Friday, November 27, 2009

Front Porch Rough Construction

This is probably it for this year.  I'll put together the materials list for the tapered columns, metal roofing, soffit, and fascia over the Winter and then finish it up in the Spring.  It will be nice to not have to worry about the snow pile in front of the front door.  We are still debating if we'll put a gable above the front steps.  I've attached a "SketchUp" concept of what it might look like.






"Fingers Crossed" that the tar paper lasts through the Winter.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I was wondering if you have the measurements for your posts and ratio. Especially the size of your bases. I am getting ready to do this and like your style. Also did you build up the bases with brick?

Unknown said...

so you have my contact info hopefully...

jhausch said...

The core of the columns are made with 6" standard concrete block so they worked out to be 22" square before the stone veneer; roughly 26" square after. The limestone caps are (IIRC) 30 x 30.

The purpose of the floating footers on the caps (glued in place) is to prevent a point load from the 4x4 columns from cracking the caps. Those things get the load out to where the block is under the caps. If I did it over again, I'd probably fill that upper part of the columns.

There is more info on the column bases in the archives:
http://jhausch.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html (look for "porch piers" post)

http://jhausch.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html (look for "Windows going in and a funny story about "extra" concrete." post) In that post you'll see there is a section of the columns that is poured.

The tapered colums will be 24" square at the base and 12" square at the top. The height of the column portion is about 63". The bases are roughtly 36" high so the ratio of base to tapered portion is roughly the golden ratio (1.618 to 1)

jhausch said...

PS - Jonathan, I was unable to get your contact info by clicking on your name so I hope this reply is sufficient.

Unknown said...

Thanks for getting back to me that info was really helpful. Just curious what kind of wood are you going to use for wrapping the columns?

jhausch said...

Since I am going to paint them, I figured the best choice would be MDO plywood.

I am leaning towards mitering the corners. At one point I was thinking about trimming them out so they looked like "raised-panels" on the four sides of each column, but one of the things driving that decision was that I'd have to hide the exposed edges of the ply. Mitered corners removes that need.

In my research I've seen both trimmed and plain styles so I think either would look OK.

If the mitered corners look like crap I may end up trimming it out anyway. I did make up a column in Google SketchUP and the miter measured out to 45.5 degrees. I figure if I cut them at 45 and clue with construction adhesive, the points of the miters should close up nicely.