I don't know about the technical aspects of properly wrapping a porch column, or whether to use treated wood.

However, before wrapping a porch column with real wood, I would be thinking about how to put a durable finish on the wood. My neighbor spent a small fortune having a custom wood garage door made. The door looked gorgeous for about a year, and then the finish began to fail. After three years, the garage door looked like crap (faded & peeling).

Also, I would consider a vinyl or PVC wrap, if I could find one in a wood-look material that looks good.

Some manufacturers (e.g. Georgia Pacific & CertainTeed) make nice synthetic wood-look sidings, but I don't know whether they make similar wood-look materials for wrapping columns.

This post was edited by GypsyWaterfowl on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 22:55

Look into square fiberglass columns as well.