Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with porch

Building better boundaries for bugs

catlet — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:49:28 -0800

DIY screen porch: now that it's heading into summer in Georgia, what should I know before I make a huge mess on my back deck? Although I'm on the first floor, the house is on a slope so my back deck is on the second story over a concrete patio, and the upstairs deck forms a roof. It's all wood with widely spaced uprights and a railing; . I'd like to enclose the portion that opens out from my bedroom (about half of the total deck), and I'd like the result to be secure enough that I can let my cats out there without worrying they'll slip through somewhere, or without building a giant catio that looks like a holding tank made of hardware cloth.

The easiest solution seems to be rolls of vinyl screen and a staplegun, but I think it would end up looking saggy and sort of bootleg. The guy at Lowe's told me about the Screen Tight system, which is a set of tracks screwed into the wood, into which the screening is attached with a spline tool. It sounds good, but I haven't seen it installed. Other ideas? Resources?

Please assume two people with basic spatial skills, and no power equipment other than a cordless drill. Also, I rent, but the landlord thinks this is a cool idea and says to do whatever I want. Thanks!

How can I enjoy my deck without being swarmed by bugs?

Fleebnork — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:21:24 -0800

How can I enjoy my deck without being swarmed by bugs? (I searched previous questions and didn't find anything pertaining to bugs, yards and/or decks, porches, or patios.)

I have a nice big deck on the back of my house. Unfortunately I live in Georgia, and that means bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. The bugs in question are gnats and mosquitoes. The gnats are just annoying and seem to want to fly up my nostrils. And mosquitoes are... well you know.

We've tried citronella candles and tiki torches, but they don't really work. I don't have a covered deck, so creating a screened area would be a major rebuild, so that's not a possibility.

Can anyone recommend anything, or are we just kind of stuck with the bugs?

Easy-to-install winter stair treads?

Riverine — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:50:24 -0800

Where can I get easy-to-install winter stair treads? My landlord rebuilt our porch steps and painted them in some glossy paint, which causes them to ice up from even a tiny bit of precip. I fell on them twice today, despite death grip on the railing. Rather than wait around for him to purchase and install some stair treads
(his track record is in the toilet), I'd like to address this myself.

What I'd like are these, but they are out of stock. Home Depot and Valu had only thin rubber things which looked like they wouldn't last through December in Buffalo.

Can anyone point me to a sturdy, ice-resistant product, perhaps that I could buy locally? Thanks.

Does homeowner's insurance cover porch settling due to drought?

schleppo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:05:19 -0800

InsuranceFilter: Would homeowners insurance generally cover a large concrete porch that has pulled away from the house due to a summer drought? The porch is settling and pulling away from the foundation due to a summer drought in our area (and because it wasn't tied in well enough with the rest of the foundation) I know I don't have drought insurance, because that usually covers agricultural assets (crops, etc.) and I don't plant anything but my butt on the couch for football.

Fire pit in screened-in porch?

Sar HaPanim — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:40:28 -0800

Can I use a fire pit in a screened-in porch? I recently bought a fire pit, which is a flat copper/steel bowl on legs with a dome-shaped screen top. I am planning to use it in my screened-in porch, but wondering whether this is safe. Is there any reason I shouldn't do this, and use it in my back yard instead?

Color Crazy

pranalaxmi — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:33:55 -0800

What color should I paint my porch if I want to keep a fire engine red door? I know there might be a myriad of options, but we're stumped. It's a small A-frame white house with clean white banisters along a cement front porch with steps that spill into the front yard...ie pretty standard. The door is red and we'd like to keep it that way. I've scraped the paint, sanded holes, and primed some spots. I've noticed that previous owners of the place painted it dark green, gray, and aquamarine before, but we want to move into the warm color schemes. My girlfriend picked out a terra cotta exterior porch enamel that ended up looking like Halloween when we started to put it down. Now we're rethinking it altogether. Suggestions?

