Failing Front Entry Rebuilt on a National City Bungalow

The owners were worried the front entry was going to come down. They were right to be. One of the posts carrying the porch roof was hanging on by a thread.

Pulling the boards showed why. The framing under the entry had gone soft, and the post was bearing on a beam that had rotted out from under it. On a house this age the porch is usually the first thing to go, because it takes weather from above and holds moisture against the framing from below.

All of it came out. New framing went in from the concrete up, and the orientation of the entry changed at the same time. Instead of stepping down off the front, the stairs now run along the side of the house and land on the walkway, which handed the porch back its full length as covered space.

The finish is Azek TimberTech. Decking planks on the porch floor and the treads, TrimLogic on the fascia, the post wraps and the risers, and IRX railing along the porch and down the full stair run. None of it takes paint the way the old wood did, which on a house that sits in weather all year is the entire point.

The green trim and the original siding stayed where they were. The entry reads as though it was always built this way, which on a historic house is the only acceptable outcome.