Covered Porch

[GarageSmoker]

The good news is interest rates are at a 30+ year low so now may be the time to get it done no matter how you feel about his price. We have a full front prorch (covered) in our plans as well and am glad I didn't ask the builder to give me prices on "pieces" of the project or I might have eliminated it. The front porch "makes the house" IMO and would take a part time job to pay for it before I eliminated it.

Just my 2 cents and not worth anymore;

GS

 

[Ozarker]

My deck is 8' wide across the length of the back of the house and I wish it was 10'. Once you place a glider or chair to sit on it is difficult to walk past people sitting on the deck with only 8' of width.

 

[crb478]

I consider 10 foot about right for a porch with furniture so you can still walk around it. 12 foot plus if you want to use it to entertain. How high will your porch be off the ground? Around here if it is 30 inches or less you do not have to put in a railing, and that could be installed later. Dont know what your codes are. You can use metal post to save money, and box them in with lumber and add layers of detail later. Hard to have turned post that way, but you can add nice details. I usually make to bottom of the post bigger up to the hand rail and then come in and campher the corners to give it a more rounded look. I believe ceiling height should be consistant with the indoor heigth, but that does not mean there is anything wrong if it is not just my preference. The materials you use will effect the cost. Pressure treated lumber is probably cheapest, but may not give the look you want. It can be stained to change the look some though. I usually use vinal for the ceiling in this area for its low maintaince, but for some people only individual boards will do. Others are OK with plywood with a bead board pattern that is painted. The area you live in will effect cost. I can not think of many more ways to save too much on this. If you let me know what materials you are planing on using I may be able to offer some suggestions that give a simular look that cost a little less.

 

[GSS]

I don't know what the cost comparison is, but check out the polyurethane/vinyl turned posts that Fypon and Outwater offer. Their selection didn't match what we wanted so I never got as far as pricing. They're nice and if left white, never need painting. They also have a lot og the gingerbread if you wanted to eventually go that route.

As someone else said, check out getting the beadboard looking plywood for the ceiling. Still victorianesque, but not nearly as costly as t&g ceder or whatever.

Also, try to offer doing as much as you can yourself. I am no carpenter, but I saved some money priming all the flooring, railings, posts, etc before the builders needed it. I also chose to do all of the painting myself. It obviously wouldn't make sense to take off of work to do this stuff, but every little bit helps.

Good luck.

- Gerald

 

[patrickg]

GSS, GarageSmoker, CSTOCKS, OZARKER, ROBS, CRB478, et al:

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas. I too thought of saving money by reducing the front porch to keep the back and side porches. Would reduce appearance but not reduce functionality as the front porch would most likely be looked at not looked from.

I hate to have to do things twice but if it would save significant money I would go minimalist on columns and railings and retrofit with the fancy stuff later. Given prices over $200 each for fairly nice columns, I have been thinking of making some molds and casting my own columns and some other items (maybe ornamental railing corner posts) out of dyed cement. For load bearing columns, I would have a steel pipe inside the casting. Probably buy a nice capitol and "foot" piece and duplicate it by using silicone rubber mold compound to make some molds off the "store bought" master.

Seems like the vote is in. Porches NEED to be 10 ft wide (or more). I built my mom's garage separate from the house (8 ft gap) and then connected the house to the garage wit a 33' x 10' sun porch that overlaps both structures. Even giving up 6 inches of the 10 ft to the outer wall we still have good manuvering room with chairs etc. But 8' as in most plans would, I think, get too cramped, especially with a porch swing in action or a double hammock.

I hear the screened in comment! No human fatalities in Oklahoma, yet, but some horses have begun to die and mosquitos and birds are testing positive in the state for West Nile Virus. View from rear porch will be of two ponds so mosquitos might become a consideration even though the numbers have always seemed to be real low, especially considering all the water on my place. Hope the propane powered "Skeeter Eaters" prove out and their price continues to fall.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration. I appreciate the suggestions and hope there are more.

GargeSmoker, right on regarding interest rates but in our case the whole house is a cash deal as we are sitting on the proceeds of the sale of our previous house. This is a good news-bad news situation. The good news is that we have the money to build "a" house but the bad news is that we have no significant income stream (took early, read REDUCED, retirement from a DoD/Navy lab) and we MUST get it right the first time because we sure can't aford to do it again. If we get into one of those "budget overrun" situations due to any reason, contractors fault, our fault, or no one's fault, we have a problem, a big problem. Still we have a moderate not miniscule budget. Prices in our area run around $65 to $110 for liveable to pretty darned fancy levels of detail and trim with $85 to $90 being average turn key custom home with few frills. Extensive porches that we want will impact the rest of the place. Maybe I can hold off on finishing part of the upstairs and walkout basement and do as much as possible myself.

I know I won't win the lotery since a friend explained to me that I would have to buy a ticket and I don't see getting a job that requires commuting (we are definitely rural) so I guess I'll just have to be real cost/value conscious during design/construction.

Again thanks for all the thoughts and don't be bashfull, send any more you feel like via this thread or privately if you prefer (email is listed in bio/profile stuff).

Patrick

 

[Egon]

Patrick:
The Maritimes have lots of covered porches and with the exchange rate you could be far ahead financially.

Egon

 

[P.K. Burke]

Ryan:
I had my place built in 1999 and the covered porches were $28.00 a square foot. The porch runs the entire length of the house in the front and back and on the west end goes a little more than halfway down the width of the house. The porch is 8' high with a sheetrock ceiling and the decking is redwood. Rails are painted spruce I believe. Total deck square footage is around 1100 square feet.

 

[patrickg]

Hmmmm, Egon, is there a "Goofy Nufie" reference burried in there somewhere? It might be cheaper to buy there but the shipping charges would make a serious dent in the savings. Gotta go load some concrete. A guy about 2 miles away with a new house sold the old house to be trucked away and gave me most of the sidewalks and foundation. So me and the lil 'bota are loading chunks of concrete onto my 10,000 lb capacity util trailer and unloading at my place. Pallets and pallet forks makes it bunches easier.

Separate topic: Anyone out there ever use or see cabinets, floors, casing, stairs, or anything similar made from mesquite wood?

Patrick

 

[Egon]

Patrick:
Newfies are very nice people populating a different country.
If you put a trailer behind your truck shipping costs are reduced considerably.
Just suggesting merative alternatives.
Egon

 

[jimgerken]

>A guy about 2 miles away with a new house >sold the old house to be trucked away and >gave me most of the sidewalks and >foundation.

PLEASE tell me you've found a productive use for old slab pcs.