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The most correct version of the porch is when its foundation is cast along with the house. In this case, there are practically no problems. Sometimes when planning a building, they forget about it. Then the porch is attached to the house. They make an extension mainly from three materials: wood, metal and concrete. If the house is brick, they can build it out of brick. Another option is to make from building blocks with subsequent finishing. In any case, when planning to make a porch with your own hands, you must immediately decide what kind of foundation to make and whether or not to connect it with the foundation of the building.
How to calculate parameters
First you need to decide which side the steps will go to. They can be on one, two or three sides. Determine this based on personal preferences and finances that you can / want to allocate for construction. The height of the porch depends on the height of the plinth and should be 50-70 mm below the edge of the door leaf. This small step prevents precipitation from entering the house. Perhaps more importantly, it prevents the doors from being blocked if the porch rises from frost heaving (if the doors open outward).
Determine the dimensions of the top platform
The layout of the porch begins with determining the size of the upper platform. If the doors open outward, you should be able to open the doors while standing on the platform. That is, its depth should be 30-40 cm more than the width of the door leaf. According to the recommendations of GOST, the dimensions of the site should be 1,5 times the width of the doorway. More is possible – less is undesirable – inconvenient.
If your doors are 80 cm wide, then the depth of the upper platform at the very minimum is 120 cm. You determine its width based on the tastes and proportions of the house, but it must definitely be greater than the width of the doorway.
We count the number and size of steps
You know the height of the porch: 50-60 mm below the door leaf. The recommended step (riser) height is 15-20 cm. Divide the height of the porch by the height of the steps, you get the approximate number of steps. The number is rarely whole. The remaining centimeters can be divided between all the steps or make one of them higher. Another option is to make a small step at the bottom, although this can be inconvenient.
The optimal step width (tread) is 25-30 cm. Knowing the number of steps, the depth of the upper platform, the depth of the steps, you can calculate the dimensions of the porch completely. According to them, it is already possible to develop the foundation for the porch.
When choosing the parameters of the steps, one must adhere to the recommendations of SNiP: the sum of the prosup and the double riser should be in the range of 600-640 mm. For example, you calculated that the height of the step (risers) is 17 cm, the tread (depth of the degree) is 280 mm. After completing the calculations, we get: 170 mm * 2 + 280 mm = 620 mm. We fit into the recommended parameters, so nothing needs to be changed.
What foundation is needed
If the porch is planned to be light – wooden or metal – the foundation is most often made of pile or column. Specifically, they are chosen based on geological conditions. On well-draining soils with a low level of groundwater, a columnar foundation is sufficient; with a tendency to heaving, a pile foundation is needed, possibly TISE.
For a heavy porch – made of brick or monolithic concrete – they make a strip foundation or a monolithic slab. The type of foundation is most often similar to that on which the house is built.
Then you need to decide whether you will tie the porch foundation to the house foundation or not. Decisions are made based on the planned mass of the extension and the type of soil. Both options have disadvantages. If there is no connection, cracks often form at the junction of the porch and the house, and the porch can warp due to frosty heaving. Owners of summer cottages often face such a problem – basically the porch to the summer cottages is made wooden and incoherent. After the earth thaws, it may itself “sit down” in place, or it may require some additional measures.
When arranging connections, the formation of cracks is also possible, but not only at the junction, but also in the “body” of the extension. This happens if the arranged reinforced connections cannot compensate for the uneven load created by the house and the extension. Therefore, a connected foundation for the porch is made if it is attached to a heavy house and itself is heavy and massive, made of reinforced concrete. The second difficulty with this decision is to make the connection of high quality. To do this, use ribbed reinforcement with a diameter of 12-16 mm, under which holes are drilled in the foundation with a given diameter. Reinforcement is hammered into them and on its basis a frame for the porch is knitted.
Stairs Structures
There are two main designs of stairs: on bowstrings and on stringers. They can be made from wood or metal. There are also combined options – metal + wooden steps or metal + concrete steps.
On the tendons
Ladders on bowstrings are the simplest. For a porch – a good option, especially if the house is wooden or a small country house. Support bars are attached to the inside of the bowstring. If you work with metal, the bars are welded horizontally (it is possible with a minimum slope of 1-2 ° so that water flows from the steps). In the case of wood, either supporting bars can be nailed, to which the step will then be attached, or recesses are cut in the bowstring (no more than 1/2 of the thickness of the board), into which the step boards are inserted.
On kosours
The ladder on the stringers can also be of a simple design – with open supports. In this case, triangles are cut at the required angle in the upper part of the board. Their lower part serves as a support for the steps.
