Over the winter of 2023-2024, I built two porches for the two entrances of our house. This involved studying the DCA6 – 2015 Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction guide (DCA6), creating plans, pulling permits, construction, and passing multiple inspections.
We hired a general contractor to renovate our kitchen. During this renovation, they discovered rot in part of our sill plate near our front porch, and also removed our sketchy wooden side porch. Rebuilding these wasn’t in scope for our renovation, and the quotes we got for this work were outrageous (mostly because of post-COVID construction demand). I’d already studied parts of the DCA6 (which is a reference guide for building decks) when I was designing a treehouse, so I had some comfort around designing and building these porches — which are really just small decks. This was an ambitious project, however, it would cost substantially less than contracting it out — and with a shortage in available contractors, and long lead times for these kinds of projects, it would have taken a similar amount of calendar time for me to build these myself.
Our building department had helpfully put together guidelines for deck permits, which included architectural drawings, framing plans, and a list of materials. I used Sketchup to design each of the two porches, which were very similar but slightly different dimensionally. I was able to find models of each of the Simpson Strong-Tie connectors and all of the nuts and bolts, too, so I “built” these porches in Sketchup before buying any materials. This helped me understand how everything fit together, anticipate problems and fix them before reworking the plans on-the-spot, and estimate costs in advance.
I submitted my 26 page packet of drawings and the materials list in early winter. It took the building department a few weeks to approve the permit; by then, the ground was frozen solid, though, so I wasn’t able to start digging until the spring thaw.
All fun projects start with digging holes, and this was no exception. I dug two 4′ deep holes for the concrete footings. Each porch needed two footings sunk below the 48″ frost line; when water in the ground freezes, it expands and it can move the ground upwards by several inches or more. Even heavy objects can be lifted and moved — that’s how potholes form in roads — so porches that are attached to house foundations must be secured to footings that are deeper than the lowest level that the water in the ground freezes in the winter (this is the frost line). These two porches each have two footings — one for the post that supports the corner that isn’t attached directly to the house, and a second footing that supports the bottom of the stairs.
I also had to remove an existing concrete pad that was installed for the old front porch. I rented a jackhammer for a day and broke apart the old pad. I also found a 4′ deep cinderblock footing and removed that.
I ended up filling most of a 10′ dumpster with concrete that I’d found buried in the yard and under the old porches.
The next phase was to build concrete forms and bury them in the ground. Each porch needed two forms — one footer for the bottom of the steps, and a pier for a post that supports the corner of the porch that’s not attached to the house. The concrete pier beneath the post is made from a plastic bellied base form and a cardboard tube form that are readily available from any home center. I had to make the concrete form that the stairs rest on, since it was a custom size.
After the forms were carefully installed and positioned, I backfilled the holes with dirt. This keeps the forms from moving during the concrete pour.
I scheduled a ready-mix concrete truck — this was less expensive, and far easier, than mixing 60+ bags of concrete by hand. My extremely capable brother helped with guidance during the pour, since he’d worked with concrete extensively.
After the concrete cured for a day, I removed the forms and again backfilled them with dirt. I also had piles of small rocks left over from previous landscaping projects; these are great at providing drainage so I filled the top foot or so underneath the porches with these rocks. I also added 3/4″ crushed gravel under the stair landing.
Next, I started framing. The first and most important components are the post and beam, which carries most of the load from the porches as well as load from the stairs. Each post and beam took almost an entire day; I ended up rebuilding one post and beam because I didn’t correctly center the bolts that hold the post and beam together. The other end of the beam is firmly secured to the foundation with a masonry hanger.
Framing the porch and stairs went quickly. The guard posts are attached to the frame with tension ties and carriage bolts so that they are immobile no matter how much someone pushes on them. I also installed the pavers while it was relatively easy to get under the porch to access that area. First, a base of crushed rock is packed in place to form the paver foundation. Next, landscape fabric is added to prevent weed growth and keep dirt from mixing into the paver base. Finally, a layer of paver sand is added, which helps stabilize the pavers. Then the pavers are installed so that there’s a gradual slope away from the house and water can run off the paved surface. Finally, polymeric sand is poured between the pavers to lock them in place and prevent water from running between the pavers, freezing, and causing frost heaves or cracks.
The top surfaces of the porch and stair framing are exposed to the most standing water, and need to be sealed with joist tape. This stops water from infiltrating the wood and causing cracks.
The close-up picture of the porch framing shows how lateral load connectors (LLCs) are installed. These connectors are a safety device — if, for some reason, the ledger board separates from the house the LLCs will keep the porch from falling down if people are standing on it. Since porches are technically decks, they are supposed to be built with the same structural requirements as much larger decks.
I added white PVC trim to match the aesthetic of the trim on the house. I used Azek composite decking for the porches and stairs, and filled all of the screw holes to give the porches a clean appearance.
The last steps were to install the balusters, railing, post caps, and handrail. This finish work goes pretty quickly but it really ties the whole aesthetic in place.
I think both porches came out great!