Planning new House. Back porch faces North. Your opinions ???

[stewg]

I have a 36' x 12' overhang on my barn facing north and love it....only thing I would change is to make it 15-16' deep for added furniture room. I too do everything there from shooting bows/guns to watching and preparing my garden pickings. Dogs love it too.

 

[Buckgnarly]

Porches on the north side of a building are fine south of the Mason-Dixon Line. You don't want them on the north side if you're north of that. For instance, in NH the only places you should put a porch on a home is East, SE, South, SW, or West side of the building; and preferably between SE and SW. Anything else is just too cold and dark.

Gotta disagree, our deck is on the North side and I LOVE it. Hate sitting in the Sun. I also like my house at a balmy 60 or less in the Winter though, so take my opinion for what it's worth!

 

[PhysAssist]

Gotta disagree, our deck is on the North side and I LOVE it. Hate sitting in the Sun. I also like my house at a balmy 60 or less in the Winter though, so take my opinion for what it's worth!

I agree wholeheartedly!

Or front door faces north and west, which we hate., however, we almost never use our south-facing deck off the LR. We always gravitate to the north facing porch, despite the fact that it just looks across our parking areas, barn, sheda and wood piles, while the south faces the bulk of our yard and our pond from treetop level.

We will probably never use the south deck until it has either a sunsetter awning or a really deep roof. That being said, we are planning to wrap decks around from the front (N) porch to connect with the deck, but will likely roof it all over and screen in the west side, which is where our shade trees are all situated.

Look at your tree-scaping to make sure that your house has some shade producing deciduous trees on the south to provide summer sun relief. We also have heavy evergreen coverage on our n-w exposure to decrease snow-carrying winter winds.

 

[tcreeley]

Porches on the north side of a building are fine south of the Mason-Dixon Line. You don't want them on the north side if you're north of that. For instance, in NH the only places you should put a porch on a home is East, SE, South, SW, or West side of the building; and preferably between SE and SW. Anything else is just too cold and dark.

So true. Bedrooms on the east for morning sun, porches on the west to watch the setting sun.


A deck often needs a roof (becomes a porch then!) to keep out the sun. Sitting in a hot sun is unbearable. A warm sun on a brisk day is very pleasant.

 

[PhysAssist]

Gotta disagree, our deck is on the North side and I LOVE it. Hate sitting in the Sun. I also like my house at a balmy 60 or less in the Winter though, so take my opinion for what it's worth!

I agree wholeheartedly!

Or front door faces north and west, which we hate., however, we almost never use our south-facing deck off the LR. We always gravitate to the north facing porch, despite the fact that it just looks across our parking areas, barn, sheda and wood piles, while the south faces the bulk of our yard and our pond from treetop level.

We will probably never use the south deck until it has either a sunsetter awning or a really deep roof. That being said, we are planning to wrap decks around from the front (N) porch to connect with the deck, but will likely roof it all over and screen in the west side, which is where our shade trees are all situated.

Look at your tree-scaping to make sure that your house has some shade producing deciduous trees on the south to provide summer sun relief. We also have heavy evergreen coverage on our n-w exposure to decrease snow-carrying winter winds.

 

[Larro Darro]

So true. Bedrooms on the east for morning sun.

I work nights, so the last thing I want is the sun shining in between the blinds at daylight. Our bedroom is on the west end of the house.

We have porches front and back, each 8 X 50. We would have liked to built them deeper, but with our house design, [1 & 1/2 story] it would have flattened out the lower part of the roof too much. Our back porch is south facing, but it is screened with a 12 X 24 deck attached. The screen and the shade trees keep it pretty cool. There are also really big oaks at each end of the house, and 25 acres of longleaf pines starting just a few feet past the deck. They are getting tall enough now that you can see into them. Ten years ago when we built, they were about knee high. After October of 2014 when our pines come off a federal program, we are wanting to build an outside kitchen back there. We would redo the deck, letting it run long and narrow back to the kitchen.

As for the OP, what I would do is keep the back porch to 16", but wrap it around each end of the house. That would give you extra square feet, and the roofs will provide shade for early and late.

 

[pharmvet]

Thanks very much for all the input!!

 

[vabiker23518]

At my cabin, the back porch faces North. When built in 2009, it wasn't a covered porch. We had alot of snow that winter, and I had snow/ice on the porch for over two months (here in southern Virginia!) I had the builder come back and cover the porch...basically 22' X 14' with exposed trusses. Since then, it has stayed dry and is much more more usable....we never sit on the southside porch...just the north.