September 2, 2015

Carport Conundrum: The Support Columns

What a winter we had! It was so cold that even some schools got cancelled a day in advance. When things got really cold, we noticed something with our carport. The shifting in the ground caused one of the support columns for our carport to heave upwards and look like it would tip over.

Yikes! Tyler created a joist that would help support the weight on that side. Of course, he chose the coldest day to do this. When things started to warm up again, the joist wasn't needed anymore, so we took it down.

We didn't want this to happen again this coming winter, so we had Pat Drury from Drury Designs take a look. We needed to get a look at what was under the current columns to see how to proceed.


What's down there?
Earl starts the excavation.
Ah... Just as we suspected. We'll need to start over and put some footings down here.



Just like on the front, and now side of the house, we'd need new footings under these support columns as well.

Eric from Roffers Concrete Construction coordinated the formation of the footings under the carport columns.

The hole has been dug, and we're waiting for the forms.

This is what had to be cut out of the driveway to make room for the new concrete work.

Part one has been poured.

The footing is done and dry.

The reconstructed stone columns with new tops.

The reconstructed columns from another angle.

After the stone columns had a chance to set, Curt and Mark were able to put the columns back up.



Steve had to make new bases for the columns; the original ones were very damaged

Bottom - the original base for one of the pillars; top - its replacement

Once the support columns were back up, we could have the new piece of concrete poured. Watch for an update on the new concrete work, coming up soon.