How To Add Roof Over Front Door

Ever visit a friend who'd simply finished a serious renovation? Did y'all accept that grudging admiration heading up the new walkway, that slight hollow in the belly equally yous climbed the steps to the new front door?

New Have on Tradition

A gabled portico with six tapered columns (higher up) and a fanciful interpretation of a fanlight — a half-round cut-out in the gable with wrought-iron grillwork — gives presence to the entry of this newly built seaside "cottage" simply keeps the mood informal. To add together another level of detail, architect Thad Siemasko inlaid a ring of purpleheart woods in the white-painted trim surrounding the the door and sidelights. The fieldstone on the stair risers and the shingles and forest trim on the gable repeat elements used elsewhere on the house.

Well, that'southward all just envy. What y'all should have sensed was what your buddy surely intended: a greeting at the gateway to his home that felt like a good handshake: solid, friendly, and wanting to impress.

A well-designed entryway delivers just that, making anyone passing through information technology feel a little important and very welcome. "What's key," says Thad Siemasko, the architect who designed the house shown here, "is that an entry be inviting, and that it enhance the character of your house."

From a practical standpoint, it should provide a identify for packages and mail service, and give visitors well-lit shelter from the elements. "It's non very gracious to make guests stand in the pouring rain," comments builder McKee Patterson, who says nearly one-half of his renovation projects include improving the entryway. "Think of the surface area as an extension of your foyer."

Yet many homes do accept entries that are less than gracious, particularly if they were put upwardly in the past twoscore years. If yours falls into that army camp, adding an entry porch, or portico, is one sure way to endow information technology with a friendlier facade. Often it'southward the one characteristic that gives a manifestly business firm character.

If you lot want to open the door to that kind of comeback, read on — you'll notice the best advice This Old House has to offering.

<p>BEFORE: This stately brick firm built in the 1930s had a curiously<br> nondescript entry — perchance due to Depression-era<br> budget constraints.</p> — Earlier: This stately brick house built in the 1930s had a curiously
nondescript entry — possibly due to Depression-era
budget constraints.

A Matter of Style

A well-designed entry should reverberate the architectural heritage of the house, set the stage for what's to come in one case you enter, and address a few practical concerns. It should be accordingly scaled to its environs: Consider the two-story porch on a Southern plantation house, or the simple header and broad trim boards used on a small, vintage Colonial. "Think of an entry not equally a separate entity but as role of a whole," says McKee Patterson, whose architectural firm is located in Southport, Connecticut. "All the elements should work together as a limerick, and then information technology looks like it'southward always been there."

Ideally, an entry should offer some overhead protection, not just to shelter guests just also to keep the door from being pounded by the elements. Sometimes this shelter is already built into the style of a house — there are deep roof eaves over the door, say, or a full front porch with a recessed entry; then you can concentrate on improving the landing, lighting, and front door itself. Otherwise, you may exist looking at renovating or calculation on a separate portico roof. These can range from a uncomplicated gable overhang supported by wooden brackets to a broad semicircular flat roof with stately columns beneath. Possibly the nearly traditional take is a classical pediment supported by 2 or more columns, a grade that has reigned over American doors since the Greek Revival period of the mid-19th century.

Considering doors are ever congenital above grade, steps and a landing also factor into the entryway equation. "Even a step-up of vi inches creates a nice threshold," says Patterson. If there is a natural stone walkway or garden path nearby, stone steps tin connect the entry to the surrounding landscape. The steps can also echo a material used on the firm itself. A brick firm with matching brick steps has a cohesive look, as do wooden steps and railings detailed or painted to match window, porch, or roof trim.

The forepart door should have much more than detail than the rest of the house because information technology will be viewed from but inches abroad, says architect Thad Siemasko. He likes to accent door trim with exotic forest inlays and incorporate decorative motifs that mirror trim details used elsewhere on the house. Sidelights, and a transom or fanlight above the door, can add period detail and likewise bring light into a dark vestibule.

