Enclosed Porch posts buried in dirt

Hello I have an enclosed porch supported by 4 by 4 piers as you can see in the pictures. I was curious to see whether these are encased in concrete so I started digging out a small area around one of the posts. The first 8 inches I've dug down is all dirt and I'm wondering whether I need to be concerned about dirt contacting the posts, even though they are pressure treated. Should I fill in around the posts with drainage stone to prevent rot, or am I making a big deal out of nothing? Thanks

We can hope that there is concrete somewhere down there. And that the treatment is for underground use.
If or when it rots it will be right where the ground level is, where it gets wet and has access to air. If you want to add protection wrap just that area with an eight inch peel and stick. 4" below and 4" above the ground level.

Thanks Neal! I will do that just for peace of mind.

Where can this peel and stick product be found? I'm only seeing huge rolls of it on the home center web sites. Also I think that sloping the dirt away from the posts will help shed any water away.

The posts below grade will eventually rot so you should consider digging and adding concrete bases. You can also get smaller rollers of wrap in the window and door section of the store.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doors-Windows-Door-Window-Flashing/N-5yc1vZbxnv

I wouldn’t worry about it at all. Looks like it is fairly new and it might start showing signs of a problem in maybe 40 years from now.

beachguy005 said:

The posts below grade will eventually rot so you should consider digging and adding concrete bases. You can also get smaller rollers of wrap in the window and door section of the store.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doors-Windows-Door-Window-Flashing/N-5yc1vZbxnv

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Don't confuse a deck post with a fence posts.
Deck posts often sit on a footing with the bottom of the concrete below frost level.
Concrete is great for making fence posts stiff in the ground quickly but it also causes problems. Would swells and shrinks with moisture content and the concrete will not allow that movement so now you get cracks and damage where the two meet. this will allow water, air and insects into the interior of the wood,where there is less or no treatment.

nealtw said:

Don't confuse a deck post with a fence posts.
Deck posts often sit on a footing with the bottom of the concrete below frost level.
Concrete is great for making fence posts stiff in the ground quickly but it also causes problems. Would swells and shrinks with moisture content and the concrete will not allow that movement so now you get cracks and damage where the two meet. this will allow water, air and insects into the interior of the wood,where there is less or no treatment.

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I wasn't implying that he should pour concrete around the posts. Frankly, that's something I would only do for a mailbox post.
My point is that wood, even pressure treated wood, will rot. How quickly depends on soil conditions and amounts of water...rain or runoff or water table etc.
The house would be much better off with posts sitting on top of concrete. Digging and adding them adjacent to, or replacing them completely is what I would do.

beachguy005 said:

I wasn't implying that he should pour concrete around the posts. Frankly, that's something I would only do for a mailbox post.
My point is that wood, even pressure treated wood, will rot. How quickly depends on soil conditions and amounts of water...rain or runoff or water table etc.
The house would be much better off with posts sitting on top of concrete. Digging and adding them adjacent to, or replacing them completely is what I would do.

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I would expect this to last twenty years and wrapping the post at ground level will add years to that, and if they are just sitting on the footing they will be easy to change out.

That said, I would have put in concrete piers too.

People build things all kinds of ways for all kinds of reasons. Maybe the guy that built it was 70 years old and figured he would let the next guy in 30 years worry about it. could have been all the budget allowed at the time also. Poured piers would have been better than pole barn construction. If I would have built it, I would have dug a footer and laid up a block wall or poured a wall to do it right. That doesn’t mean the method it was built in was wrong though and hopefully the guy at least used below grade rated materials. More than anything the type of soil and how it drains will play the biggest part in how long the posts will last.

I advised my nephew against building his whole house this way about 20 years ago. He had a super limited budget and a short time frame to get a house built and luckily he was building in a county that didn’t really care at that time what or how you built it. We built him a nice 2 story house resting on pole barn construction posts and his plan was get it done and down the road when he has to he can dig out a section at a time and repair it if needed or put a good wall under it. Last summer marking 20 years he dug around a few spots like the OP did and the wood looked like the day we stuck it in the ground. I told him I’ll be back in 20 more years and we can check it again.