New Steps at Side Door

LolaGeek — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:28:16 -0800

I need new steps at the side door of my house. Who should I get to build/install them, and what should they be made out of? I need new steps leading to the side entrance of my house. Currently we have a set of wooden stairs (3 or 4 steps) going from the side door down to ground level. I'm not sure how they are attached to the side of the house, but on the ground they are actually sitting on two bricks, not actually resting on the ground. They were obviously a temporary solution by the previous owners of our home, and the time has come to replace them.

We use this door as the primary entrance to our home, as it's next to the driveway, so the steps need to be sturdy to stand up to a lot of use. I'm not sure what material we should look for - concrete? Or some sort of wood composite? Our front stoop is made of brick with slate on the stairs and top surface, but for the side door we don't need anything fancy.

I don't even know what type of craftsman or contractor to look for to build new steps. I know it would depend on the type of material used, but I'm not even sure where to begin looking. I'm a member of Angie's List, so once I have a general category I like to check on there for specific recommendations.

I want that beautiful longlasting awesomness.

stormygrey — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:17:47 -0800

I need some help with porch paint. I have an older wooden plank porch. We can not make the paint look good to save our lives. I saw a historic house in rural Georgia that had been redone and had this amazing porch paint job. It was very opaque paint, had grit to it and then what appeared to be a very thick epoxy top coat. Who knows? No one at that inn knew what had been used.

Does anyone know if there is a single product that does all this? Or is it more likely that they just sanded the paint like gesso and then added lots of poly or something?

What is required for a Chicago porch repair permit?

AgentRocket — Sun, 20 May 2007 12:20:50 -0800

In Chicago, can I obtain a porch repair permit to fix my porch but not bring it entirely up to code? [(1) Sorry this is long. (2) I plan to call the City tomorrow but seek information here too.]

We live in a three-flat on the north side of Chicago. We have a three story porch off the back. It was built before the porch collapse that spurred the City to enact more stringent regulations, and was up to code when built. It is not up to the current code (rails are too short, we need more bolts into the house, and we need the porch anchored to the ground).

Our 4x4 columns are bowing and need replacing, and we are going to go up to 6x6s per the code. Two of three neighbors want to bring everything up to code at the same time, because if we are spending thousands, we might as well do it all at once. One does not, and says we should just replace the columns and be done with it.

The debate is this: what are the requirements for getting a permit? Our dissenter neighbor believes that we can obtain a repair permit that calls only for replacement of the columns, leaving everything else not up to code, on the theory that the porch was grandfathered in under the more stringent code and therefore we never have to fix everything if we do not want to. Apparently, there are local permit offices that will stamp permits on a walk-in basis if the applying party is a city-licensed contractor. We believe that the City will/should demand full code compliance before issuing a repair permit.

Can anyone familiar with this process explain who is right?

(At the risk of getting busted for two questions, does anyone have an architect and/or builder that they liked?)

Block off wooden porch steps for dog purposes, cheaply?

staggernation — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:42:08 -0800

Stairs (wood) lead from backyard up to outdoor deck (wood). Dog can run up. Want to install something to keep dog in yard, with stairs remaining usable, without hiring expensive contractor. Thoughts? Picture a house with an outdoor porch with a wooden deck, about 4' off the ground. Centered at one end of the deck, which is 10' wide, there's a set of stairs, 7' wide, leading to a backyard that's otherwise fenced in. Neither the porch nor the stairs has a railing.

Now picture a happy Labradoodle. The goal is to let this dog romp in said yard unsupervised, without being able to run up the stairs. But people still have to be able to use the stairs. In other words, this will involve either a length of railing + gate mounted to the deck (no side supports available), or a fence + gate around the three sides of the stairway. Or something clever I haven't envisioned.

And ideally, we'll accomplish this in an inexpensive and somewhat DIY fashion: with prefabricated components we can purchase, even if we need a pro to help mount them, and no concrete-pouring.

Any ideas?

I found some porch railings that might be suitable, but I'm not 100% sure which components would be needed, and it appears to get a little pricey when you add up the gate, railing, post mounts, and post cladding. This doesn't have to be aesthetically wonderful or especially sturdy—just gotta keep that dog in the yard.

