Comming Soon - New front porch!

[GoodOlBoy]

When my wife and I first moved into our doublewide I built a "temporary" front porch. An 8x8 that is not covered by anything but the good Lord's own sky to replace the junk stairs we were "given" by the company that sold us the home. That was five years ago. (Whew has it been that long?) SOOOOO now the time has come to make the "temporary" front porch a back porch by our sliding glass doors, and build a new front porch. I will begin and finish construction the week of July 21st of this year. It will be a 10' x 20' with a corrugated tin roof. Eventually we will add front lights, a ceiling fan, and probably screen it in. But for now we need a darned porch. One because we need a place out of the rain and scorching East Texas summer sun to get into the house, and two because said sun heats the front of my house to approx 1.3 billion degrees F each afternoon starting about 2:00pm CST and extending to about 6:30pm CST. This naturally causes the air conditioning to run like there's no tomorrow. We have already covered the bedroom windows on that side with "insta cling automobile tinting" which helped quite a bit, but the front door, and the living room windows still heat BADLY. The porch will cover all of this area and help with cooling costs.

Anyway as a "build your own" project I will attempt to post pictures as it is finished. This will be the fifth porch I have designed and built in my life (my great grandfather on my grandmothers side was a carpenter, a plumber, a welder, and an auto mechanic) and as always I will be doing this from what I figured on paper. No predesined, prefab nothing will be going into this. If anybody wants to discuss it feel free to post and I will reply.

Stats
10' (E to W measurement) x 20' (N to S measurement)
decking blocks (no concreting in because of fireants and termites in east Texas)
4x4 posts
2x6 subfloor (15 inch centers. Yes I know thats odd. trust me it works perfectly for subfloors where decking boards and not plywood is used) May still go 2x8 I don't know at this point
2x4 crossbracing of the posts beneath the subfloor (adds a TON of stability when you are not concreting in your posts)
1x6 decking
2x4 rafters and rails
1x4 across the rafters to nail the roof to.
corrugated tin for roof
Lattice work for skirting and between the rails and decking for privacy.
All preassure treated materials.
I also use metal "rafter brackets" to give the subfloor and ceiling more stability besides just "end nailing" them.


Normally I build these things useing 2x10 subflooring and use 2x6s for the decking. BUT My family has convinced me to do it this way since I am not goind to be parking a semi truck on it and since I am using the "stimulus" check for a good portion of the material cost.

I have 1 definant 2 maybe builder helpers who will arrive to assist in the project that I can count on not to screw up more than they fix, not to have a ton of accidents, and not to collapse on me from health problems.

Building Schedual looks like the following.

Saturday, July 12th - purchase materials for delivery Monday, July 14th This gives them an extra week to get me materials if they are out of something.

Monday, July 21st -
AM - move current front porch to rear of house via the "lift and walk" method begin initial setup of first 10'x10' section. Be finished with first section subfloor, decking, and hanging stairs by lunch (otherwise we can't get back into the house to eat can I motivate or can I motivate?)

PM - since the sun will be beating on the new front section we retreat to the rear of the house, level the old front porch and set it up to serve as a "temporary" back porch by the sliding glass doors in the rear of the house.

Tuesday, July 22nd -
AM - Start section 2 subfloor. Get subfloor up, level, and decking on before afternoon.
PM - wait until 7pm and start rafters for roof (this is when the porch is shaded in the afternoon)

Wednesday, July 23rd -
AM - finish roof, mount latticework around bottom and rails of porch.
PM - drink a couple dozen cold cokes while sitting on my new front porch.

Available tools at the moment. Cuttoff saw, electric chainsaw (for cutting 4x4s), skill saw, cordless screwdriver, hammer, nails, etc.

GoodOlBoy