Getting Serious about the Front Porch
After all the posts have been installed we began this week by installing the porch support beams. These are 6x8
solid fir beams that essentially support most of the porch roof structure. As you can see they aren't exactly
light.
Once the beam is in place it is bolted to the posts using two 12" lag bolts on each end.
Because the posts holding up the beams are big enough the inside corners were cut at a 45 degree angle rather
than lap jointed. If the posts were smaller a lap joint would have been required in order to securely lag bolt the
intersection together.
It didn't take too long before we had all the beams across the front of the house installed. The temporary
braces must stay in place until the ceiling joists are securely nailed in place at a minimum.
We continued the installation around the corner and tied in the beam to the master bathroom corner. If you
look closely you can see there are two logs that support the end of the beam where it meets the corner. This is
by design and provides plenty of support for the porch roof.
With all the support beams in place it was time to get to work on the ceiling joists and porch roof rafters. On a
Kuhns Brothers home the porch has a tongue and groove ceiling and is not left open as in some other designs.
Everything here is 2' on center. A nailer is installed against the exterior wall which supports the rafters and
keeps everything level during the installation.
When we reached the corner it was time to mark and cut off the fascia on the main part of the roof. Our
sheeting crew left the fascia long for us on purpose since there was no way to know where to cut it off until the
porch roof rafters are installed. We marked where the sheeting would contact the fascia and then allowed for
1/2" additional clearance and made our cut. This will allow the sheeting to sit against the house and provide a
half inch space so the fascia won't wind up sitting in water when it rains.
When you reach an outside corner it's time for a hip rafter. These are made of doubled up 2x8's because they
take a lot of weight and stress at the corner and needless to say because of their length they wind up being
pretty heavy.
With the hip rafter in place short rafters are installed to fill in the space and complete the corner. These rafters
vary in length and have compound cuts on the end that mount to the hip rafter. For relatively inexperienced
carpenters like us this takes some time to get right but is necessary for the porch to come together correctly.
Once the corner is complete it's a straight shot across the front of the house.
Naturally when we reached the other end there was another hip rafter and all the associated compound cuts
that go with it. I estimate it took us about 3 1/2 hours to cut and install all the rafters for each outside corner.
We finished the week after we had installed the only inside "hip" rafter. This will have all the same compound
cuts that the outside corner hip rafters have but instead of the rafters extending from the hip rafter to the main
support beam they extend from the hip rafter to the side of the house. No rocket science here just a lot of
cutting and fitting.
That's it for another week. We ordered our two garage doors and they
will be installed after Thanksgiving. The main door will use a
conventional garage door opener while the shop door will operate
manually with a chain mechanism. We also spent a few hours in one of
the local home care centers designing the kitchen and picking cabinets.
We'll do this again for bathrooms soon. Next week (Thanksgiving week)
we hope to finish the framing of the front porch.

Actually the term front porch is a misnomer. In reality this porch
extends from the garage across the front of the house and down the
other side. The porch roof on the side of the house also becomes the roof
of the master bath. The porch roof then works its way around the back
of the house in abbreviated form and eventually intersects the back
porch. So as you can see it really goes almost around three sides of the
house. We'll be starting on the back porch as soon as the front porch
roof is completely framed. Thank goodness the back porch is just a
simple 12x40 foot straight section. No hip rafters and no corners.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!


Check back soon.