Look around and you will see many exterior columns on residential buildings suffering from corrosion at their bases. At least I do. A major reason for this is because pressure treated lumber is frequently used for exterior columns, and the preservative is not compatible with the steel column bases and screws you can get from the lumber store.
One of my beefs with exterior columns is how there is no easy and accessible solution to mount them properly at their bases. Most of the column bases seem inadequate to me, and in addition they are cheap looking. Often they are set with their bottom plates in contact with the concrete - an invitation for crevice corrosion. I looked and looked for solutions, but found them hard to come by. Finally, I decided to go with steel columns set off the concrete with stainless threaded rod anchors (5/8"). Here are some pics:
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| Columns offset from concrete SOG about 45mm |
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| 5/8" (15mm) stainless steel threaded rod anchors. |
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| That is a temporary door in pic. Just showing the steel columns and how they're not in contact with the concrete. Stainless anchors and nuts. |
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| Steel Balcony Frame: Designed beyond code minimum so as to be strong enough to support a crowd overlooking whatever is happening below. The frame is completely isolated from the interior of the building which avoids what would be very significant thermal bridging. this is easy to do when the building is made with a double wall system. Note the offset joist/outrigger at the far left: the little 4" x 4" void is to accommodate a concealed downspout. |
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| The floor will be made from 1/8" thick stainless plate welded to the steel. Probably have wood slats on top of the smooth stainless. |
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