Need help with porch supports

I have a 50 year old single story house in Florida that has a front porch overhang. Currently the overhang is supported by metal (wrought iron?) supports. Very elegant looking with a vine motif. These supports are about and inch or so thick, about 9" wide and 80" tall. All are in need of replacement very soon. One has already been knocked out of place and I now have a temporary support made with 2x4's in its place. My problem is that the top beam where the supports attach is only 3" wide. All the column/support products I've found locally start at 6" wide for square posts or 6" in diameter for round posts. I cannot find any place that sells similar wrought iron/metal supports as what exists now. I can't even find stuff online.

Any advice on what I should do now? Should I restructure the overhang so it's wider and the attachment point thus allowing for the common sizes of columns in my area? Or, is there something I can do to the existing beam to make it possible to use the larger sized posts while still being structurally sound and visially appealing? Perhaps I should look into building my own 3" wood posts? Living in Florida I don't think wood would be a good idea given the high humidity levels we have. Might rot the wood in a few years.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
trob

Hi Trob, welcome to the forum, I hope you will like it here

I am so terribly sorry but I cannot visualize what you are writing about - could you possibly place a photo here of where the problem lies?

Hi Jeffie, I've posted some pics up to my Photobucket page. Click this link or copy/paste into your browser's URL field:
http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk265/trobinson017/ porch%20supports/


I added some notes to help explain the problem with finding proper fitting supports.

I hope you or someone else can advise me on the best way to correct this problem.

Thanks!

Tim

Tim, we don't seem to have porches like these in Israel (at least not that I know of) so I am going to look into this and ask around. Thank you for posting these photos, it will make it easier trying to explain (to whom I am going to ask)

Hi Trob Ito am looking for this type wrought iron post. I have had no luck. Have you found a source?

If I understand your description correctly, the 3" beam supporting your porch roof is probably made up of two 1 1/2" beams nailed together to make a 3" beam. Probably 2X8 beams. The easy fix for your problem is to buy 4X4 treated lumber posts at your local Home Depot or Lowes store, cut them to length, and set them in place. Treated lumber is guaranteed for 20 years, even when buried in the ground, so they'll be fine, even in Florida. You should install them with a little space under them, keeping the end off the concrete, to keep them from absorbing water in the end. You can get metal post anchors for this purpose, which are attached to the concrete by concrete nails or anchor bolts. The posts sit on top of the post anchor and are nailed to it with galvanized "sinker nails" or screws. The tops are attached by "T" brackets and hurricane straps to the beam. Should be about 2-3 hours' work to do several posts.

I haven't yet found the supports. I'm considering the 4x4 post idea another responder talks about.

You might try finding a welding shop and have them made for you. Wouldn't be as cheap as, say Lowe's or some other "box store", but shouldn't be out of range for the average DIYer. Just take the measurements and a drawing of what you want and they'll make it for you.