Porch Column

[Ryan Johnson Jax]

Didn't know where best to put this, it's woodworking but more in the construction sense.

I need to wrap my two front porch columns, looking to do a recessed panel look. I've though of two ways I could do this. First would be to build a traditional box column wrap out of 1x material, then build face frames out of 1x to attach to the sides of the box to give the recessed panel look and dress it up from there. My other idea would be to use 2x material to build the sides of the column out of like a frame. I could rabbet the back and then install a panel directly into them. Either way would give the same look, but I have a feeling that the first method may result in a stronger final product.

Thoughts? Any other suggestions for a somewhat simple build? The plan is to use a combo of tradtional lumber and probably MDO for construction.

Thanks,
Ryan

This is the look I am going for:

recessed_paneled_column.jpg

[John McClanahan]

Last year I replaced the porch column bottoms on my front porch, along with new decking.

The old ones looked like this:
IMG_0182.jpg

This is what the replacements look like:
IMG_0230.jpg

Now, don't take this the wrong way, but from my experience, your design has a lot of places to trap water and rot. The layers on mine were pre-painted sealed with caulking. Time will tell if my rebuild will last.


John

[Mark Bolton]

Didn't know where best to put this, it's woodworking but more in the construction sense.

I need to wrap my two front porch columns, looking to do a recessed panel look. I've though of two ways I could do this. First would be to build a traditional box column wrap out of 1x material, then build face frames out of 1x to attach to the sides of the box to give the recessed panel look and dress it up from there. My other idea would be to use 2x material to build the sides of the column out of like a frame. I could rabbet the back and then install a panel directly into them. Either way would give the same look, but I have a feeling that the first method may result in a stronger final product.

Thoughts? Any other suggestions for a somewhat simple build? The plan is to use a combo of tradtional lumber and probably MDO for construction.

Thanks,
Ryan

This is the look I am going for:

Painted or natural finish? If its painted I would build them out of Azek or Permatrim, or whatever non-wood material you have available. I am a wood lover but the simple fact of the matter is unless they are very well protected, very well shaded, and very well maintained, making the from wood will require a lot more maintenance than making them one time from PVC and forgetting about it.

** EDIT ** Missed the MDO.. in that case the above is even more pertinent. ;-)

Just my 0.02

[Jack Wilson50]

If it is painted, I would use the first method.

[Jerry Miner]

Mark's suggestion of a non-wood, rot-proof material is a good one. If you DO use wood, I would do the 1x and plywood (#1) method, but I would detail in some drainage and ventilation. Allow air to flow into the bottom and out of the top, or your paint will never stay on and the rot will begin soon.

[Mike Berrevoets]

I did something similar 2 years ago. Our porch is north facing and has an overhang that extends 2 feet past the columns so it is fairly well protected. I made three sided boxes out of 3/4 MDO in the shop using exterior kreg screws and attached the 4th side with SS nails. Our columns are stepped with the lower being wider. The rails/stiles are 3/4 MDO applied after the wrap was in place. The horizontal stiles have a 10 degree bevel on the top as an effort to not trap water. The ledge between the lower and upper section has about a 10 degree slope also to not trap water and to keep my kids from leaving things set on the ledge.

Around the bottom the MDO is setting on a piece of PVC trim so there is no contact between wood and concrete. My thought was thus would stop the water from wicking up into the MDO.

This has only been up for 2 years so it is too soon to tell if I chose my methods and materials wisely. I looked at the PVC/plastic route and it was a lot more expensive and we were doing a lot of other things to the house like residing and new windows so I had to cut costs somewhere. I figure if it lasts 10 years then the few hundred bucks was well spent. Besides, I made it once and I can do it again. I don't like re-doing things but it isn't like I'm paying someone for the labor.

If cost wasn't a concern I would have used PVC/plastic.

Mike

[keith micinski]

PVC and vinyl trim has gotten so cheap I bought a couple pieces of brick mould yesterday that we're going to be wrapped in aluminum so pre primed pine would have been absolutely fine but when I looked they were 4 bucks cheaper in the PVC. I hate the plastic look but when it comes to exterior trim pieces that are had to sand, paint and maintain its really a no brainier, plus if you really want to you can't paint the PVC and it is a much better substrate for being painted then wood is.

[Ryan Johnson Jax]

Mike, I am basically in the exact same boat as you and was planning to use essentially the same construction method. I will have ventilation and use all available techniques to build them so water sheds off, was even planning on soaking the bottom in some hardener. The only thing I haven't decided on is using MDO vs traditional lumber for the main wrap, I'm kind of doubting it will make a differene either way. How did you attach the "frames" to the wrap? Just nailed on? I was going to build the whole thing in the shop and was going to glue and screw the frames on from the back side.

Thanks for the replies guys.

[lowell holmes]

I remodeled a house 25 years back that had the round porch columns as you show here. They were rotten on the bases.

I cut the rotten part of the posts off and replaced the rectangular with concrete rectangular bases. IIRC, they were parking curb bases. I put new round bases on the concrete with the round columns on top. I painted the concrete and the wood.

I recently saw them, and the paint was good, no rot anywhere. They still look good.

Actually,I used this on another house as well.

[Mike Berrevoets]

I used MDO because I needed to have pretty wide columns on the bottom to work with the available PVC railing length and I was concerned the real wood might warp over time. Our columns are stepped with a ledge part way up and only the bottom portion has the frames. I just applied the frames after the column was in place and used some exterior titebond glue and SS trim nails. I caulked all the joints/corners and painted.

I did did pull a bonehead move and cut all the strips for the vertical parts of the frame to the same width. Then realized when putting them up that one side had to be 3/4 inches wider to account for the overlap or things wouldn't look right. Not my brightest moment.....