If you follow the white trim board at the bottom, it’s pretty obvious how unlevel the porch is. But once the dry fit was level, we’d glue and screw that board down. Many also believe once it’s installed they’ll never have to do any maintenance to their new deck. How will the raised floor work with the front door? Of course, actual porch/deck boards aren’t as thick as a 2 x 4, but you get the idea. Learn how your comment data is processed. Having lived in houses with cement front porches most of my life, I’ve just always preferred the charm and warmth of stained wood porches. And if all of this is clear as mud, hopefully it’ll become much clearer as this project progresses. Steps to Build a Raised Deck Over a Concrete Patio Plan a Layout. Will it be a weather treated lumber? We built a deck over the top of the steps, along with wooden steps, etc. There are always so many surprises during DIY. At first, you have to plan a layout. Narrower boards are less likely to cup, you should also consider thicker deck boards since thicker materials are usually more stable as well. 4. It was challenging, and we certainly didn’t get any of them perfect, but they were good enough to do the job that needed to be done. Screw 6 in × 6 in (15 cm × 15 cm) post mounts into each corner of the deck. Most deck joists are 2x8s. Looks good! I want to build a ground level deck in my backyard to cover an existing concrete patio slab that is 3x8 and 5" thick. Many years ago I was told that concrete takes 100 years to “fully cure”. Make sure to screw them into the joists underneath the decking and not only into the decking material. Use pressure-treated lumber when building the front porch, as the components will be exposed to bad weather. It’s called Redwoods, address is: 623 Esther. Also there’s a fancy wood working jig you could make up to have an adjustable angle can’t remember it’s name right now. Check the drainage of the concrete patio. Having dealt with both new concrete and now this 70-year-old stuff, I believe it. There is an easier method however to put a new wood deck directly over the top of your old concrete porch. They are one of the few products you can install directly over old concrete patios and porches. Once those are done, I will still need to install spacers on the front and right side of the concrete to attach the white trim board to. I'm a DIY fanatic remodeling my way through our 1948 fixer upper.More About Kristi. Most people think composite decking is the best decking material. Fascia board? But you can’t just put wood porch/deck boards directly onto concrete. My brother and I only got halfway done with what I had hoped to accomplish yesterday, but we learned a lot along the way. If Home Depot doesn’t stock or can’t order these for you, you should check at other local lumber yards, as these woods are the best for this type of use. Rip the extra stock into strips of various thickness. The first step of this project is to build the concrete entrance deck. Front Porch & Exterior Makeover (In Progress), Critter-proofing and Installing the Porch Boards, Finished Front Porch Floor (Wood Front Porch Built Over Existing Concrete Porch), Exterior Progress: Shutters Installed On The Stone Side Of The House, Prepping For Exterior Paint (Plus, Updated Exterior Photos), An Artwork Switcheroo and Haint Blue Revisited. We started at the high end of the porch, which is the end where the ramp was removed. Mark the location of the sleeper on the concrete patio. down to the driveway. Our hardwood decking has a lifespan up to 75+ years when installed properly. So I might need to add that step also. The wall I took down between the kitchen and the breakfast room (where the kitchen peninsula is now) used to be the exterior wall of the house. I agree not $2000, maybe $800. A few other considerations that could help if you choose this method. In general, a deck footing is usually used if it is going to be higher than your waist or larger than 100 square feet. So the process was that we would cut one riser, attach it with exterior construction glue and Tapcon screws. Thank God for family! Have you had any issues with water not draining off the porch? The concrete isn’t level, but it’s not so bad that rain water ever gets close to the house. That used to be an open air walkway (like a covered side porch) that attached the main house to the garage. The homeowner purchased our 20 x 20 Cumaru deck tiles to resurface his old concrete front porch. If you decide to try this method you should try to find narrower deck boards like 4 inch wide decking opposed to the standard 6 inch wide deck boards. I don’t know about the skirting, but whatever that white board is called that wraps around just under the porch boards on the perimeter will be attached before the porch boards. My brother actually said something similar yesterday. Then using the level, we would take measurements at the back and at the front for the required height of the next riser. I wish all of our exterior doors were zero threshold doors. We used pressure treated wood, and then the top surface was Trex (a similar product by another company actually). I had purchased Tapcon concrete screws just in case the nail gun didn’t work out, but I didn’t realize that those required a hammerdrill, which I didn’t have. That time it also split the wood and cracked a very top thin layer off of the concrete, meaning that the nail wasn’t actually embedded into the concrete. Will you have to saw them off? I was hoping to use boards that aren’t pressure treated so that I can go ahead and stain and seal them, but I have found any yet. What brand of tools do you usually buy? The best deck railing