When cutting the stringer, the height of the step and the width of the tread are set aside. They are connected at right angles. According to the marked markup, a template is made, with the help of which all the steps are marked.
The number of stringers in a staircase depends on its width and on the thickness of the boards used for the steps. The thinner the board for the steps, the more often you need to put stringers. If you are using 25 mm boards, then there should be a distance of no more than 50-60 cm between the two supports. If you need a large width of the stairs, but do not want to put three stringers, use thicker boards. It is important that they do not bend under your feet.
If you decide to weld a ladder on stringers from metal, you will need to be patient: you will have to weld many small segments, but the principle of formation is the same.
Ways of fastening parts
The lower edge of the porch stairs can sometimes rest directly on the ground. This option is simple but unreliable. Firstly, the soil may settle, the staircase will begin to collapse. Secondly, when in contact with the ground, both wood and metal are destroyed faster. There are special impregnations for wood (Senezh and Senezh Ultra, for example), and metal is well formed with a primer and painted in several layers. Nevertheless, it is better to make a base – to fill in a shallow-depth tape, on which the bowstrings or stringers will rest.
There are two ways to attach a staircase for a porch to a reinforced concrete base – to a bed – a bar with a section of at least 75 * 75 mm or to a smaller section of a mortgage bar (in the photo on the left).
Difficulties may arise with the installation of porch pillars. There are several ways. There is one very simple and effective one that works great even on heaving soils (clays and loams). Holes are dug under the pillars with a depth of 50-60 cm. A bucket and a half of sand is poured into them at the bottom, and it is well tamped. On top of the sand, rubble is poured from half a bucket and also rammed. They put a pole, level it to the level, put spacers that will hold it in a given position. The space between the wall of the hole and the pillar is gradually covered with rubble, carefully ramming it. The hole is filled flush with the ground, the top can be concreted (so that the precipitation does not drain), but not spilled to the very bottom. The poles installed in this way do not lead even with strong heaving. A significant part of the water goes into the sand, and the rubble takes over the remaining forces of frost heaving, neutralizing them.
If piles, a strip foundation or a monolithic slab are poured under the pillars of the porch, a columnar base is folded, then studs or special glasses are immured in concrete to fix the wooden racks. After the concrete has matured, the bars of the racks are attached to them with capercaillie or bolts.
If the racks are metal, a corner with a wall thickness of at least 3-4 mm is laid in the concrete so that it can be easily welded to it later.
When building a wooden porch with your own hands, questions may arise about attaching railings and balusters. They can be assembled on ordinary nails, but if desired, you can use bolts or capercaillie. In this case, holes are pre-drilled, then fasteners are installed in them and tightened with an angle wrench. Such a connection is certainly more reliable than just on nails.
If the porch is attached to a freshly cut wooden house, in which shrinkage has not yet been completed, and the design of the porch provides for a canopy, it is necessary to mount the racks on special adjustable plates.
We draw your attention to the fact that both the metal and wood that you will use to build the porch require careful processing. The porch is exposed to all climatic influences and the materials require good protection.
Monolithic concrete stairs
The most durable stairs are made of monolithic concrete. They take longer to make than metal or wood, but their service life is calculated in decades. The types of stairs made of concrete are described in detail in the video. The basis of the calculation is also given.
How to make a concrete staircase on stringers with your own hands, see the next video.
wooden porch
A wooden porch is one of the most common options in our country. Wood is plastic, easy to work with, costs relatively little (in our country), forgives many mistakes. That is why it is a favorite building material.
It also has disadvantages: it requires good protection before starting construction (antibacterial impregnations and fire retardants), as well as regular care – updating the protective paintwork. Then it looks attractive for a long time, otherwise it quickly loses its decorative effect.
One of the options for building a wooden porch with a staircase on bowstrings can be seen in the video. Please note that the porch is being built on sandy soil, so the method of installing the pillars used is not suitable for everyone. Everything else is clear.
brick porch
Since brick is a dense and heavy material, a serious foundation is required for a brick porch. Usually it is a monolithic slab, and with double reinforcement, and it is better if it is larger in size than the planned porch.
When calculating the parameters of the steps, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the brick and the thickness of the seam between them. Then it will be easier to lay the work – no need to cut the brick. If you are not going to clad the porch, use quality material for the outer rows. The inner rows – backfilling – can be made from battle or building blocks and their remnants.
If the house is on a high plinth, making a monolithic brick porch is too expensive. Then the columns or walls are folded, leaving empty space inside. It can then be used for household purposes or covered with decorative shields. If you need an upper platform, these columns / walls are covered from above with a concrete slab – homemade or finished – this is your choice. Then a ladder is attached to the resulting base. It doesn’t have to be brick. It can be metal, concrete or a combination.
