Here are the new Permacast porch columns, installed this afternoon. I had ordered them on Aug. 13th, and waited and waited and then told they were on a two week back order. Finally they came in and then waited a week for the lumber yard to deliver them to my house. Called contractor twice but he never returned my calls. I found out this morning that he had been on vacation in Colorado! Good thing he called, I was going to give him the rest of this week and then I was finding someone else. ha. I think the columns look great. NO pitts, NO cracks, No seams. I was going to hire a painter but since they look so good and contractor didn't even recommend sanding, I'm going to do it myself. The only thing is they didn't countersink the screws that went in under the caps. Some were sunk better than others but he said he was afraid to tighten too much for fear the material would crack. I suppose I can fill them over with a bit of caulk before I paint. Probably be the only person who notices. Anyway thought I'd post an update. So far, I'd recommend this product to others. However, we'll see after painting how well the paint holds up to weather,ect. Thanks for all the input while I made my decision.

The simplest way to calculate that is you take for 1' of height =1" of diameter so if you have a height of 6' it would be a 6" round or square column.

Re: paint color, I recently learned about Maria Killam from another Houzz post, and she has a ton of information on paint colors (both exterior and interior) and how to pick them. She sells some products and services around this, but you can learn a lot from her blog. You might find it helpful. https://mariakillam.com/a-new-build-conversation-about-exterior-stone-its-all-in-the-undertones/ https://mariakillam.com/best-advice-painting-exterior/ https://mariakillam.com/testing-exterior-colours/

I can't comment on how to do it but I think it would look really nice!