Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Need advice on porch support posts

I have a 50 year old single story house in Florida that has a front porch overhang. Currently the overhang is supported by metal (wrought iron?) supports. Very elegant looking with a vine motif. These supports are about and inch or so thick, about 9" wide and 80" tall. All are in need of replacement very soon. One has already been knocked out of place and I now have a temporary support made with 2x4's in its place. My problem is that the top beam where the supports attach is only 3" wide. All the column/support products I've found locally start at 6" wide for square posts or 6" in diameter for round posts. I cannot find any place that sells similar wrought iron/metal supports as what exists now. I can't even find stuff online.

Any advice on what I should do now? Should I restructure the overhang so it's wider and the attachment point thus allowing for the common sizes of columns in my area? Or, is there something I can do to the existing beam to make it possible to use the larger sized posts while still being structurally sound and visially appealing? Perhaps I should look into building my own 3" wood posts? Living in Florida I don't think wood would be a good idea given the high humidity levels we have. Might rot the wood in a few years.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
trob

As for "visually appealing", have a look at the Parthenon - it has column capitals thicker than the beam supported, this is really common in architecture and I don't think it looks bad at all.

I imagine if you clap a one-by to either side of that 3" beam, and use 6" wide capitals, it'll look just perfect.


Alternately, the folks who do custom gates & railings (AKA "wrought iron") should be able to fix something up.