Kicking off 2019

Work Day 7 of my porch-filled vacation (Jan 1 2019) had 5 more bags of mortar, and that was it. I went back into the office on Jan 2 with a sore back. I finished the brick work on the upper knee walls, added the luan so it's ready to pour, set the first course of brick for step #3, and made some progress on the left wall.

Progress on the left wall, and that column is getting tall

all those bricks on the stairs

First course, step 3

You can see the luan in the upper knee wall. The cat approves.

The online calculators indicated I would need about 750 bricks for this project, but estimating materials for stairs is notoriously bad. We bought 1000 bricks from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and thought that would be plenty. These are old used bricks too, with lots of imperfections and markings of old mortar. I'll pressure wash everything when I'm done but this stuff is unique. And it turns out, 1000 bricks is not going to be enough. You may have noticed I'm only working on half of the porch, with the center & left posts, the stairs, and the left wall. I still have the right post, right wall, and the right half of the front to go. So we needed to pick up some more brick. Habitat had some, but it doesn't match exactly. First, it's 10 hole instead of 3 hole, but we did get another 500 bricks for 25 cents each. So we're sitting on 1500 bricks for about $300 total.

had to re-up the brick supply

built the forms for the upper knee walls

During the week we got plenty of rain, so I was in the shed for some woodworking. The columns are going to be at least 36" above the floor, then I'm going to pour the same cap as the knee walls. On top of this I'm going to fasten a wooden cap, so I made those to be exactly square, clean, and routed the top edge. This also means I need to sink J-bolts into the cap to fasten these toppers. On top of the toppers, a 6x6 post to support the roof framing rims, and outside of that I'll use 1" stock to form tapered craftsman style columns. So the position of the J-bolts is crucial. Also, these need to get primed and painted on all sides before installing.

Column toppers made from 2x8 pine, edge glued

I should also mention these are made from a 2x8 that I cut up. It's construction grade, so I had to cut the edges on the table saw to get them straight & square, then added biscuits and glued up the inside edge. Then I cut the ends straight & square, sanded everything, used a 1/4" round-over bit on the router, and sanded everything again. So these are exactly 14" square. The bricks are 16" square, plus the concrete cap will have a 1.5" overhang on each side, so 19" square. I have to be sure the concrete is flat and the bottom of the cap is flat. And the J-bolts have to be positioned so that they don't get in the way of the 6x6 posts or the angled craftsman-style finish boards. This is a crucial piece of woodworking.

This past weekend was sunny and in the low 60's in Raleigh. It was the perfect environment to be outside working with my hands. Saturday 1/5 I got down 12 bags of concrete (that's almost 1000 lbs) including the caps for the upper knee walls.

Cap for the left upper knee wall

Right upper knee wall is capped. It runs into the post

backfill behind step 3 course 1

that's a lot of concrete! Almost half a ton today. So far I've got about 6000 lbs of concrete in this porch all together. When it's all said and done I bet it will be close to 4 tons. Mind you, I mix all of this stuff by hand with a wheelbarrow and a mortar hoe, besides the footer for the block wall that we rented a mixer to pour.

Sunday was all brick, got 6 bags of mortar in there, around 40 bricks per bag.

Standing on the upper knee wall. Yes, in shorts in January in NC

This turned out great, much better than I expected

Right upper knee wall

all poured and clean

Left wall is almost done. 2 more courses plus a brick and a half on the left

The columns are at their final height

Got the edge bricks set for Step 3

I just love this look

Go Tigers! I'm watching Clemson win the national championship in Football right now

I needed the columns to be at least 36" over the wall because I have to attach the handrail to the brick. They have to be filled with solid concrete and rebar to support the weight of the roof. Having 2 out of 3 done to finished height is a huge step forward.

Next, I can finish off the left wall, build the forms for the 2 posts, fill the posts & caps (with J-bolts), and finish the steps. Then start building the rest of the wall to the right of the center post including the 3rd and final post. Mentally, I am so ready to be done laying brick and get into the roof framing on this project! I wanted to finish the brickwork over my vacation. Next weekend they are talking about snow here. Maybe by MLK weekend I can finish this stuff for good.

but I love the look of what I've gotten finished so far.