While the process isn’t rocket science, it is slow and tedious. Marty was aware of some local attempts to replicate cast blocks. That’s when he discovered Marty Naber of Naberhood Restorations. At this point, many homeowners would have given up, but as a vintage-car enthusiast, Gary knew that anything can be done if you find the right person. A local contractor, Doug Shultz, began repairs-removing and rebuilding the footings, and making structural repairs-but then the work stalled. A catch-22 developed as carpenters commented that the project was mason’s work and masons insisted it was a carpenter’s domain. Gary spoke to at least nine contractors many came by, looked at the porch, and never called back. With new concrete blocks, the porch is ready to weather another century. Gary was left with two choices: Find salvaged cast blocks for repair, or find a mason who could cast new blocks to match the old. Substituting modern blocks would have been unsightly, and replacing all the blocks would have changed the character of the porch. Unfortunately, the porch was falling apart, and needed an additional column to correct a sagging roofline. The porch-from the foundation piers to column capitals and even the apron in between-was constructed of cast ornamental concrete block, a material that was quite popular at the turn of the 20th century but went out of production by the 1940s. Homeowner Gary Stottler knew it wouldn’t be easy to restore the front porch on his circa 1900 Queen Anne because of the material used. It's either pour a full concrete pier and sit the post on top of that above grade or create a concrete pad below frost depth and just put the post in there and backfill.This Queen Anne porch is more appealing with the help of concrete blocks. If you look at the guide above for my county, neither of the accepted options depict a post encased in concrete. I've read online some people say that posts encased in concrete have rotted in only 7 years while posts the way I've done have lasted much longer - like 25+. I personally don't know what the life of the posts will be. I am worried that my footings will be incapable of handling 2 feet of heavy snow sitting on the roof. The reason why is my soil is clay and has a low PSF rating of 1500 PSF and we get at least 2 blizzards per year with at least 2 feet of snow. I was approved for 14" diameter footings but after using a dead load calculator ( ) - I am actually taking out ALL of the 5 center concrete pads and making them much wider - like 20". Granted, this one is for decks, but both methods - buried and above ground posts are accepted. Here is the guide I have to follow for footings. Should I be concerned and do you think this "boot" method is a good solution or not? And the last picture is of a 6圆 post with a 2圆 "boot" attached to it using 4.5" structural screws to attempt to give it more bearing towards the center of the concrete pad. A close image of the problem is also attached. You can see the 3rd post on the outside wall is off center. See attached pictures to see my progress so far. The 6圆 posts will only be sticking above grade level from 2" - 16" at most (I'm on a slope.) I've read that I could sister the post with a 2圆 using structural screws to give more weight bearing towards the center of the concrete pad and was wondering if this would be viable. Will the posts being off-center affect the load capabilities of my footers to the point that I need to fix them? In several cases, the 6圆 is all the way to the edge of the concrete pad. I dug the holes with an auger but unfortunately, when I went to set the posts, some of them were not centered on the concrete pad footings. Three 6圆x20 girders will sit on top of each row of posts. The studio foundation is comprised of 15 6圆 posts going into holes that are 14" diameter, 30" deep, with 10" thick concrete pad footings at the bottom of each hole. I am building a 20x12 detached building recording studio with an attached greenhouse.
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