Repairing Structural Columns

Starting with 20 foot structural columns, we see these rotting at their bases and not really able to do the work of supporting the deck and roof above….  They are prohibitively expensive to replace entirely, so repair presented the best path forward.  Noting, however, that they had been previously repaired badly, as you can see from the photos…  Literally held together with duct tape.

We did some exploratory work to see just how far the rot extended; this included opening up the base and peeling back the duct tape and the paint so we could see the wood, which is the actual column.  It was bad, as expected.

the column, previously repaired with a foam - think Fypon - and concrete combination
A deteriorated column base...
Damaged column with new column base

Columns in various stages of decomp and recomposition.  We adapted a floor router to glide the column surface and remove outer layers of material and to make room for the addition of epoxy reinforced material…. This is how we fused the new base with the existing column shaft.

That PVC pipe is not doing anything...
Column shaping and matching the column to the new base - last stage before epoxy and fabric....

Columns were finished with a combination of fabric, epoxy and bondo.  And here, you can see the last stages of that process

Column, prior to sanding and "body work"
After fiber wrap, column with bondo for smoothing and detailing... just prior to painting.

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