While attempting to be productive today I shifted from deck repair to looking at my porch. The rails and columns are original to the house (about 25 years old). The rails are in horrible shape and need to go, but to be fair I knew that when I bought the place 3 years ago, I just never use the porch do I never pay any attention to them.

Two of the porch columns are in very basic shape, which only became really evident when I began removing the rails. There is substantial wood rot and insect damage about 4-5 inches up on two of the columns (the rest are in much better condition).

It seems like none of the columns are fastened to the bottom of the porch, just toenailed at the top and sitting on small metal brackets. Is this normal, or at least not unusual? I suspect that they are load bearing, but I don't know that for a fact. The porch overhang is not large.

Is there anything wrong with jacking the porch up, removing the bad columns, and cutting off the damaged section and attempting to repair and repaint it? Seems like it should be an easy job. There are ten columns and I would rather not have to spend the time or money to replace all ten when most of them appear fine, as I doubt I could find perfect matches for the bad columns.

I don't see evidence of current insect infestation inside of the rotten parts of the bad columns. The house has been treated for termites and ants so I think it's mostly just water damage and age coupled with normal exposure.

OP, consider having this moved to the "Do It Yourself" forum, and add pictures.

This is a picture of the two posts in question. Well, the worst one by far and you can see the other off to the side.

While the porch isn't going anywhere, I did stick a supporting pair of 2x4s to it for the time being to make me feel better. The extent of the damage wasn't obvious until I removed the rail and starting probing the rotted section.

I spot checked further up the column by drilling a few small holes and the damage appears to be localized near the bottom and where the rails were attached.

Don't try to cheap out. Replace the entire column(s). Get enough 2x4s to make a pair into a temporary column at each bad column location plus 2 more for a jacking set. Get a hydraulic 2 ton jack or in a pinch a heavy duty scissor jack from a full sized truck will do. Screw the 2x4s together in pairs and use one pair and the jack under whatever load bearing rafter or beam is along the outside of the porch roof to jack the roof up just enough to allow column removal. After jacking but before old column removal, cut a second set of screwed together pair of 2x4s and a piece of 2x6 or larger plate piece about 12" long or longer on the bottom to wedge under the roof rafter to support the load temporarily. This will be a safety shore in case the jack slips or fails. Then take out the old column and replace it. That metal plate at the bottom should have a center dowel or bolt sticking up into the bottom of the old wood column. If not, Add a S.S. bolt and nut to the plate with bolt protruding upward, (use biggest bolt and nut that will work, usually about 1/2" dia. size.). Drill the center of the new column's bottom to fit over that protruding bolt. Take the safety shore down, and lower jack thereby you will lower the roof beam onto the top of the column. If you don't have access to the top of the column from above, drill a pocket hole at an angle on all 4 sides and run deck screws up through the pocket at an angle all the way into the beam above. When all columns are replaced mix up some DURHAMS water putty in a disposable container with a very small amount of water until its like the consistency of drywall compound or brick mortar; then take a flat putty knife and push the mix into the holes and strike it off flush with the surface. When dry, sand it smooth, then paint it.

Rinse and repeat for the other bad columns.

HTH