IIServices · The Trade
Porches and porticos, columns plumb.
A porch is a room you live in half the year on the Cape. It has to shed rain, take salt air, and be safe underfoot, and it has to look like it was always part of the house.
Porch is a broad word. Here are the kinds we build, and the material choices that decide how it wears and whether it is slippery when the fog rolls in.
Types
- Farmer's porch
- The open, roofed porch across the front or wrapping a corner. The classic Cape welcome, with columns, a rail and a beadboard ceiling.
- Screened porch
- A porch closed in with screen, so you use it into the bug season. A three season room without the glass.
- Entry portico
- A small roofed structure over the front door, on columns. It shelters the entry and gives the front of the house a face.
- Three season room
- A porch enclosed with windows, warmer and more finished than a screen, used spring through fall.
Flooring, and grip when wet
- Tongue and groove fir
- The traditional porch floor, painted, tight jointed and pitched to shed water. Warm and classic, it needs paint and care.
- Mahogany
- A dense hardwood floor for a premium porch, oiled to hold its color.
- Composite
- The low maintenance floor, and textured composite grips well when wet, a real advantage on a foggy coastal porch or on steps.
- Pitch matters
- Whatever the material, the floor is pitched slightly away from the house so water runs off and the surface dries. A flat porch floor holds water and gets slick.
Columns and ceiling
- Wood vs PVC columns
- Wood columns are traditional and can be turned or fluted; cellular PVC and fiberglass columns will not rot at the base where water collects. We set both plumb and load bearing where needed.
- Beadboard ceiling
- The classic porch ceiling, often painted a pale blue, finished so the whole porch reads as one piece.
The standard
Columns plumb, ceilings beadboard, floors pitched to shed rain, and every framing member flashed and treated for salt air. A porch built this way is a room, not a repair waiting to happen.
How it is quoted
A site visit and a written proposal, materials named, framing and flashing spelled out, and the price you can hold us to.
Put it in writing.
A site visit and a written proposal cost nothing. Scope, materials, schedule and price, in a document you can hold us to.