I am trying to restore the porch/pergola supports on the front of my house. I am replacing the wrought iron bars that were previously installed with four 8x8 wooden posts. The posts run straight up from the concrete porch floor up to the porch cover and pergola. My question is how are the posts supposed to be attached or secured to the concrete porch floor? The concrete porch floor is flat. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

You could drill a hole with a 1/2" hammer drill and masonry bit, it'll take a while, though. Using the hole, cement in a nice big piece of allthread to the floor, then get four concrete-to-wood plates, available at any hardware store. They come in various types, but most are made to hold the wood OFF the concrete, to better protect it from termites, rot and moisture from the concrete. They're zinc plated steel, the allthread will anchor it to the concrete pad, with a nice big nut and washer. The plates have two, sometimes four, ears which enclose the wood beam, and holes in the ears for driving large screws to hold them in place. <br> <br>Make sure you install everything plumb on two sides, otherwise you'll end up with a strange looking porch.

Thanks for the suggestion. I suppose that the ears on the plate could then be covered by some sort of base moulding.

8x8's might be a bit of overkill. You could use 6x6 or even 4x4 depending on what the columns are holding up. You could then box in the posts with 1x's, add some crown molding at the top and bottom and they will have the appearance of 8x8 columns. I did that with my backporch and they turned out nicely. I got the idea from the columns on the front porch which sounded suspicially hollow when I was removing an old mail box. <br> <br>I'd also reccomend something called "postshores" to hold up the porch roof after jacking up and installing the new posts.

Thanks, BradK. You're right about the 8x8's being overkill (they only old up a small gabled porch cover and the ends of pergolas on either side), but I've already got the posts. You had a great idea to use 4x4's and then box them in. I wish that I had asked this question and found this out earlier. <br> <br>This forum is a great resource!

Base moulding or even consider that your massive 8 inch beams might work for a little 'stonework' at the base. Maybe overkill, but perhaps an opportunity to make a uniquely bungalow stone porch support?

You don't necessarily have to use the 8x8s. If you purchased them from a home center, they will accept them returned. <br> <br>If you add a surround to the columns, one thing to think about when you do this is to make sure that you provide a means of air venting at the top and bottom of the columns. Otherwise, you will be inviting rot. Priming and painting all sides of the boards before installing them will make them last significantly longer. <br> <br>Cheers, <br>Tim