When I moved into my house the front door opened up to a small concrete pad that’s an awkward height from the door, and then a further awkward height from the actual ground, with a step down in between that has collapsed and sunk into the ground. All around, not my favorite setup.
So I decided to build a porch for the front of the house!
My desire is to build a porch that will sit on top of the existing concrete pad and then extend underneath the large living room window. The first part is really simple, just a 2×4 frame to sit on top of the pad. The height of the door above the pad actually works in my favor here, it’s just a little over 4-1/2″, perfect space for some 2x4s on their side and deck boards on top.
Now we need some footers to hold up the extension of the porch. I purchased two of these plastic deck footers and sunk them partly into the ground, just enough you wouldn’t see them once complete.
I also placed a layer of gravel and rammed it down to provide as solid a foundation as possible.
The footings in place I can now temporarily suspend the frame of the hanging part of the porch using some scrap 2x4s to hold it vertically at the end, and level with the smaller frame sitting on top of the concrete pad.
Legs are needed to hold up the floating end, so I combined a couple 2×6 boards to act as a joist, attached some 4×4 posts to get the correct height, and diagonally braced it. I don’t expect there to be much “twisting” force happening here, but better safe than wobbly!
Framed and suspended it’s time to add some joists to the frame, which are then covered with deck tape, and finally the top boards can be added.
Last but not least, doing something about the stair leading up to the porch. I made some runners using some more pressure treated lumber, then braced them together and attached to the porch itself. Finally, some more deck boards to complete the treads of the stairs and the porch is functionally complete!
The deck still needs to be stained, but I’m waiting for a few months for the weather to warm up and the lumber to dry out. Staining while this wet would result in the stain not penetrating properly. Some skirting to hide the bits underneath might also be in the future, but for now I’m just enjoying having a nice place out front to sit and not tripping over the awkward step up into the house anymore!
And now with the porch completed, I realized how difficult it was to mow the grass in the small area the porch now sits over. My mower won’t fit in there, and I greatly dislike using the weed eater! So I spent some time to dig out the grass, lay down weed barrier, and place some mulch.
