Biweekly Newsletter prepared exclusively for Property Managers by The Porch People - trusted porch builder since 1980

April 3, 2008

Porch construction - column splice detail

Column is a vital element of a porch structure. It has to be properly designed and, what is more important, installed correctly. Due to limited length of 6x6 posts, most porches are built using several posts connected with each other. Connection of two 6x6 posts is called a 'column splice'. City of Chicago splice design calls for 5 bolts in a splice. Many engineers however draw 6 staggered bolts (picture on the left) which is even better. Unacceptable splice detail would be one with just two bolts (picture below). Structural calculations prove that 2 bolts will not guarantee proper load requirements thus such detail is NOT CODE COMPLIANT.

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