Building a screen porch onto a ranch?
Hello,
I have some clients that have asked me to give them an idea of what it would cost to add a screen porch to their house.
It’s a single level brick ranch, there is an existing cement pad that is the width of the gable end of the house at 24′ and about 16′ deep.
The roof overhang is about 3-4′, with the cantilever supported at the ends and the peak with approx. 4×12 beams.
The distance from the peak the the cement pad is apprx. 13′.
The insist they merely want a screened porch area – not gonna want windows/electrical/insulation at any time. they had one in their old home and used it like that and want that utility on the new home.
They want the interior ceiling to be a natural wood bead-board look and will want a screen door attached.
Maybe the screen will start 2′ from the pad with some siding on the exterior and some paneling on the lower interior. Either a snap in screen system or site built screening.
Pretty simple, but I’m not exactly sure how to even think about adding on to the roof for this, or – do we build another roof under and below the existing?
Not looking for cost estimates, just an idea of how would you start thinking about getting the basic structure to tie into the existing home?
Anther question, and maybe this is for the city bldg dept, but could you simply add posts around the perimeter of the pad, or would you actually need a real foundation for the addition? Or, does that depend on whether you tie into the existing roof or make a new one above or below?
This “job” is at the early, may not happen stage – we’ve not yet even talked budget.
Obviously, I’m not puttin a whole lot into thinking about this before I find out if they think it’s gonna be able to happen for $2-3000 – or – whether they realize it could be a 10K type of project. (or more)
Figured I’d ask here to get an idea where to start.
Thanks,
Julian
Replies
what about taking out the existing 3' cantilever beams and replacing them with 4x12 to the depth you want. At 16' you'd probably need two posts...one at the end and one half way. (for support) You'd want to frame for screen also depending on how wide you wanted the screen to be.
Then you can merely extend the roof and it would look nice and clean.
I'd also mark where the posts will sit, dig out from under and pour footer to frost line.
Having a support post 1/2 thru the room would negate a lot of the utility of having the screen room in the first place.Seems like there's got to be a way to do this with no supports in the middle of the room.It's not that large.Left the client a message to see what their initial thoughts are in terms of their budget - this all might be a moot point if they were thinking 2-3K to get a screen room...JT
I wouldn't put a support under the ridge beam........just the side beams where the screen will be.There are many ways to deal with the ridge...one being a glue lam that will carry 16'....shouldn't be more than 4x12 I'd imagine.
Two, 2X12s as the ridge beam, one on either side of the existing ridge beam, with an occasional spacer between them, or even three sandwiched together for esthetics, would probably work just fine for the ridge beam, just depends on the wind and snow loading requirements.
It would be easy to sandwich a 2x6, between two 2X12s, and have a chase to run wiring for area lighting in. And, it would allow an easy connection to the existing ridge beam.
I think that with West Nile spreading across the nation, the screened porch may make a comeback.