Walling off porch support beams

[RayCo]

Hi group. This a picture of the front of my house:



I have plans to move that hill about 16 feet to the right so that it starts nearer to the end of the house. Before doing this, I'd like to block off the area that is under the porch, currently exposed. Considering whatever I use to wall this off will be up against the fill dirt and supporting it to some extent, what should I use?

Also, I'd probably put the wall on the inside of the beams, so that means that the beams would be surrounded by the fill dirt on three sides. Should I coat them in something first? Encase them in something?

Thanks for any ideas here.

[Danno1]

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I would make the wall from concrete block.

Fill dirt should not be up against the wall. Gravel should be with a perforated pipe at the bottom. Landscape fabric between the fill dirt and the gravel.

Coat them w something.....yes. You're going to get a dozen different opinions to that question!

You're also not going to be too happy when you finally have to replace them. Why not replace them now w concrete posts?

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[SPIKER]

question to clear up request.
are you planning on leaving the HOLE that is under the porch or filling in under the porch with material as well as building out the hill??


many ways of doing it not a lot of them the RIGHT way.

if using ANY type of wood it must be treated for ground contact not the cheap PT stuff at HD/Lowes, go to good supply house look for best stuff you can get.
the beams that are there now what are they setting on?? are the beams PT wood now or metal or wrapped std wood??

like mentioned above use gravel & drain pipes every where you can... looks like plenty of drainage away so put in the answers to the questions above and let us know what plans are so we can help better...

mark

[Willl]

Originally Posted by RayCo

I'd like to block off the area that is under the porch

Do you plan to use the area for storage ?

[davitk]

That "wall" needs to be engineered to withstand lateral force from the soil place against it. Pressure treated foundation grade plywood will not rot but will bow in, in turn placing that pressure against the fasteners which attach the plywood to your (pressure treated?) 4x4 support posts. A reinforced cement block wall not integrated with those posts might be a possibility.

Another technique that is sometimes used to counter those lateral forces is what is called a 'dead man'. On the soil side of things place something such as a rail road tie, bury it horizontally and parallel with the wall and back in the hill maybe six feet, then tie that to your wall with (threaded rod ?) that could be adjusted (?) if things move.

[Defective]

For added concern...

I wouldn't expect those posts to be built to take a lateral load.

[RayCo]

Thanks for all the feedback on this. It turns out that this will be more involved than I had thought. (Isn't that always the case? ) This task has now been deferred to next summer. I think I'll wind up digging out an area and building a true wall there in front of these posts, or perhaps just replace the posts with a wall.

Part of these posts are already underground. Based on some of the other shoddy work that I've seen around my house that was built 5 years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if these posts are rotting away under the ground right now...