Photo report: wooden porch on a metal frame
Theory is only a theory, and in construction too. You always understand the essence of the matter better if you observe the process yourself, because you can see how others are doing and learn something for yourself.
At the request of the parents, an exact copy of the old porch was made. The only difference is that a metal frame is welded for the new one.
In place of the demolished porch, a pit was dug 25 cm deep. Sand was filled in layers and rammed into the bottom, crushed stone – 10 cm each. A metal mesh with a cell of 10 cm was laid on top and all this was filled with concrete.
According to the previous dimensions of the porch, a metal frame was welded (from a corner of 70 * 5 mm). Sidewalls are exposed vertically and fixed on hairpins. Further, a base for benches is welded to them. All metal treated with a rust converter, primed and painted twice.
The wood used for construction is dry. Planed boards were cut to size (the width of the porch) and treated with an impregnation for direct contact with the ground.
We lay the dried boards on the frame. You have to drill a hole for each fastener – you just can’t take a corner just like that.
At this stage, two mistakes were made at once. The first is that the sheathing was not started from the sidewalls. Immediately began to lay the stairs. As a result, water constantly flows into the joints of the side sheathing and steps and the wood is distorted. It is necessary to start the sheathing from the sides, and make the steps a little longer so that they protrude beyond the side sheathing by at least a couple of centimeters. The second mistake is that the boards on the porch are stacked close to each other. With high humidity, they swell and the surface becomes uneven. When laying the porch sheathing, make gaps of at least 5-8 mm.
After all the boards are fixed, they are polished. First with a belt sander with a coarse grain, then with a disc sander with a fine one. The process is lengthy. In parallel, the task is being solved – to remove the green color of the impregnation. It does not overlap even with three layers of tinting.
After sanding, we start painting. Apply three times. Each layer after complete drying of the previous one. The resulting color is dark mahogany.
While the paint dries completely, we proceed to the manufacture of benches. We cut boards under them, grind off an oblique chamfer (for beauty), cover with impregnation.
We make the backs with a small decor – rounding at the edges.
We saw along the marked lines with a jigsaw, then grind to a smooth edge.
The sides are covered with plywood, which was painted in the same color. The porch is ready.
Do-it-yourself brick-concrete porch: photo
The walls of the landing are preliminarily made of bricks, on top of which a monolithic concrete slab is poured. Along the edge, a frame of corners is monolithic into it – so that the stairs and railings can be welded.
From a corner of 70 * 70 * 5 mm we cut blanks of the desired length. Then we treat them with a rust converter. We start cooking after the reaction has stopped and the metal has dried up.
We welded the first bowstring from metal.
The finished sidewall was attached to the concrete base with two pins.
In the same way, we cook the second bowstring and fix it. When working, make sure that the two bowstrings are in the same plane.
We begin to weld the support bars. It is important to constantly monitor the horizontal position so that the steps are not oblique.
We weld the transverse pieces of the corner to the supporting bars so that we get a shelf.
The corners are welded so that they form a frame. We put a piece of sheet slate in it. We lay out a reinforcing metal mesh on the slate. The edges of the mesh are welded to the frame.
Pour concrete into the prepared steps. We make it high-quality – so that the steps do not wear out longer.
While the concrete is gaining strength, we take on the racks that will support the canopy over the porch. For them, we take a profiled pipe 70 * 40 * 3 mm. From it we cut four columns. Two are slightly longer – they will be near the wall of the house, two are 15 cm shorter – they stand along the outer edge of the porch, creating the desired slope – so that the water and snow go off normally. For railings and crossbars, we use a profiled pipe 40 * 40 mm.
All metal is also treated with a rust converter.
In order to avoid lateral stresses, it is important to set the racks strictly vertically. We expose them, grab them, in several places with short seams, again we check whether they are standing correctly. We weld temporary stops and only after the next check we weld according to all the rules.
After all the racks are exposed and welded, you can assemble the railing. At the desired height, they are fixed strictly horizontally.
Then we proceed to the installation of the roof. We also cook it from a profile pipe 40 * 40 mm. First, the strapping around the perimeter – at the level of shorter racks, then – the rest of the structure. It is not difficult, but it takes a lot of time – a lot of intersections.
Then it was the turn of the railings and decorations. And again, there are no difficulties, it can be done easily if desired.
Everything, the porch is ready for finishing work. Rough tiles for outdoor use were purchased for the steps and landing. She also trimmed the sidewall of a monolithic slab.
The metal was painted with matching paint, the roof was covered with corrugated board left after the installation of the roof. The do-it-yourself porch turned out to be quite good.