Leaning porch columns

[bkoenig]

I was outside scooping snow today and noticed one of the three brick columns supporting the roof over my front porch is leaning. It's the one on the far right side as you're facing the house. The column is brick about halfway up with a wood column on top of that which goes the rest of the way up. The entire brick column is leaning to the right, but the wooden part has slipped some on top of the brick so it's not leaning as much. Where the wooden column supports the roof I can see that it's slipped about 2 inches.  Ah, the joys of owning a 90 year old house.

I'm a fairly handy guy but I'm assuming fixing this is beyond my abilities. Any ideas what would be involved in fixing something like this? Would it be possible to jack up the roof and then maybe pull the entire column straight with a come along winch? Or would it need to be knocked down and rebuilt?

I do plan on calling a few qualified contractors and getting estimates. I'm just wondering what I should expect.  Anyone have someone they would recommend?

[Dan W]

I am not qualified to answer, but that has never stopped me before.

I would assume the real problem lies at the base of the column. Is it on a footing below the frost line?

[bkoenig]

I'm not sure if there's a footing or not - I've never really looked that closely, although I did have to re-point a bunch of crumbling brick in the center column this summer.  For all I know it might just be resting on bare dirt.   

I think you're right though, it appears one side of the column has sunk.  I have a feeling this is going to be expensive.  If anyone has someone they'd recommend I'd love to hear from you.

[Dan W]

I have heard of others shocked when they found a pier was just sitting on the dirt a few inches down with no footer at all