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Discussion Forum

Depth of porch/width of addition?

bclasen | Posted in General Discussion on April 2, 2006 05:01am

Hi,

Let’s see if I can explain this clearly – sorry if it is confusing. I’m planning on building an addition on the side of my ranch house. This addition will not be flush with the front of the existing house, I want it to stick out several feet to help offset the lines of the house, improving the look of the final structure. Then I want to build a long porch along the front of the existing house that would terminate at the new addition. I’m thinking that the depth of this long porch would be the same as the offset to the addition.

I have a problem, however. The property line on the side of the house where I want to build the addition is angled, the more the house is offset (meaning the deeper the porch), the closer I get to my setback. Or course this means the more the offset, the narrower the addition has to be. So I’m looking for ideas what people would think is:

1. The minimum depth of a long porch that follows the front of a house. Kinda like the old wrap around – enough for a chair to sit on or hang a swing & a small path to walk around.

2. The minimum width of this addition. This room will most likely be around 30′ long. It will serve two functions: a family room on one end and a dining room on the other.

I found a picture online of a house that looks like what I want to achieve – I’ve attached it. If you can imagine that my property line is on the far right and it is angling in towards the left of the house. Because of that, the more the addition sticks out, the narrower it has to be. I could make this addition flush with the existing structure and gain several feet.

I’ve done some rough measuring, here’s what I get:

1. If I make the addition flush with the existing house, the addition can be 15′ wide.

2. If I make the offset to the addition 4′ in front of the existing house (meaning the porch is 4′), then the addition can be 12′.

Whatcha think?

Bob

 

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Replies

  1. calvin | Apr 02, 2006 05:10pm | #1

    1).  7ft deep for sitting and walking comfort.

    A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.

    Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

    Quittin' Time

     

  2. User avater
    dieselpig | Apr 02, 2006 05:24pm | #2

    Bob,

    I follow you.  I think 12' is a pretty comfortable width for the rooms you want to have, maybe a little tight, but certainly livable.  12'x30' is going to be a bit of an odd shaped room though.  We have a 12' x 24' family room on one end of our ranch house and it seems to be right on the line of feeling like a big room, and feeling like an over-sized hallway.  12' x 30' may cross that line.  If you're going to use it as two different types of living areas, consider seperating with a pair of opposing halfwalls to seperate, but still leave an open feeling to the space.

    All that being said, I think you will find 4' to be too narrow for a front porch that will run the whole length of a ranch.  Probably 40 something feet long, right?  I'd say 6' at a minimum, 7 or 8 feet would feel more comfortable.

    Also, a 4' porch is going to leave you with a steeper roof pitch than a deeper porch would.  It's something that really needs to be considered when designing this thing.  Many ranch houses already have a low slope roof and I assume that you want the porch roof to terminate into the main house roof.  That means the porch roof will need to be a lower pitch than the main house.  You also want that intersection to occur fairly low in the span of the main house roof or it will look very odd.  That means the porch roof needs to be a significantly shallower pitch than the main house.   That usually means you raise the beam that the porch roof starts on or you extend the porch further away from the house. 

    Know any architects that can help you with the design?  That's really what they're their for.  I'm a framer and can build most anything that can physically be built.  But that doesn't mean it's going to feel like well proportioned space, know what I mean?

    View Image
    1. bclasen | Apr 03, 2006 04:43am | #3

      Guys - thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, no way I can do 7', the room would then only be 10' wide or so. I'm going to look around the neighborhood & see if I see any wrap-around type of porches & see what they have. If I go this route, I'll probably have a large porch are right in front of the door, given it looks OK. I't may be I have a wider porch that ends at the addition. In that case the addition would have to stick out very far, perhaps a couple of feet or so so it gives the house a better look. While I'd like a porch to extend along the whole house, if I end it before the addition I'll be able to get a wider room, probably 13-14'.The roof pitch issue is a great one - yes our house has a relatively low slope. However when I do the addition, I'll probably re-do the roof on the main structure. If I do that, I'll raise the roof (so to speak). That is one part of the job I'll probably contract out - my last attempt at my own roof worked out OK, but not perfect.As for an architect - that is a definite. I haven't found one yet but I will surely do so. At this point I am just fishing for ideas & possibilities as I need to sell this to my wife (shouldn't be too hard). I guess I'm trying to narrow down ideas first then bring in an expert. And regarding the narrowness of the room in relation to the length - excellent point. One thing that may help is I may open up the ajoining rooms to the addition (rather than just a door) to give it a larger feel. This is where an architect can really help, I'm not too good at visualizing things.And speaking of experts, anyone know of architects that do their work via the web or is it best to find someone local?Again - thanks so much!
      Bob

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