Front porch posts, structural or decorative?

[diyfarmer]

The front wall of our late 70’s bungalow is partially set in to create a narrow porch. The roof is standard trusses all the way across so there is a beam and posts under the truss ends where the wall is not there to support them. The bottoms of the posts are nailed to the concrete walkway with a pair of concrete nails (rusted off) and the bottoms are rotten enough that the posts are just floating now.

I'm pretty sure these posts should be structural, but everything about their construction says decorative:

1. They were obviously installed after the flashing was put on the beam.
2. Their only support is the walkway; there is no foundation underneath to get below frost (I chipped a hole through to check, we are replacing the walkway)
3. Looking at lintel tables in the building code, the double 2x10 beam is much too light for the 13'4" span between the centre two posts. We are located a couple hours west of Toronto, so lots of snow.

I will have a structural engineer involved to come up with the best repair method, but was construction really this shoddy back then? Was there no inspections at all?

EDIT: See below for the pictures, thanks IRstuff for pointing that out!

 

[WARose]

3. Looking at lintel tables in the building code, the double 2x10 beam is much too light for the 13'4" span between the centre two posts. We are located a couple hours west of Toronto, so lots of snow.

Yeah I ran a quick and dirty calc for the 2x10 and I didn't get a whole lot of capacity either. (And even that is assuming it's toe nailed to that rafter tie and (ergo) braced.)

EDIT: By the way, that sure is some good quality wood in that attic. You can tell that was done a good while ago.

 

[IRstuff]

But, your "post connection" photo isn't of the original "design" though, is it? Your wide angle shot shows that there are only two original as-built posts, the other two are "repairs" that don't appear to match the construction of the originals.

The original posts' intent seems to be trying to mimic a 4x6 or 6x6

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[IRstuff]

By the way, you can insert photos directly in the forum, which will save people from having to go through some hoops to see them

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[diyfarmer]

Thanks for the image tip, I should have looked harder for that button!

All posts are original, I just removed the aluminum off two of them to see what was underneath.

 

[Tomfh]

Looks like the posts are supporting that beam in the roof?

 

[jayrod12]

I would agree they look loadbearing