How to add a covered entryway to your home

Many houses in my neighbourhood feature a plain entryway with two or three steps. Kinda bland – and impractical. I’ll drive by and see homeowners carrying bags of groceries getting soaked in the rain as they struggle to open the front door. A covered entryway would keep themand add a shady place to sit on summer afternoons.

When designed and built right, this covered, comfy entry will lift a home’s kerb appeal through the roof!

Note: Before you begin, check with local council for necessary permits or approvals.

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Phase 1: The foundation

Begin construction by installing the support system for the roof. This includes footings, posts and beams to carry the entire structure.

Pour footings

Determine the depth and width of the entryway roof and mark the corners. We designed this one to be 16 ft (4.8m) wide and 10 ft (3m) deep. The front is cantilevered past the posts by 600mm, so the footings are placed eight feet (2.4m) away and parallel with the front of the house.

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Raise and brace posts

Once the concrete footings have cured, fasten 6×6 post bases with correctly sized wedge anchors. The diameter of the anchor is determined by the manufacturer of the post base, and the length determined by local building code.

Then position the posts in the bases and brace them in opposite directions with 2x4s. Drive stakes into the ground and adjust the posts so they’re plumb, then fasten the braces to the stakes.

Cut away the cladding

On each side, place another post inside the exterior wall. You can do this from inside or outside the house. There’s an advantage to doing it from inside: You can easily and inexpensively patch plasterboard. From the outside, it’s more difficult to patch cladding, but it’s easier to position each post and beam.

In either case, when you cut into the wall cavity, find the stud bay and cut down the middle of the studs. This will leave you with enough space on the stud to fasten the sheathing or plasterboard patch. If you can remove the cladding instead of cutting through it, you won’t have to worry about patching it or buying replacement cladding.

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Add beam support

Each beam support consists of 2-by timber to match the framing of the existing wall (2×4 or 2×6). Each beam support will also be the same number of plies as the beam you’re installing. This design called for three-ply beams, so we needed three-ply supports.

To determine the length of the supports, subtract the height of a beam from the height of the studs in the wall. Align each support inside the wall so that the line between the post and the support is perpendicular to the house.

Place the beam

Install each beam in one of two ways: Either build it on a pair of sawhorses and lift it into place, or build it in place on the posts. Glue and nail the plies of each beam together, making sure the tops and bottoms are flush, then use post-beam connectors to secure it to the posts. Before installing rafters, add a fascia board to the outside of each beam.

Phase 2: Roof structure

For the second phase of the project, build the roof support structure, including the rafter ledger against the house, the gable rafters and the ridge beam. Match the pitch of the existing roofline — the cuts in the rafters are specific to that pitch.

Add the cross beam

Install a concealed hanger flush with the end of each beam. Different hangers are available for specific beam sizes, depending on your design needs. Build and set the beam in the hanger and fasten it with hanger nails.

Fasten the ledger

Make the connection to the house by cutting away the cladding and using structural screws to attach ledger rafters to the studs inside the wall. Start by cutting the seat cut and heel cut toward the eaves and the plumb cuts on both ends, then tack both sides of the ledger rafters in place right over the cladding.

Use the boards as a guide to cut away the cladding on top; this will result in a cut approximately 40mm above the ledger boards. The extra space will be enough to build up the sheathing and add flashing. Trace the bottom of the ledger, then remove it from the wall. Cut away the cladding and fasten the ledgers with structural screws on top of roofing felt or house wrap.

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