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Building Homes or Extensions/Adding a front porch to a brick home

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Expert: - 4/14/2009


Question

Brick Home in Need of
We are in the process of house hunting and have come across a house in a neighborhood that we like because of it's location.  However we don't like the front.  Was wondering if it was possible to add a front porch across the front of this house with the existing protruding door area and window above.

Answer

side view of porch add
Hi Kelly P., of course it's possible to add a porch across the front of this house.  It's a beauty by the way!  My wife and I both love it.  Anyhow, back to the question:  This house sets up nicely for a porch.  Basically you or your contractor would cut a horizontal "reglett" into one of the mortar joints between the top of the front door and the window above it.  This groove becomes home for the flashing for the roof over the porch.  So your roof assembly attaches pretty much at the elevation of the second floor joists.  A ledger is bolted to the existing structure and then posts etc. are added at the outside of the porch to support the outer roof edge.  Obviously you will need to pull a permit for a project like this.  So an architect or at least an engineer will be needed to draw up the design for the building department.  I hope this information helped, please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com

Bruce E. Johnson

Expertise

I can answer any construction related question in regards to carpentry, concrete, drywall, masonry, structural elements of any type of building, residential or commercial. Interior or exterior.

Experience

Custom Commercial and residential buildings. Churches, theaters, schools and auditoriums. Most recently I am working with the Catholic Church on several design build committees. I have a website related to scheduling and project supervision. Although my expertise is more related to multimillion dollar commercial, educational and theatrical projects my generous credentials in residential and remodelling construction make me a viable source of information regarding all forms of building questions.

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