Porch post help

[Crfdane]

hi, I'm new here so I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place but I just got a woodmizer this spring and I decided to redo my porch. I was wondering what species of wood I should use for the four 6x6s that I need. I have been milling up a lot of the dead standing ash trees and they have been pretty big but never heard of anyone building with ash before. Should I use this or something else? I also have a ton of maple. I can get ahold of just about anything. 

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum.
What size WM you got? ;D

[Don P]

Welcome to the forum.
While ash and maple are certainly strong enough, at 6x6 for an average porch just about anything would probably be strong enough, they have no natural decay resistance. Locust is my favorite local wood for those kinds of uses, white oak would be next but I've used red oak and even painted white pine which also has no natural resistance.

Mixed oak




Mixed oak


 




A cherry idea


 



Well, this is all white pine, just stained.

 

  

[fishfighter]

I used some water oak. Trick is to get the bottom end off the ground/deck so it can dry out after a rain.


The brackets I had made. They are bolted down with 3/8"x 3" long lag bolts. The post drop down in them and then have a couple 1/4"x2 1/2" long lag bolts bolting thru the sides. The base lag bolts leave about a 1/4" air gap on the bottom in between the base and the post.

[GAB]

The last porch post that I sawed were octogan white cedar.
I would not use Ash, Maple, or Beech for outdoor porch posts.
GAB 

[Crfdane]

Thanks everyone! Still figuring out how to use this site, but I have a woodmizer LT15 GO.  I never thought about locust, we have a ton of black locust trees here that I have noticed cuz my honeybees love their flowers. I will have to look into what locust wood looks like. The porch is going on an old farmhouse that I am redoing. And my next question was how to attach the posts to a concrete porch but someone already showed some pics! I would post a pic but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. It just tells me I have no albums to upload to

[timberwrestler]

If you have locust on your property, then you can't go wrong using them for porch posts.  My porch decking is locust boards, about 2.5"W, kiln dried.  The color when locust is fresh sawn is a sort of pukey green.  But with just a bit of sun, it turns to a beautiful honey/red color.  If it's outside, I'd recommend just letting it grey.

[samandothers]

Yep if you have some good locut that would make your posts that would be the ticket. The next person can rebuild the house around them! ;D