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This series of articles describes my experiences designing and constructing
a fairly substantial, custom brick porch. As always, I don't claim
to be any kind
of expert in any of the procedures described. I made many mistakes,
which I have included for your amusement.
I have entitled these articles `A porch too far' because I firmly believe that a project of this scale is at about the limit of what an amateur, working unassisted, can reasonably achieve without serious threat to sanity and family life. I don't mean `amateur' in the perjorative sense here -- that is, a person of dubious competence -- but, rather, in the sense of having to squeeze in the job between work and family commitments.
I started this project with four days off work, working 7am-7pm each day. There was then a further two months when I worked weekends, again 7am-7pm, and every evening until dark. At the time of writing the job still isn't finished: the exterior of the porch still needs to be rendered and painted, but the weather is now firmly against me, so that probably won't get done until next Spring. And these timings don't include the time I spent shopping at the timber yard, or making drawings, or on the telephone to the planning officer.
There's also the small matter of the £2000 or so that the materials cost.
I hope these articles are useful or, if not that, at least entertaining.
Design, planning, preparation
Constructing the poured concrete foundation slab
Bricklaying
Building the doorstep
Fitting the window
Roof framing
Roof tiling
Roof fascia, trim, and guttering
Hanging the door
Flooring
Interior fitting
Making good
Still to come: rendering the exterior!
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