In article , Kenneth W. Sterling says...

IMO, there *always* have been perfectionists and wood butchers. Take
any old mansion, victorian or otherwise and walk into it with square,
level, and tape, and if that doesn't convince you, start taking off
some of the trim (some of which is the *only* thing holding the
windows in place) and you will see all kinds of scrap nailed into
place to provide supports, etc.

Again I have seen this in my own house. I had the original front
porch replaced several years ago, because it was getting quite
tatty.

Watching the original porch come apart was a *real* education,
it was clear that while the assembly was quick and dirty, whoever
built that knew his stuff.

4 vertical posts to hold up a beam that ran around the perimeter
as a header, with hip rafters tied from the house to that beam.

But the beam was a U-channel section made mostly from leftover
scrap from building the house. There were entire sections where
the bottom part of the "U" were simply omitted, with the side
plates taking all the load. It was boxed in with trimwork
to make it look nice-nice but in reality it was an amazing
exercise in minimalist engineering.

The carpenter's comment was, that even though the roof had been
going through, and the supports into the ground were rotting away,
it was still pretty solid. He thought that if the roof were
re-done and the front jacked up with new supports, it would have
lasted a long time still.

Jim

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