I would have a larger beam.

Or at a minimum, box in the top of the columns to prevent nesting.

Perhaps something along these lines...?

I have 16” round tapered columns that have a very large top. My beam is really wide but could not possibly be as wide as the top of the square part of my columns. I was worried about the amount of overhang as well and asked the same question you are asking here on the forum sometime ago. I can’t find the thread but I was told to have my builder make sure the overhangs were equal on all sides. My hubby assured my that they built something into the tops to keep out critters. I don’t have a finished pic.

I’m hoping I will like mine better after fully completed and painted. you can see in this old pic that I have overhang. So, I do think it’s ok to have overhang but I do not know if yours is too much.

Here is google image pic of columns with overhang. Lots online if you look.

The overhang is normal. What looks wrong is the beam isn't centered on the column like in the above photos

The corner column is supporting the two beams in the corner. So the other column had to be set as it is to line up with the column in the corner?

My columns on my front porch had an overhang similar to this. We had a huge bird nest issue. Had to stuff them with bubble wrap - it seemed to be the only thing they would avoid.

What did you end up doing? We have a similar situation and the builder thinks we should just leave it but it’s killing me.

I agree with PPF: to have a larger cross beam installed or box in the columns. It would look much better❣️

Are these fiberglass columns or column wraps?

The width of a porch beam is a detail that is often overlooked and under communicated.

The framer frames the beams using only the amount of material required to make it structurally acceptable and often does not consider the size of the columns that will be installed. They assume the siding trade will "pack it out" to the width they need before wrapping the 3 sides of the beam.

Later the siding crew shows up to wrap the 3 sides of the beam assuming that the framers should have "packed it out" at framing. Since the siders do not typically have this task figured into their bid...they just wrap the beam as it's framed and leave it too narrow to receive the width of the column properly.

It's a responsibility that is never clearly communicated into one or the others scope of work from the beginning. See it happen all the time!

I believe that your columns may be too big, as your beams appears to be fairly wide. It's normal to hang over, but should overhang as evenly as possible. It really depends on where the column bases sit on the porch floor. The column bases should not hang over the porch floor.

Our builder recently padded out our porch ceiling beams to accommodate the 9" square columns/15" caps going up. Columns are not yet installed.

Love the idea of bubble wrap stuffed into the tops. We have used screening and boards. May try the bubble wrap on the new house.

These are photos of our previous home where we used larger round columns. See how they are hanging over evenly.

And see where the corner post also hangs over on all sides.

Front

Disregard the yellow arrow. That was for something else. And I just realized that this is an old thread, but perhaps these photos will help someone else. 😀

If u want a wider square look to ur posts just build up ur beam with two horizontal 2x4s. its cosmetic at that point

Being that this thread was started 3 years ago and the last post was from 4 months ago, I assume they solved their problem. Or not.

Nice first @Tony Arcudi, way to show your true colors.....................

Yikes, another 3 year old thread...

How did you fix the issue?? Can we see a completed picture??

Slide in a bigger beam or increase columns.

And he's back.............................