very satisfying, nonetheless. Decor means nothing if it is just lipstick on a pig.  (Please don’t send me angry messages defending pigs. I am sure they would all look adorable wearing lipstick.)

I am anxiously anticipating the day when the entryway looks more inviting than this:

Until then, we will keep plugging away, one problem at a time.

Tell me about your projects. What do you have going right now? Have there been any surprises, good or bad? Do you have any rotten horror stories of your own?

Start at the beginning:
week 1 | week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | week 5 | week 6

PS: Here are the links to our past ORC projects (AKA proof that I finish things!):
Breakfast Nook | Library | Dining Room | Kitchen Pantry