How to Measure a Verandah Post for Replacement
, by Clive Guan, 5 min reading time
Replacing one rotted verandah post and need it to match the others? Here are the four measurements and the photographs we need to reproduce your original profile accurately.
Almost every custom post we turn starts the same way: someone sends us a photograph of a rotted verandah post and asks whether we can match it. We usually can. How closely depends almost entirely on the quality of the information you send, and it takes about five minutes to get it right.
Here is exactly what we need, and why each part matters.
The four numbers
1. Overall length
Measure the full post from the bottom of the base block to the top of the head block, including any part currently buried in the deck or hidden behind a capital. If the base has rotted away, measure what remains and tell us roughly how much is missing — we can usually work the original length back from the proportions of the surviving turning.
Give this in millimetres. Common originals are 2400, 2700, 3000 and 3300mm, but plenty of period houses have posts at odd lengths because the verandah floor was never level.
2. Section size
Measure across the flat of the square block at the bottom, not across the turned section. This is the size the post was machined from, and it is what determines whether we start with 90×90, 115×115 or 135×135 stock.
If your measurement comes out at something like 88mm or 112mm, that is normal — old posts have usually been painted, weathered and sanded over a century. Round up to the nearest standard size and tell us the actual figure.
3. Block lengths, top and bottom
Measure how far up from the bottom the square section runs before the turning begins, and the same from the top down. These two numbers control the whole proportion of the post. Getting them wrong is the single most common reason a replacement post looks subtly incorrect once it is standing next to the originals.
On many Victorian posts the bottom block is noticeably longer than the top one, because it had to clear the balustrade rail.
4. Rail height (if there is balustrade)
If balustrade fixes into the post, measure from the deck to the underside of the bottom rail and to the top of the handrail. We need to know where the flats have to be so the rails land on square timber, not on a curve.
The photographs
Numbers alone will not give us the profile — the shape of the beads, coves and vase sections is what makes a post look Victorian rather than Federation. That comes from photographs.
Take a side-on photo of the whole post with a tape measure extended alongside it, running from the bottom to the top. The tape does two things: it gives us scale, and it lets us check the proportions we derive against your measurements. Stand back far enough that the post is not distorted, and shoot straight on rather than up from below.
Then take two or three close-ups of the turned sections, again with the tape in frame. If there is a section with fine detail — a run of beads, a sharp cove, a fillet between two curves — photograph that separately.
Shoot in daylight, out of direct sun if you can. Deep shadow across the turning hides the very detail we are trying to read.
What makes a photograph unusable
- Taken from below. Shooting up at a post foreshortens the top half and we cannot tell true proportions.
- No tape measure. Without scale we are guessing at every dimension.
- Too far away. A photo of the whole verandah shows us the style but not the profile.
- Heavy paint build-up only. Where a post has fifteen coats of paint, the crisp edges are gone. If any part of the post has weathered back to bare timber, photograph that section — it shows the original profile far better.
Better than photographs: send us the post
If you are in Melbourne and can get the old post to our workshop at 2/60 Jersey Road, Bayswater, that is the most accurate method by a wide margin. We can put a profile gauge on it and reproduce the turning exactly. Even a rotted post is useful — the failure is nearly always at the base, and the turned section above it is intact.
A single section cut from the post also works. If the post is still structural and cannot come out, cut a 300mm sample from the worst end when you replace it, and send that.
For interstate customers, photographs are the normal method and they work well. We confirm the profile with you before any timber goes on the lathe.
What happens next
From your measurements and photographs we work up the profile and quote. Once you accept, production is typically two to six weeks depending on complexity and current workload, then the post is packed for freight. Posts up to 4.5m travel Australia-wide.
One thing to do before you install
Prime every face of the new post before it goes up, including both cut ends. Raw end grain standing on a deck or bearer draws moisture straight into the post, and it is the reason most replacement posts fail early — often within a few years, long before the timber elsewhere shows any wear at all. It takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a post that lasts five years and one that lasts fifty.
Ready to send us your measurements? Get in touch, or browse our verandah post range to see whether a standard profile already matches yours.
