How do I Put a Footing Under an Enclosed Porch?
Placing a footing under a preconstructed enclosed porch presents a few obstacles, all of which can be overcome. The good news is that the average do-it-yourselfer can complete this project in one to two days, depending on the size and scope of the project. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Build temporary 2-by-4 walls to support the porch roof. Measure the height of the porch ceiling from the ground to the ceiling. After you have built the temporary support wall, stand it up and insert temporary screws through the 2-by-4 frame wall and into the ceiling joists of the porch. This wall will serve to hold the porch in place while you remove dirt from beneath the permanent wall structure of your porch.
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Remove the soil from beneath the porch walls. The depth of the footer should be at least 12 inches deep and 4 inches outside and inside of the permanent walls of the porch. For example, if your porch enclosure walls are 6 inches thick, then your footer widths will be 14 inches.
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Pour fiber reinforced concrete into the footers and up to the bottom of the permanent wall enclosure of the porch, leaving 1/4-inch gap for insertion of tar paper between the wall plates and the concrete--the concrete will erode the wood of the wall without this tar paper.
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Cut tar paper the width of your wall and slide the paper between your dried concrete and wood floor plate of the permanent walls. Remove the temporary bracing from the inside of the porch and allow the porch walls to fully sit on top of the new concrete. Make sure that there are no gaps between the floor and concrete. If so, then use extra tar paper to shim these areas.
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Drill 1/4-inch holes through the wall floor plate using a drill and wood bit. Do not drill into the concrete with this bit. Use a concrete bit to continue into the concrete, and insert concrete anchors into the concrete to anchor the walls to the concrete. After you have inserted the concrete anchors, tighten the anchor bolts with a wrench, but do not over tighten, as you will damage the anchor grip.
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