How to build a wooden porch with your own hands - tips

By definition, a porch is an outdoor extension to a building, through which it enters and leaves the living space. Modern cottage or a house without a porch will look like unfinished buildings.

The purpose of the porch is not only aesthetic, it also has practical functions, and not only serves to enter and exit. In winter, the porch protects the entrance to the house from skidding and performs additional thermal insulation functions. There are three main types - simplified, attached and embedded.

Types of designs

The design of the porch may be more original. For example, in recent years, one can often see a porch-patio, the fashion for which came to us from Western Europe.

This porch is a kind of intermediate option between the classic porch and an open terrace. How to build a porch with your own hands the video gives the most complete picture (see How to build a porch).

This new product has become popular due to its undeniable advantages - simplicity of design and functionality. The construction of the porch of this design will not be a problem. If you have the necessary tools and materials on hand, you can proceed to construction.

How to build a porch yourself

Materials required for building a porch

Итак, building a porch with your own hands.

For this you will need:

• Pine timber or pine log for the manufacture of floor beams and rafters (pine timber 100 x 200 mm)
• Boards for stairs and staircase, for railings and side racks
• Several boards for a canopy, (thickness 50? 150 mm or 50? 200 mm).

The device foundation for the porch

As well as any other capital construction, the porch needs the base device. For the porch the best option is a pile foundation. Its advantages are simplicity and low cost. In addition, it is possible to build such a foundation with your own hands in a short time, without resorting to the help of specialists.

1. At the initial stage, the timber, which will serve as supports, must be treated with antiseptic agents.
2. After checking with the calculations, you should dig holes for supports with a minimum depth of 80 centimeters.
3. Then the supports are immersed in the pits, covered with earth and carefully tamped.
4. For greater reliability, the platform and foundation supports can be poured with cement. But in this case it is impossible to proceed to the next stage of work, until the cement finally dries.
5. Once the supports are installed, you should compare their height - it should be equal for all supports. If necessary, supports can be trimmed to the required level. Then you can begin to prepare zapilov, removing excess wood.
6. In the previously prepared logs hollow out the nests, and then they wear thorns.
7. The irregularities and errors arising in the process of work are eliminated with the help of small wooden bars.
8. To ensure greater reliability of the design, one of the support posts is fixed to the wall with nails or self-tapping screws.

The second stage of the work begins with a bowstring. In the case of manufacturing a porch-patio, in addition, you must also make two medium kosoura.

A string can be of two types? choice for the owner of the house. A simpler and more accessible option is a bowstring with carved ledges. A bit more complicated option - bowstring with embedded steps.

In order to prepare the string you will need the following tools and materials:

• Thick board of the right size
• Saw
• Triangle pattern

The order and rules of manufacturing steps

So:

• The dimensions of the notches of the step (see Steps for the porch: the original design of the main entrance) are made according to the pattern. The sides of the patterns correspond to the horizontal part of the steps (treads) and the vertical part (risers). Some requirements are also placed on the size and number of steps. Thus, the number of steps should always be odd. The width of the steps should be 37–45 centimeters, and the height - no more than 20 centimeters. There is also a formula for calculating the width of the porch. The optimal width of the porch is one and a half width of the entrance door.
• After all the necessary calculations have been done, the profile of the future stringers is laid out on the board. One end of the support must be surely connected to the lags installed on the floor of the porch. For this purpose, spikes are cut out in kosoura and bowstrings.
• The design of the stairs for the porch-patio involves the manufacture of two additional kosour and two bowstrings. All four manufactured elements must have the same dimensions. After they are made and installed, the structure must be re-measured and the errors, if any, eliminated.
• To connect bowstrings and kosour with floor lags, as a rule, the simplest spike-groove connection is used. To make such a connection, it is necessary to attach a board with grooves to a platform beam. Spikes of kosour and bowstrings are inserted into the grooves of the board. The resulting structure can also be further strengthened with steel brackets or metal strips. This is the final stage of preparation of the frame of the lower part of the porch (stairs and platforms).

Tip: In order to better understand how to build a porch with your own hands, video tutorials will vividly show you the whole process of installing a wooden porch. To do this, just go to the Internet and ask the search engine the appropriate question.

Installation site (wooden floor porch)

This stage of building a wooden porch is simple, and can be performed even by a novice who has no experience in carrying out such work. Over time, the boards from which the flooring is made begin to crack.

As a result, gaps are formed between the boards, which can be quite wide. Such flooring becomes unsightly and unsafe.

To avoid large gaps as a result of wood drying, it is necessary to lay the floorboards as closely as possible to each other.

When the flooring is almost ready, and the bowstrings and bowstrings are securely fastened to the lags, it is the turn of the next stage - the installation of risers and treads. The risers and treads are connected in the same way “thorn into the groove”, and the bowstring with the risers are also attached to each other.

The opinion that the elements can be fastened together with the help of screws and nails alone is erroneous. This design will not have sufficient strength.

Building a porch with your own hands over? the porch is ready. Compliance with building codes ensures that the porch will be reliable and durable. However, you need to consider. What matters is not only the quality of joinery and carpentry.

The durability of any wooden construction, including the porch, depends largely on how well the wood has been prepared and processed. Before starting work, it is advisable to make sure that the wood is properly dried. And in order to prevent rotting and pest infestation, the wood should be treated with appropriate chemical compounds.

How to build a porch with your own hands: video.

Errors in the manufacture of a wooden porch

The most common mistakes when building a porch are:

• Device attached stairs too close to the front door. In winter, the ground will freeze, and the ladder can climb several centimeters. As a result, the door will either open with great difficulty or be jammed.
• Another common mistake is the construction of a porch on a foundation that is not deep enough. It should also be borne in mind that if waterproofing is not made, moisture will sooner or later lead to swelling and damage to the wood.

Tip: The problems listed above can be avoided. To do this, you can make a threshold in the doorway. Also save from such difficulties installing ladder 15 inches below the level of the doorway.

But it is necessary to take into account that in both cases a stage is formed, which may be unsafe. You can stumble over it, so this design has a flaw.

After the wooden porch is almost ready, you can think about the decorative elements. If the porch has three steps or more, installing a railing is advisable.

Optionally, you can make a canopy of wood or other materials (see. Sheds over the porch), as well as other details to decorate the product and make it look like a complete architectural element.