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daft_punk

Crazy porch idea ?

19 years ago

Hello...

Just wondering if anyone thinks this is a crazy idea. I'm building an 8x32 farmer's porch across the front of my single-storey log cabin. There's a stone wall and steps 28 inches below ground where the supports will go. Unfortunately, the frost line is 42 inches.

Here's where the craziness comes in. I've looked into extensing the foundation in front of the house for the porch to rest on. In my warped mind, this provides several advantages...

- I won't have to pound through rock to sink the footings.

- 240 square feet of extra basement space.

I was quoted a price od 4600, including a 40-inch wide opening in the original doundation so I can get to the new one.

Even though there will be a roof over the porch, I realise that any floor I lay over it will have to be water tight. For wood, this means tongue-and-groove at a minimum. Here's where it gets crazier. I'm thinking of laying rough tile or flat stone for a floor. To me, that would be a cool contrast to a log home.

My questions...

- Has anyone ever built a porch over a basement before? Are there problems with this approach??

- Has anyone ever laid a tile or stone floor on a farmer's porch" Would it look cool or nutty??

- Is this overkill? Should I just lay footings (or have someone else do it) and store stuff under the porch like most normal people do??

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Marco

Comments (2)

  • 19 years ago

    Semi-crazy maybe. Tne porch would most likely leak. Stone layed on a wood deck would likely rot & leak/fail eventually. The stone with the log cabin could look nice though.
    If you did the extra basement space, I would want a concrete deck to lay the stone on as well as waterproofing membrane. My experience with underground rooms beyond the main building is they usually leak or are at least are damp.
    Could you just pour a slab on grade with the proper foundation and then cover with stone?

  • 19 years ago

    There is a company call stone deck that has a system for putting stone on top of an exsisting deck. I looked into that a while ago, but I decided to go with the Schluter system. (My deck is about 75% complete.) They make an membrane to go under stone or tile that makes it completely waterproof, and will take freeze/thaw cycles. It has drawbacks and advantages. It's expensive, but then there's no staining and refinishing. I had trouble getting approvals from my building department. It took time, but the approvals came through. I went with an outdoor rated porcliean tile but, I saw a deck in my area that used slate. It look great.

    You have to find someone who can lay tile well and can follow instruction. Your not likely to find a deck builder who has had experience doing this in your area. I wasted a lot of time chasing the only one in my area who had done this before. They were not that close and didn't want to come out here.

    I found an experienced deck builder in my area that was willing and to try something new. His men, and some subs, are installing the tile, the point is that the deck builder is standing behind the whole thing. I was ready to go with a comtractor who wanted me to get someone else to do the tile. I felt uncomfortable with that. Who's responble if somethng goes wrong?