What kind of wood is my deck made of?

designbot — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:53:56 -0800

What kind of wood is my deck made of? I want to seal my deck for the winter, but I don't know what kind of wood it was made of. This is probably a no-brainer for somebody out there. Some areas have a slight greenish tinge, so I'm thinking it's probably pressure-treated wood, but I want to be make sure I get the right kind of sealant (it ain't cheap). Pics of the deck here.

Also, would I need to apply sealant to all the railings and supports and everything, or just the floorboards?

Creative high-rise balcony ideas

onshi — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 07:55:38 -0800

Creative, functional, even fanciful uses for an east-facing 5' x 9' 23rd floor apartment balcony? The balcony is carpeted, and protected from the wild world outside by a 42" high railing with sheet metal panneling that throws a considerable amount of shade after 10am. I am in Canada, so apartment gardening is somewhat of an option. Are there weatherproof options for outdoor storage?

For the moment, all I have is a sad, lonely folding canvas chair. I'm in a small, one bedroom unit and would like to get maximum use/swankness/enjoyment from what little square-footage I have!

What can we do with this three-season porch?

nev — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:21:04 -0800

What can we do with this three-season porch? We just bought a condo in a two-family house in the Boston area. Everything about it was a gut renovation except for a three-season porch in the front -- instead the owners just put in some new inexpensive carpet and left the rest as-is.

When the outside temperature was 85F, it was at least 110 in the porch with the windows closed and the sun beating down. This being New England, it's probably going to be more like a 1.5 season porch because not all the crappy windows close flush and cool air rushes in really fast (like at night).

At first we were thinking we'd remove the windows and carpet and just go with screens and additional drainage and waterproofing, to make it into a regular covered porch. But Google tells me that most people convert into three-seasons, so maybe we should work with what we have.

What would we need to do to stop the wildly swinging internal temperatures? And what are some creative ideas for use of that kind of space? Anything short of a complete tear-down is an option.

housefilter-wood porch, badly painted, wet

QIbHom — Sat, 21 May 2005 10:21:06 -0800

The front porch of my 1926 non-historic house needs to be refinished. It has peeling paint over stain, is developing 3-4mm wide cracks and when I make it down to wood, the boards seem to be damp. Small ants come spilling out when I turn off my orbital sander. The porch is covered, isn't too big (maybe 15 sq. feet). I have an orbital sander, wirebrush, paint scrapper, a heat gun and a small tools and material budget. I have elderly pets and I eat the plants I grow next to the porch, so I'd prefer to avoid chemical strippers.

I assume I need to get down to the wood, fill the cracks, sand, put on a coat of some kind of primer, then possibly multiple coats of paint (I gave up on stain, after seeing the shape the wood was in). I got nearly nowhere after 4 hours with paint scraper, orbital sander with course sandpaper and fingernails (some of the paint sheets off, other bits are really on there). I gave up on the heat gun after 15 min. Is there any way to speed this up without using chemicals? Can I leave the paint on the railings (which is in better shape), and just sand and paint it? And how do I get the hook and eye sandpaper to stay on the orbital sander for long enough to wear out said sandpaper?

Paint was glopped on over dirt, bird shit and gods know what else, and it was applied thickly. The porch itself was (like so much of the rest of the house) apparently built by a 4th grade class on holiday.

The goal is not a cover on House Beautiful, but rather to end up with something that looks decent, does not attract any more attention from the zoning zombies and does not require major surgery every year. Repainting every few years is fine. I'd rather spend a little more on paint and get another year or two out of it than repaint frequently. I'd rather not spend huge amounts on paint that will last 2 months longer than cheap stuff.

Any paint recommendations? Primer recommendations? Should I break down, and put some kind of outdoor carpet thing on the high traffic bit up the steps to the door (I think that kind of thing looks tacky, although that would fit in with the tone of the neighbourhood)? And, how do I deal with the damp boards (I'm in Michigan, if that makes a difference). I'm doing this alone, and really need to move on to other house issues within a few weeks.