My wife, Sarah, wanted the front door to be located on the side of the house shown in the first pictures, so, we removed a window and framed in a new front door expecting to build a front porch to go with it. Jump forward a year later, and she is finally getting her front porch. This is obviously a very small glimpse into all that went into building this structure, so for the complete instructions on how we built it, click on this link: How to Build a Deck or Porch with a Roof. So, without further explaining, let’s get started!
We knew we wanted the porch to be roughly 10′ by 24′ with, after much deliberating, a roof that would reach almost to the peak of the house. After drawing up the basic plans, building a material list, building a budget, and making sure there was nothing buried where we would be building, the work began. We first used the box blade to slope the area slightly away from our home for water runoff.
After laying out the post hole locations, we drilled the holes and set all the posts with concrete.
Using 2″ x 12″ 24′ boards, we framed the first three posts together. The make shift harness worked well for hoisting the upper board into place with only two guys.
We measured the remaining post locations, dug the holes, and filled them with concrete. It helps to have a son that can steady the auger (drill) when making the holes.
Now it is on to framing…
Hello! I am planning to build a deck with porch on my double wide! You do not know how happy I am to find your blog!!! In my construction research, I read a lot about ledger boards to connect the new part to the existing house? Am I correct in saying that you guys did not need a ledger board?
Hello Melissa! On the front porch, which you are looking at, we did not use a ledger board as the way we built the porch deck for our mobile home was with the intent of not having the weight of the porch roof adding additional weight to the mobile home roof; thus, the overkill of how we built the porch roof. However, on our side and back porches, we did use a ledger board but it did not support the weight of the roof. It is a very similar design to the front porch except that we attached the roof directly to the face of the home while making sure the roof weight rested upon the boards we attached to the 6″x6″ posts coming out of the ground. With a mobile home (depending upon what size your wall studs are) you can add piers made up of cinder blocks with hardwood shims at the top to strengthen the weight capacity of the mobile home wall you are attaching to; thus, keeping it from sagging. We did this along all of the exterior walls before we changed the sheetrock, flooring, and built decks. Hope that helps!