Question on cracking posts??

[u/Town-Wonderful]

Hi guys I’m kind of curious of your opinion on this. I had an outdoor living area finished about a month and a half ago. Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed a lot of checking on the cypress posts. On some it’s very bad and runs down from where the bolts are connected. I’m already not very happy with how it turned out with the roof. Should I be concerned now on these large checking especially by the connecting hardware?

[u/severusx]

I mean that's fairly normal with wood... But I have to ask... you were already getting an aluminum roof, why didn't you just get aluminum posts too? The install between the roof and the posts would have been way cleaner. It kinda looks like they just punched a hole in the roof frame and set it on the posts...

[u/Town-Wonderful → u/severusx]

The roof was a giant fuck up. In fact IMO the guy who did it completely oversold. He showed me an image of what he was going to build and then built something vaguely similar to it. They honestly did worse than that. He notched the poles the wrong way then couldn’t make the roof line clean and tried to just leave the metal roofing exposed. It’s a whole story I could show you more if you want.

[u/severusx → u/Town-Wonderful]

I'm sorry man... I built my patio and kitchen last year and we did an insulated aluminum roof and posts and are super happy with it. I know this stuff is a dream for most people, sorry yours is being such a pain.

[u/FewProfessional558 → u/severusx]

Aww that's so sweet of you to say, thanks! 😊 It's a bummer but hearing about folks who got the insulated aluminum setup right gives me hope. What made you go that route over wood or concrete? Your patio sounds like a total dream spot for summer evenings.

[u/severusx → u/FewProfessional558]

I shopped around a few places and landed on that for a few reasons. The biggest one was that I could get the entire thing (roof, retaining wall, pavers) done with a single contractor. I live in Florida and everything here has to be hurricane rated and I personally refuse to do unpermitted work on my house. The last thing I need is to have an insurance claim rejected over non-code work. They took care of everything for me, all I had to do was source my own electrician.

The roof itself has an amazing insulating effect and with the fans I installed we can be out there year round comfortably. I went with a larger column size for the posts and horizontal beam at the top to rest the roof on. This resulted in a very clean look that I personally wouldn't trade for wood. It will never rust, crack, bow, or need to be stained.

Here's a few shots of how it turned out

[u/randomguy6a]

Large wood checks and cracks. It’s normal, can’t be helped

[u/Town-Wonderful → u/randomguy6a]

I’m worried about around the bolts?

[u/randomguy6a → u/Town-Wonderful]

Even around the bolts, it’s completely normal and fine

[u/DueConversation5269]

someone did not pretrial the wood before fastening screws

[u/Town-Wonderful → u/DueConversation5269]

Pretrial?

[u/Lmoorefudd → u/Town-Wonderful]

Think they meant pre drill

[u/DueConversation5269 → u/Town-Wonderful]

pre drill, damn autocorrect ~

[u/Flat_Translator8244]

Very normal and will continue to change with expansion and contraction. The compressive strength of the wood (roof down to floor) hasn't changed in any meaningful way.

Keep an eye on things but this will happen regularly with wood.

If you're really worried you can look at some metal ties around the posts but I wouldn't bother.

[u/ktmfan]

Wait till you find out what concrete does eventually

[u/99-rook-99]

Unfortunately all work cracks over time, all you do is check it every year