How to make a porch in the country - tips from experienced

15-08-2018

Doors

Consider the question - how to make a porch in the country. First consider the general issues, purpose and design.

Purpose

The porch for the dacha is necessary in the event that the basement is quite high and in order to enter the room it is necessary to climb the stairs. If before the doorway of a country house was arranged almost at ground level and the porch was not required, the modern country house can not be called a country house, it is most likely a country house, usually with a high socle. Therefore, the porch of a country house is a necessary element.

Design

The most correct decision will be to design a porch for a country house (see Project of a porch. Professional advice) at the design stage of a summer house. After all, the porch is an integral part of the house, so when designing the foundation, a place is immediately laid. This achieves a reliable connection of the porch with the house.

This is in theory, in practice, most amateur builders forget about the porch for the country house and remember it only when the main construction work has been completed. Of course, it is still possible to build a summer porch, it is important to understand its true purpose.

Many amateurs assume that by climbing the stairs to the front door, the porch to the cottage fulfilled its functions. Therefore, in every possible way save on its size. But after rising to the site a person needs to perform a series of actions also with the door. Here the incorrectly calculated dimensions of the upper platform will play a cruel joke with him.

Our advice is when designing your own porch in the country, first of all decide on the size of the upper platform. It should be of an appropriate size, allowing you to open and close the door without leaving the landing. Thus, the design start from the top down.

Correct sizes

How to make the porch at the cottage as convenient as possible (see Convenient porch - how to make it yourself) and determine the ideal depth of the upper platform? Add 1000 mm to the width of the door. Of course, you can do more, but you shouldn’t do less.

If for some reason it is impossible to make a porch dacha of such depth, make it wider. You should have enough space on the top platform. Do not expect that when you open the door, you can retreat to the steps, for children and the elderly it is simply dangerous.

The next step is to determine the material from which the porch will be built in the country with their own hands. Let's build a concrete with a shelter from natural precipitation.

We build a porch

Preparation of materials and tools

When everything is designed, you need to prepare the material and tools.

Material:

Scrap old boards
Fittings
Cement and sand
Ruberoid
8 bolts. We select the size individually
Nails
Rubble
Cellophane film

Tool:

Trough for mortar
Shovel
Hammer and Hacksaw
Building level
Wooden rake. The rail should be level and have a length greater than the width of your porch.
Bulgarian

We arrange a secure base porch to give

We begin construction by marking the area under the porch. The plot is marked, at the edges we drive in pegs. We begin to dig a pit.

Many believe that the pit is completely waste of time and materials. But if you have not planned a porch from the very beginning of construction and it does not have a bundle with the foundation, the foundation pit is simply necessary.

You do not want, what after a winter period and thawing of the soil, your porch changed the initial place of the arrangement. It can twist or move a few centimeters from the dacha.

We dig the pit. The depth should correspond to the level of soil freezing in your region. The pit is ready. We level the walls and the base of the pit, we fall asleep with 5-10 cm thick gravel. Lightly tamp down the rubble, the pillow is ready.

Preparing the solution:

Crushed stone 5 parts
Sand 3 parts
Cement 1 part

Our advice - if on your site the soil is of high acidity, use cement sulfate-resistant SFC-500 D0.

Fill the pit with a solution so that the upper part of it reaches the ground level. Smooth the surface with a level and long slats.

Installation of waterproofing, formwork

So:

For further work will need to wait a week. Your fill has a wide area with a small height, so it will dry out quickly and unevenly.
The upper part dries much faster than the part that is adjacent to the ground. It dries and does not harden. Therefore, it is necessary in the drying process to splash the concrete with water. This is not very convenient, especially if you poured concrete at the cottage and went home to the city.

Our advice is to lay a layer of cellophane film on the concrete poured and press it to the concrete. Concrete will grab as it should and will not dry. After 4 days the film can be removed.

A week has passed. You can proceed to the construction of formwork. We knock down two shields in the shape of our porch in cross section. Shields are ready.
We arrange waterproofing. For this purpose, roofing material is laid in poured concrete in two layers. The second layer is laid perpendicular to the first.
The next step is to install the formwork. Formwork is installed directly on the edges of the concrete base on both sides and fastened with nails and wooden slats. First install one side. Align it with a level and temporarily fasten with slats or ordinary pieces of old brick.
Install the second side. We lay a wooden lath on both sides and with the help of the level we level the second side relative to the first. The sides can be fastened together with wooden slats and nails. Reiki should be held in such a way as not to interfere with the pouring of concrete.

Reinforcement and pouring porch villas

You can flood the porch.

Our advice is that in order to give a porch to serve you for many years, perform reinforcement.

From the cut bars of the reinforcement, the dimensions correspond to the dimensions of your porch, we knit the inner reinforcing section. The rods are held together with a soft knitting wire. The distance from the reinforcement to the inside of the wooden formwork is 50–60 mm.
Prepare the solution according to the proportions indicated above and fill it. The consistency of the solution should be such that it is easily poured and at the same time is not strongly liquid.
It is clear the desire to make the solution more liquid. Easy to mix and level. But too liquid solution forms internal voids and contributes to the exfoliation (peeling) of concrete.

Our advice is to mix concrete as tight as possible. To calculate the total output of finished concrete, use the following calculus. The amount of rubble in the concrete corresponds to the final yield of the finished concrete. 0.5 m3 of crushed stone in the solution, respectively, will yield 0.5 m3 of concrete at the exit.

Additional elements

So:

After the concrete is completely filled and the surface is leveled, in the places where it is planned to install the railing, we insert the prepared bolts with the caps inside the concrete. The bolts are inserted into the concrete with small vibrating movements. The thread of the bolts must extend above the surface at a distance sufficient for it to be able to fasten the rail fastening.
Fastening can be purchased ready-made or made independently from scrap materials. It all depends on the availability of materials and your imagination. Do not worry if the thread goes out too much. After attachment, the excess part can always be cut off.
We cover the entire structure with cellophane and leave it for a week. After a week, the cellophane should be removed and the porch should be left to dry for another two weeks.
You can mount the railing and supports for the canopy and the canopy for the porch. We will not dwell on this in detail. Let's give free rein to your imagination and preference.

Useful tips on building a porch

Let us dwell on a few helpful tips.

As for the canopy. Sometimes it is incorrectly called a visor. Dimensions are made so that it covers only the front door from the rain or, in extreme cases, the upper platform. It is not right.
If the canopy covers only the entrance door or platform, all precipitation flows down onto the porch or steps. In winter, frost forms on them, which is quite dangerous and inconvenient.

Our advice is to make a shed of such a size that the precipitations flowing from it do not fall on the elements of the porch.

Exterior finish can be varied. If you decide to tile the porch, select the appropriate one (see Tile for the porch).

Our advice - the tile should be rough, preferably of porcelain. Otherwise, in winter it will become a kind of rink. The tile on the porch does not fit as much as on the surface inside the room. Initially, the solution is applied to the porch itself, and then the tile is literally pressed into it.

If you decide to make a porch in your country house out of wood, take care of the foundation just as you would on a concrete one (see How to build a wooden porch). You can dig recesses under the poles for a wooden porch. Their depth must be greater than the freezing point of the ground.
Before inserting the pillars into the depressions, the part that will be in the ground necessarily turns into several layers of roofing material. Do not forget the end part. The bottom is covered with rubble. Poles can be concreted.

Using these recommendations, the question of how to make a porch in the country will not be a secret to you.