Some Ideas for Remodeling Porches

Fixing up a porch is a great idea that will extend the use of your home considerably. Using just some paint, stain and basic carpentry skills, you can make your porch a pleasure to spend time on.

An example shown on DoItYourself.com shows a couple from Georgia who wanted enjoy their extended warm seasons of spring, summer and fall, but avoid the problems of mosquitoes and decided to take their slab concrete patio and make it into a screened in area they could enjoy almost all year long.

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The patio was just concrete square under a roof overhang. They wanted the porch to blend in with the home, as well as protect the family from the heat, humidity and insects of the Georgia summers. The concrete slab declined slightly to allow for runoff, so there had to be some adjustments made to accommodate this feature.

Here is their step by step solution:

Step One. Cut pre-primed 4X8 sheets of beadboard ceiling paneling.

Step Two. Install the celing paneling and the ceiling fan. They used a nail gun to make the installation of the ceiling panels faster and easier than trying to swing a hammer upward. Before all of the panelling was installed, the ceiling was wired for the fan and light. This will allow the porch to remain cool and the light will allow the room to be used at night. This was a two person job, with one person holding the fan and the other connecting the wires and screwing the fan in place. The finish trim hid the seams in the paneling.

Step Three. Frame out the porch. Using 2X4 boards, they spaced them to allow for standard width screen to be installed. The crosspieces were nailed directly through the vertical braces.

Step Four. Install the interior panelling. Pine and plywood bead board paneling was secured by staple gun. These had to be trimmed along the bottom to accommodate the uneven floor.

Step Five. Install and level the exterior paneling. The harbor ad exterior panels wear put into place, from the bottom up. The first one had to be custom cut to allow for the uneven ground line and then the rest followed. These panels were painted to match the existing exterior of the house, so there was a lot of trial and error to match the aged yellow paint exactly. But weather resistant exterior paint was used so that it can be easily kept clean by rinsing Wit soap and water.

Step Six. Do the screening. Vinyl grids had to be screwed directly into the wooden frames. Then the screens were attached to the channels in the grids, so the fiberglass or aluminum screens could be slid in without using staples. When the screens were rolled into the grids with a spline, the extra screening material was cut off. With a mallet, the caps over the vinyl channels were banged into place.

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