How to Repair a Front Porch

Thinking about a front porch conjures up visions of lazy afternoons and neighbors coming over for iced tea. But a front porch can also require a lot of maintenance and repairs. Maintaining and repairing your front porch isn't only a good investment, but it's necessary. Rotted boards are dangerous and termites can quickly move from the front porch to the rest of the house.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Circular saw
• Crow bar
• Hammer
• Oil-based primer
• Construction adhesive
• Nails
• Nail set
• Electric sander
• Tack cloth
• Deck paint

1. Look for rotted boards and termite-eaten boards or support braces every fall and spring to make your repairs cheaper and easier.

2. Remove any detail pieces from around the porch and check under them for rotted wood. This allows you to see if your supports or beams are rotted or if the damage is confined to the top boards only.

3. Determine which boards you must remove. You have to replace any boards that are rotted.

4. Set your circular saw blade depth to the same depth as the board, and cut through the first rotten board lengthwise. Start with a rotted board that's right next to a good board and continue along. If the board is a tongue and groove, make sure the grooves are facing away from the good board beside it.

5. Use a crowbar to pry the rotten board off of the front porch using the hole you made in Step 4 as leverage. Pry slowly along the board towards the house, being careful not to damage the surrounding good boards. After you loosen the board, pop it up with your hammer. Repeat with all the rotten boards.

6. Prime all the new boards with an oil-based primer to protect them from moisture. Then, place construction adhesive on each of the front porches' joists.

7. Place the new boards onto the front porch, matching up the tongue and groove patterns with the old pieces--except for the last piece. Trim the tongue and groove off of the last piece of wood, and place it between the new boards and the old boards. Nail each of the boards down and recess the nail heads with a nail set.

8. Sand the new boards flush with the old boards using an electric sander. Then, clean up the sawdust, rub the wood clean with a tack cloth and paint the entire front porch with an oil-based deck paint.

Tips & Warnings

• Inspect your roof and your cutters when you repair your front porch. Otherwise, you may end up repairing your porch again when you find damage to the roof and cutters.