Rotting Support Beam

This Alexandria Virginia townhouse had a small front porch roof which inclined toward the house.  This is not good.  The water was draining onto the brick, and then all the way down to beside the garage door.  It obviously infested the triple micro-laminate beam to the point where it not only rotted, but attracted termites.  An engineer said that only one of these three beams was solid enough to provide support.  The entire front of the house was resting on this beam.  It would have been a catastrophic collapse had that beam given away.  This is a great testimony on why buyers should have home inspections.  You can read the story of this beam on a blog on Jay's website entitled "One Thing Leads To Another."