<p>AFTER: Designer Ridley Wills<br> added a formal Georgian-style portico with a catamenia-<br> appropriate gallery<br> on top to requite the firm<br> the g entrance information technology deserves. He restored the original six-console door, sidelights, and<br> transom, and built a new brick landing and married it to the rebuilt brick walkway. Six<br> off-the-shelf redwood columns on box bases were used to support the rectangular portico roof, which has a custom-fabricated redwood balustrade. <br>Price:<br> Well-nigh $25,000</p> — AFTER: Designer Ridley Wills
added a formal Georgian-fashion portico with a period-
appropriate gallery
on top to give the business firm
the grand entrance it deserves. He restored the original six-panel door, sidelights, and
transom, and built a new brick landing and married it to the rebuilt brick walkway. Half-dozen
off-the-shelf redwood columns on box bases were used to support the rectangular portico roof, which has a custom-fabricated redwood balustrade.
Price:
About $25,000

Practical Pointers

An entryway landing should exist at least 6 anxiety wide, so two people can stand up side by side at the door, says architect and TOH contributor Duo Dickinson, whose bold entryways are ane of his signatures. And it should be at to the lowest degree 4 feet deep, then an outswinging tempest door won't ship visitors tumbling off the steps. Homes with a small vestibule benefit from a larger entry porch landing; edifice in benches makes it user-friendly to remove boots, or gear up downward groceries while you unlock the door.

To shed pelting effectively, the porch overhang needs to be a minimum of ii one/two feet deep, just it should generally cover the whole depth of the landing. If information technology's gabled, pelting volition naturally drain off the sides, simply a shed roof (a flat roof that slopes forward) will demand a gutter along the front end edge. For those who live in cold climates, radiant rut underneath the entry landing and stairs is a luxurious way to go along the porch articulate of water ice and snow.

While an entry needs to be lit for safety and security, lighting also creates a mood. Typically, at that place'south a pendant or recessed fixture in the ceiling of the overhang to illuminate the landing. Wall sconces flanking the door emphasis the door itself and usually reverberate the style of the house: Curved copper onion lamps might emphasis a Colonial Revival firm, for case, and rectangular statuary lanterns could exist used on a Craftsman bungalow. Sconces are a good place to put your money considering these will be seen upwards shut by visitors, says Dickinson, who is based in Madison, Connecticut.

So shut, in fact, that Dickinson cautions confronting making your entry glaring; the goal should exist a warm glow. "Too many entryways I see are overlit," he says. "Where at that place are sidelights, the light coming from inside the firm can be quite significant." For the all-time lighting command, he recommends putting entryway lights on a dimmer switch.

<p>Earlier:<br> A flat-roofed entry porch<br> built with undersized framing lumber looked tacked on to this tardily-19th-century Shingle-mode home.</p> — Earlier:
A apartment-roofed entry porch
built with undersized framing lumber looked tacked on to this belatedly-19th-century Shingle-style home.

Edifice to Last

Because they are very exposed to the elements, entries get especially conditions-browbeaten. Cedar, redwood, and mahogany are all skilful choices for forest trim elements, says This Old House full general contractor Tom Silva. "These days nosotros're besides using a lot more than man-made materials, like cellular PVC trim, which lasts forever and is impervious to water."

Columns are a particular weak point because water is wicked upwardly by the base, fifty-fifty on an elevated porch, causing them to rot. Woods columns built to last should be raised up off the landing, using special galvanized metallic brackets. Tom hides the gap effectually the bottom with baseboard textile — preferably cellular PVC stock. All wood columns should exist treated thoroughly with a water-repellent forest preservative before existence painted, or sealed and treated with an exterior stain.

Brackets that back up an entry roof demand to be substantial — at least 4 inches in both dimensions, says Dickinson, who prefers brackets fabricated of laminated redwood stock. Some contractors make brackets out of solid cedar fence-post material, which can be cutting and shaped using a router.

All brackets should exist anchored to the wall with galvanized or stainless steel lag bolts and attached not to the capsule only to the structure of the firm. Tom recommends hiring an engineer if you're planning to back up a sizable roof on brackets, especially in snow country. But wherever you alive, even minor overhangs should be built to exist equally strong as any other roof. Siding on the house at the roofline must be removed before roof installation, and the sheathing should be flashed with a waterproof membrane and metal sheets.

When in doubt, Tom says, information technology doesn't hurt to "overbuild" an entryway. Zilch looks more unwelcoming than a sagging, poorly made portico. "It's a relatively pocket-size element of the house, so the materials won't intermission your budget," he says, and considering the dual benefits of proficient looks and function, it's home-improvement coin well spent.