Timber post replacement/sourcing

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West Lothian
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I need to replace a load bearing 150mm² timber post, which is rotten at the base. When constructed in around 1990 it appears to have been put together buy nailing a 150x50, and three 100x50 pieces of softwood together to form a 150mm² post.

I'm not sure if this was done because of a perceived benefit of having multiple pieces rather than one, or because that what was hat hand. I am finding myself it is hard to find a 150mm² post that is structurally rated (C16/C24). I can get Oak at 150mm², but it doesn't follow the same structural rating system as softwood and I don't know how that compares.

Any thoughts? Is nailing wood together like that still common/acceptable practice?

Thanks.
 
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Piece of oak is far superior to softwood .

I would have thought so myself. The problem is that building standards will be involved and although I have found standard structural calculations for C16 softwood posts, I don't know how to translate that to Oak. However, while searching around tonight I found out that according to the link below, oak at the lowest structural grading of TH2/D24, is equivalent to C24, which should cover me, provided I can find someone local that will supply graded oak.

http://whitewoodmanagement.co.uk/wp...-visual-stress-grading-for-structural-use.pdf

I'm still curious though, as to whether nailing C16 type softwood together like this is reasonable/common practice? Its obviously supported the roof for the last 30 years, but wondered if any joiners/carpenters can comment on whether it would be seen as ok or bad practice?
 
general comments
nailing timber together is never considered fully structural when laminating several bits together
it can be considered structural when locating timbers where the load is mostly in compression where the fixings are more to locate and hold in place
so a post made from several full length bits nailed together whilst not good practice because fully in compression will be held by load in position
 
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Thanks Big-all, that makes complete sense. Intuitively, I was thinking along those lines, and that I would prefer a single post, but the nailed pieces have done the job up till now, and as you say they are in compression. Good to get a bit of confirmation from experience though, and I was also curious as to whether this nailed version of laminating was accepted practice or not.

The calculations I have also show that a 100x100mm post would be sufficient, so the 150x50 bit could probably do the job on its own and the other nailed on bits are adding redundancy. Not that I am going to take that chance though, will call around a few timber yards and see if anyone can get me a 150x150 section of structural timber.

Thanks
 

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