Patio post snapped

[Gord]

Hi i have a friend who e-mailed me a picture of her brand new house with a post snapped on her front porch... the posts extend up from her patio to the overhang of her roof... the overhang looks to extend out at least 4 to 5 feet in the picture.. would these posts be support posts.. they are not the straight cut posts but the fancy ones machined down from 4x4 i think...
Builder says its not structural but something must of hit it... looks to me like the roof settled a bit and snapped this end post...
My question is what is the distance that an overhang can be before support posts are needed... he says these posts are not support posts but something snapped it.. I think the builder is trying to get away with this
I have pics if I am too vague
Any info I can send to her would greatly be appreciated
Thanks
Gord

[Doug Aleshire]

The answer is based upon what is the current roof sytem - trusses, stick built - does this make up the overhang? Is there a beam resting on this post? Too many issues to make a good guess at what happened.

Where does she live - cold area - frost issue - did something possibly raise up and cause the post to snap, even then I doubt that would be the cause as something else could be wrong? Maybe someone hit it?

The question is not that easy to answer and if your friend has any concerns - best she call the Building Inspector for review. That would be one avenue to take for starters.

hope this helps!