Oak Balcony Support Beams Starting to rot Drainage pipes, concrete, footings and foundations. Post your questions and find answers here

[Genista_99]

Hi All

No idea if this is the correct forum for this but here goes.

I have a balcony on my house which is supported by 4 8x8(ish) oak beams. These are buried in to the ground. However I can see that they are rotting where they meet the soil. I have also started to dig down and can see this is the same below. As would be expected. See pictures. Ideas to resolve?

Pull down and start again? Dig down to concrete footings and attach steel sleeves up three sides? Any other suggestions?

[slo101]

It is hard to tell how bad the rot is from a picture. Can you push a screwdriver deep into the wood? Is it crumbling if you touch it?

Major structural supports like this are not things I would advise a DIYer to have a go at replacing, with out some professional guidance.

As a solution I would suggest propping up the balcony and cutting the bottom of the posts off slightly above ground/where the rot stops and pouring some kind of concrete footing in its place. This removes the connection of wood to soil, which will always end up in rot.

This is a pretty major job, however, and would require a professional builder. That way, if anything goes wrong it will be covered by their insurance (Always check their insurance)

Hope this helps