After nearly 10 weeks since I first punched a hole in my front porch, I was able to declare this replacement project complete. Like most of my home projects, this one was past due and over budget, but I’m very happy with the quality of the final result. Laura and I had been wanting to replace the front porch of our house since we moved in. It was obvious that water had rotted some of the underlying support near the concrete stoop and large gaps were visible at the edges. Aside from that one area, I was pleasantly surprised to find the underlying structure was in good shape. I conscripted my Dad to help build a solid foundation for the new deck boards. We added extra joists to the unconventional 24″ spacing and realized part way through that waterproofing was necessary. As a result, I invested in a rubber flange product designed to fit between deck boards and provide a water tight seal. This combined with generous caulking, resulted in a porch that I hope is water tight for years. There were a lot of “gotchas” in this project and I’m thankful for all the advise I got along the way. Doing anything on these old houses is never straight forward.

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