How To Build A Comfortable Porch For Your Home And Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

"The porch is the face of the house " - they used to say in the old days. Therefore, the owners of the house tried to make it not only convenient for use, but also visually attractive. After all, what does a person see first of all when he approaches a house? Of course, the roof and … the entrance. And the entrance just might start from the porch. Probably, proceeding from such a premise (though not only), our ancestors in every possible way ennobled and decorated the porch with various carved lace, intricate awnings, and built a roof with kokoshniks. (Kokoshnik is a decoration on the facades of buildings in the form of a semicircular shield). There was even such a thing as "red porch", that is, beautiful, elegant.

In our enlightened industrial time, when the overwhelming majority of people live in faceless multi-storey buildings, the porch has been replaced everywhere by such concepts as "front door", "entrance". Each front door of such a house flaunts (and even then not always) a sign: "Front", "Staircase" and below them a list of apartment numbers on each floor.

Unfortunately, even in rural houses, where the traditions of Russian antiquity are most steadfastly preserved, one can rarely find a porch. In modern times, the main entrance from the street leads to the veranda, to the entrance, and much less often directly to the house.

And only in recent years, in connection with the development of low-rise construction, the porch is increasingly becoming an integral part of a cottage or a manor house. And often their decoration.

If you also want to have an entrance to the house from the porch, then you must take into account that the porch should be built not where you want (that is, anywhere) at home. But only where there are no windows. Otherwise, the porch will simply shade the room.

And even if you are not going to build it yourself, but will involve a contractor in this business, then all the same, the owner of the house should not look like a hopeless dilettante. He simply must have at least the simplest idea of what and how to do. This will help to avoid both potential errors and additional costs associated with them.

Why are modern buildings (houses, commercial premises, cottages) being built with numerous imperfections and defects? This is mainly due to two factors: the low qualification of the workforce (mainly guest workers) and the desire of builders at any cost (even due to the obvious deterioration in quality) to save on anything.

Based on all this, before starting the construction of the porch, it would be nice to familiarize yourself with his project. Imagine how it will look in nature and how it will fit into the surrounding landscape, into a house and other buildings.

If the porch is built of wood, then in essence it will be a light canopy on pillars (or even without them), and an entrance area with a staircase. In stone houses, the porch, as a rule, is made of brick, monolithic or prefabricated reinforced concrete, less often of wood. A wooden fence can be built from individual posts or planks, making it sparse, blind or with a slotted thread.

In a word, the porch can be made from any materials, it should only be taken into account that it should be not only comfortable, durable, but also aesthetic, since the entrance to the house begins with it. Typically, a porch consists of an outdoor staircase, an entrance area, and a canopy or canopy to protect the front door from the elements.

Most often, the front door opens outward. This is very rational, since, opening outward, the door does not hide the interior space of the veranda, vestibule or entryway. In addition, it allows the height of the entrance threshold to be reduced. The dimensions of the porch should provide a convenient opening of the entrance door, so it is desirable that the entrance area is not symmetrical with respect to the doorway. It should be pushed towards the door handle (see fig. 1).

In this case, when you open the door to the outside, you can simply step aside, and not step back on the steps of the entrance staircase. The depth of the entrance area should be at least 1 meter, and its floor should be 2-3 centimeters below the floor of the room located behind the entrance door.

Despite the apparent simplicity, during the construction of the porch, mistakes are often made that create inconvenience not only in operation, but also reduce its durability. One of the most common mistakes in the construction of a porch is the option when a staircase with an entrance platform is attached to the front door.

In the cold season, when the ground freezes, it raises the staircase with the entrance platform by a few centimeters (this value depends on the specific soil). As a result, the door is jammed and often impossible to open. In addition, sometimes the porch is arranged on wooden pillars, buried at a shallow depth. At the same time, they do not make antiseptic processing of wood and do not protect it from underground moisture. In this case, in addition to jamming, another nuisance is added: the support logs quickly rot, the porch begins to stagger, and then collapse.

Of course, you can build a massive foundation, and even with its deepening below the level of freezing of the soil, and then it will stand, as they say, "tightly". However, it is hardly advisable to arrange a technically complex, very expensive foundation for such a relatively light construction as a porch. Or, as popular wisdom says: "The game is not worth the candle." More precisely, it is hardly worth it.

True, in order to reduce the cost of laying a deep foundation, especially in moving (heaving) soils, it is necessary to build sand, crushed stone, gravel cushions. However, they still need to be laid to the depth of soil freezing.

There are several ways to avoid all these and other possible troubles when building a porch. One of the simplest is that a high (6-8 centimeters) threshold is made in the opening of the front door, and it does not jam when it is opened. But here another problem arises: the tenants almost always forget about this high threshold and therefore constantly stumble.

Another method is when a staircase with an entrance platform is installed 10-15 centimeters below the doorway. Now the door seems to open freely, but because of the formed step (which is constantly forgotten), it becomes very uncomfortable to walk, and in the dark it is completely unsafe.

As practice shows, perhaps the most optimal version of the porch device is when the steps of the stairs are separated from the entrance area. Or connected to it using hinges (see Fig. 2). In this case, wooden steps (in the form of a stepped box) are installed on a concrete or crushed stone base, and the entrance platform is located on beams protruding from the walls of the house by 100-120 centimeters. This design is called a cantilever (see Figure 3).

Just take into account that the entrance area, arranged on the console, should not be too large. Otherwise, being in fact in limbo, it can turn out to be rather unstable with all the ensuing negative consequences.

With seasonal ground movements up and down, only the stairs move, while the entrance area remains at a constant level. Nevertheless, it is recommended to make the site 2-3 centimeters below the door threshold. This measure is necessary in case of icing.

The porch canopy or canopy is usually made of light wooden structures that support even or curly pillars, and the porch itself goes into an attached veranda, terrace or wall of the house.

Sometimes a porch in the form of a canopy is constructed without pillars, but is supported by structures attached to the walls and roof of the house (see Fig. 4). For the roof, it is best to use modern roofing materials such as flexible bituminous tiles, ondulin, profiled sheet (corrugated board).

Any structural connection of two roofs (house and porch) must be very reliable. This is important precisely because leaks are most common here. In addition to reliability, such a connection must necessarily take into account the possible limiting wind and snow loads. And one more thing: in any case, it is desirable that the porch design be combined with the general architecture of the house.

The fencing of the open sides of the porch is made of boards, bricks, siding. The height of the railing from the porch floor to the top of the handrail is about 90 centimeters. If desired, the porch can be glazed. In this case, the glazing can be winter (in this case, the porch must be insulated) and summer. The most beautiful colored glazing is a set of mosaic glasses of the type of colored stained glass. This work is simple, but creative, and therefore the owner of the house may well do it on his own.

Of course, a truly Russian invention - the porch of a house has not yet become a widespread phenomenon. However, it would be nice to remember and restore the tradition of Russian architecture. And then the porch will create not only convenience for the owners, but also decorate the house, and with it, your entire estate.