To my dismay, I have discovered that the pillars supporting the balcony are severely affected by rot:
As can be seen, the pillars stand on a "plint". The rot damage seems to be limited to the area at the bottom, closest to the plint. I am, of course, worried about the load-bearing capacity and the stability of the balcony:
An interesting observation is, however, that the wooden pillar doesn't seem to rest directly on the plint:
I can insert a knife between the pillar and the plint from all sides, and in the middle, the knife hits something that feels hard, so I suspect there is some type of steel in the middle of the pillar. Could it be that the balcony is actually supported by a steel structure and that the wooden pillar mainly serves an aesthetic function? It's obviously impossible to answer from pictures and description alone, but perhaps someone has experience with something similar from before?
As for the causes of the rot damage, I can only speculate, but I note that cracks in the pillar appear to have been filled with some type of sealant and that the entire pillars have been painted with some type of plastic paint.
It is supported by the post and likely has a metal base as its foundation. It is possible to replace parts of the post; you must then relieve the balcony and replace the faulty part. It looks like plastic paint, the worst of all worlds unfortunately.
It is supported by the post and as a foundation, it probably has a metal foot. It is possible to replace parts of the post, you then need to relieve the balcony and replace the bad part. It looks like plastic paint, worst of all worlds unfortunately.
Thank you, that sounds reasonable. But then it might be that healthy wood higher up in the post rests on the metal foot and that there is no immediate risk to the load-bearing capability?
To my horror, I have discovered that the pillars supporting the balcony are severely affected by rot:
[image]
As seen, the pillars rest on a "plinth." The rot infestation appears to be limited to the area at the very bottom, near the plinth. I am naturally worried about the load-bearing capacity and the stability of the balcony:
[image]
An interesting observation, however, is that the wooden pillar does not seem to rest directly against the plinth:
[image]
I can insert a knife between the pillar and the plinth from all sides, and in the middle, the knife hits something that feels hard, so I suspect there is some type of steel in the middle of the pillar. Could it be that the balcony is actually supported by a steel construction and that the wooden pillar mostly serves an aesthetic function? It is, of course, impossible to answer based on the picture and description, but perhaps someone has experience with something similar in the past?
As for the causes of the rot infestation, I can only speculate, but I note that cracks in the pillar appear to have been filled with some type of sealant and that the entire pillars have been painted with some type of plastic paint.
Likely the post is load-bearing, usually, there is a post base that raises the wood post slightly off the concrete, at the very least there should be a sill paper between the wood and the concrete.
It's just a matter of replacing the post; there is no saving it...
Seems to be a glulam beam (purchased or homemade). Rot at the bottom of the beam is not unusual or strange. The poorer the quality of the wood, the faster it rots, and the process speeds up with plastic and alkyd paints. Probably it's just the sapwood (so far/mostly) that is bad, so it looks a bit worse than it is. It needs to be addressed, but you probably don't have to drop everything you're doing right now, and can likely wait until the summer if that's a better time for action.
I have a slight suspicion that such load-bearing structures outdoors now require NTR A pressure-treated wood, which according to the images doesn't seem like an overly extreme requirement...
In any case, check all the way up the poles for rot. My experience with these is that it's usually only bad at the bottom. It's often fine to just replace the lower part. Then you have to assess what loads the pole should handle, especially sideways.
There are no requirements for pressure-treated posts.
If it is spliced, the calculations should be made to ensure that the post does not break under the load.
Could be, for example, a 2" steel pipe that is load-bearing, and then the wooden construction is an aesthetic addition around it. Knocking in a stud next to it and then replacing first one half, maybe 0.5m, and then the other half, 1m, with wood that has been soaked in oil for a while and resting on sill paper is quite an undramatic project. The pillar is properly oversized for the load, so it needs to rot in almost the entire cross-section before it starts to give way.
Thanks for the answers! It still feels reassuring. I will of course bring in a professional to investigate as well, so we'll see. It's not a job I'm comfortable doing myself.
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AJ82 said:
