Imagine yourself sitting in a comfortable rocking chair on the deck of a covered front porch that you built yourself. That’s exactly what I like to do in my spare time, and I can tell you that this DIY project is certainly worth all the time and effort!
Building your own covered front porch is no small undertaking. But I’ve found it becomes much easier when I break it down into five steps. Keep reading as I guide you through each step, so you can learn how to build a covered front porch by yourself.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Attach a Ledger Board to the Side of the House
The first thing you must do is attach a ledger board to the side of your house. This will give your floor joists something to anchor to and keep them stable on one side of the deck.
Normally when I build a deck, I use a 2×10 ledger board. However, sometimes it’s also okay to use a slightly smaller board, such as a 2×8. It depends on the size of your joists. Your ledger board should always be at least one size bigger than your joists. So, if you use 2×6’s for your joists, you can get away with a 2×8 ledger board.
Before you screw in the ledger board, make sure you install vinyl flashing to the side of the house. Vinyl flashing seals the gap between the house and the ledger board, thereby preventing water from seeping in and rotting out the wall, brand board, or ledger board.
The flashing should be wide enough that it hangs slightly over the top of your foundation to achieve maximum protection from moisture. Also, only use vinyl flashing, never aluminum. Aluminum reacts negatively with pressure treated wood and causes it to rot.
To attach the ledger board to the side of the house, use galvanized 4” bolts and place them every two feet along the length of the board.
Before you finish securing the ledger board, decide how much of a drop you want from the floor of the interior of the house to the decking. I prefer a seamless transition from the interior floor to the deck, so I leave a gap between the top of the ledger board and the subfloor of the house that’s just as thick as the decking boards.
That’s it for step one! Let’s move on to step two.
(Learn how to install a ledger board here.)
Step 2: Determine What Will Carry the Weight on the Other Side of the Deck
Next, determine how you will carry the weight of the deck on the other side of the deck, opposite the house.
In the screengrab from one of my live demonstrations below, you’ll see that the joists are attached to a 2-ply 2×10 header beam, which distributes the weight of the joist down onto a 6×6 post. The post is attached to a concrete footer that has a circumference of 2’ and a depth of 8” and is buried 2’ underground.
In this screengrab, I show another porch. One side of it is supported by a masonry brick wall, which distributes the weight down to a 2’ footer. This setup was a bit overdone for wood decking, but it works just the same.
(I explain how to install a beam and posts in this article.)
Step 3: Decide on a Size for the Floor Joists
In this step, you must decide what size of boards you want to use for your floor joists. Your decision will be determined by the span of your deck and the type of decking you plan to use.
For example, if your deck has a span of 6’, you can get away with using smaller 2×6 boards as your joists. If it’s 12’ across, you’ll want to go with a sturdier size, like 2×10.
In addition to span, you should also consider spacing between the joists. This will largely depend on the type of decking you use. For example, for composite decking, manufacturers recommend the joists be no further than 16” apart.
To be on the safe side, ALWAYS CHECK YOUR LOCAL BUILDING CODES for guidelines on how far apart your joists should be spaced for maximum stability and safety.
(Not sure how to install joists? Click here to learn.)
Step 4: Choose Your Decking
Now for the fun step: choosing your decking.
There are three types of decking that are commonly used in DIY porches. They are composite decking, Trex, and wood.
Composite decking is the least expensive option. It’s durable, looks pretty, and has square edges.
Trex is also a type of composite decking, but it comes with grooved edges and fasteners, so that you can slide each board into place on the deck.
Finally, wood is nice to look at but it requires a lot of maintenance. It’s also not that much more expensive than composite decking or Trex these days.
Step 5: Determine What Type of Roof to Put Over Your Porch
The last step is to determine what type of roof you want to put over your porch.
There are two different types you can use. The first type (pictured below) requires posts at regular intervals that are attached to a 3-ply 2×10 beam. The beam is secured on to the edge of the porch roof. This distributes the weight of the roof down into the ground.
The second type is a cantilever-style trussed roof which distributes all its weight through the exterior wall of the house. For such a roof, there’s no need for a beam or posts – although some DIYers like to put one or the other up anyway for aesthetic purposes.
Check with your local building codes and truss manufacturers in your area to see which option would be best for your own front porch.
Conclusion
Would you believe that those are all the steps it takes to build a front porch? Before you know it, you’ll be rocking in your own chair on your own deck and having the time of your life – just like the Excellent Laborer!
If you want to see or read more excellent tutorials, you know what to do: just head on over to the blog or the Excellent Laborer YouTube channel. You can also find out which brands of tools I like to use on all my DIY house building projects by going to the Excellent Laborer Amazon store.