This Year's Cabin Project

When we bought the cabin property we knew the supports for the cabin would need some attention. Over the years, the 4X4 supports for the cabin have yielded to wind and gravity, and are slowly tilting.



Now that the spring rains have stopped so we can dig holes without them filling with water, we started the project by removing the porch deck so we could access the supports on the west side of the cabin. As so often happens when doing repair work, we found additional problems to fix. With the deck removed we found rotten wood.

Not only was the 2X8 floor joist rotted, some of the sub-floor was rotted. We cut out the rotten sub-floor and replaced it with pressured treated plywood. We then replaced the single 2X8 floor joist with two 2X12 pressure treated joists which now match the size of the rim joists used on the north and south sides of the cabin.



With the rotted wood replaced, we jacked up the cabin and removed the 4X4 supports one at a time, and dug deeper holes for the new supports. Concrete forms were positioned in the holes and held in position by temporary blocks until dirt was back filled around the forms.



Once the back filling was complete, the temporary blocks were removed and concrete poured into the forms. Each of the corner supports had a "J" bolt positioned in the concrete for attaching a bracket to the rim joist.



After the concrete cured, two pieces of pressure treated lumber were placed between the rim joist and the top of the concrete supports. These pieces of pressure treated lumber extend out from the rim joist to allow the porch deck to rest on the new supports when it is re-attached.



View of a side support.