Support Post

[Coop]

I will be having a carport built that will extend from the front of my house. There will be two 8” x 8” support post on each side. There will be a 24” deep pier under each post that will extend an extra 6” above grade. I’m torn between setting the post directly into the concrete or using a mechanical post support/connector that is secured into the concrete pier and bolted to the post. I am taking precaution from ground contact by using the extra 6” above grade but past experience with wood fence post set into concrete just doesn’t sit well. I’ve Googled the mechanical connectors but you get what you get. Anyone have experience with any of these? 

[curlyoak]

Simpson connectors. Most lumber yards sell them and they can help you with which one. They make lot of different connectors.

[wtnhighlander]

I'd go with the connector. Wood posts set into concrete, without drainage below the post, will retain moisture in the 'cup' formed by the concrete, and eventually rot.

An anchor 'bolt' set into the concrete can act as a simple stud. A hole in the end of the post slips over it, and gravity holds everything in place. Makes for a clean appearance, but might not be allowed by local building codes.

[Tom King]

Definitely don't put the posts in concrete.  They won't last as long as simply being in dirt.  I make the connectors and cast them in the concrete out of pieces of steel not quite the same thickness as a chainsaw bar.  When I get ready to set the posts, I countersink holes in both sides of the post to fit a washer, and drill the bolt holes through the post.  Plunge the chainsaw bar into the bottom of the post, set the post over the steel strap, and drill the hole through the strap for the bolts.

I never liked the looks of Simpson type connectors on the outside of the post.

I taper the top sides of the concrete so the post overhangs a little all around, and the concrete slopes down to shed water.  With wide roof overhangs on everything, the posts only get wet to amount to anything with a hard blowing rain.  

[curlyoak]

this 8 x 8  and another just like it hold up a 12' overhang to my shop. Simpson connector.

[Tom King]

I built a lake house with a treated timber framed porch on it in 1983.  The porch "columns" are 12x12x16 treated.  I used the same type of hidden steel strap that I was talking about earlier in the bottoms of those posts, only instead of exposed concrete piers, I built brick piers around the steel straps. 

One of the four posts twisted over a period of several years a few degrees.  It not only didn't split and took the steel strap with it, but it twisted the whole pier with it, including the bricks, and no mortar joint cracked.  

That house is a few hundred yards from our house, and is now occupied by the third owner, who is a dear friend who spent a lot of time visiting my Mother while she was living with us.

That house has brick ends, and White Oak board on board siding on the road front and lake front, put up with screws from the inside so there are no fasteners on the outside of the house.  It was a good sized house for here in 1983 when I built it, but now is dwarfed by two gigantic multi-million dollar monstrosities on both sides.

That was one of the few houses that I sold where the buyer wrote me a check for it right there, after looking at it for the first time.