patterns often consist of double top and bottom rails and sandwiched porch railing pickets. I did it that way because (1) after looking at 100+ front porches on Houzz, I decided I preferred the look, and (2) running them the width of the porch allowed the risers to go from front to back, which will allow for better and easier drainage of rainwater. Once the first riser was in place, we measured and marked every 16 inches for placement of the rest of the risers. I don’t know if you would want to level the cement between the risers away from the house before putting the top layer on? How to build an elevated deck on uneven ground building a stair construction for uneven ground the deck mod building covering an existing concrete porch with wood part 1 addicted how i built my floating deck on uneven ground you build a deck on uneven concrete you view topic can u deck over existing concrete … I don’t know much about that stuff. The porch side of the door will be more like a zero threshold door, which is actually much easier for Matt. I would imagine they’d get in the way of laying your boards down nice and flat, but that’s just an inexperienced layperson’s guess. lol!). So glad you are spending some time on the outside of the house. When you have varying conditions like this your deck boards would cup and would not stay flat. Evaluate the concrete’s condition before adding composite decking over a concrete porch. (Skirting board? All Rights Reserved. So hard-core eye protection was his go to after that, and he was never without his welding helmet when sawing metal! They are called sleepers because they rest on the concrete. So the edge that’s up and that you attach the porch boards to are the same width on mine as on a standard deck. I don’ t know if you have a sweating problem . The bottom of the boards would be wet while the tops of the boards would be exposed to wind and sun so the top of the deck boards would be dry. A deck is typically attached to a home or can be a free-standing structure that is open on all sides. So you could use the fence vs freehand? Cut PVC trim boards to wrap around stoop using circular saw. At the front, the board might need to be 1.5 inches tall, while at the back, it might need to be 1.75 inches tall. You can avoid the cost and mess of tearing it out by just screwing down wood sleepers and decking over it. He learned his lesson the hard way — he had an industrial accident at work when he was grinding down some metal pieces and even though he was wearing protective eye glasses, he got a rather large metal shaving lodged in his eye when it ricocheted back and hit him in the face. And if I use 2″ lumber (like 2 x 6s), that will make it too high at the doorway. So with just two risers down, and just an hour or so into our project, we had to stop working and make a trip to Home Depot. Or are my eyes just seeing something funny? Use screws specifically designed for the type of decking you are using. You should remember the extra sleepers for stairs. Drill down through each pilot hole into the concrete 1/8 inch deep, using a 3/16-inch rotary mason's bit. Most homeowners can cover their old concrete porch in one afternoon. Click the links below to see the rest of the posts in this project. the concrete black. It is essential to decide if you are going to build a free-standing deck or if you will attach it to the house. Steps: 1. Or is there not enough room to have done that? You got this! You can repair cracks and resurface over them, but the cracks may return. And immediately, we saw that it wasn’t going to be as simple as we had hoped. So we have about seven more risers to install, which should go much faster now that we have the right tool and we know the process. Maybe stain? Advantage hardwood deck tiles are made from South American hardwoods proven to last up to 75 years or more. Martin writes: How do you properly build a concrete deck (with a roof) over a living area and prevent water leakage from rain and snow? Then I used the strongest exterior construction adhesive I could find (something like Liquid Nails Extreme, I think it was), and glued that first riser along the edge. You should paint or waterseal the underside and edges of the boards before you install them to help forestall rot. As it is, it’ll be very close. The sleeper’s layout will depend on decking layout. While the front porch was still structurally strong it was not visually appealing. There’s not enough room. We want to do the same thing with our front porch, so I am thrilled to read this post. Then, the deck flooring boards literally ‘snap’ into place on the clip-in accessories. A). We recommend a minimum of 18 inches of air space underneath our standard decking to allow the material to breath properly on all sides of the deck boards. I took that picture just for demonstration. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Dig 2-3′ deep holes and set the posts into concrete, if you want to get the job done in a professional manner. That’s disappointing, but I haven’t given up my search just yet. So as of now, it looks like I’m stuck with pressure treated and waiting until summer to stain. That looks pretty level to me! I placed a 2 x 4 on top along the back so that I could see how it looks. Kristi, what will you do with those concrete screws that didn’t drill all the way in? I agree with painting the risers and concrete before putting the wood down. I have no idea what it’s called.) Required fields are marked *. This is not the case in fact if your read all the reviews on Google for most major brands you will read thousands of complaints from homeowners. So to do that, I had to install wood risers using pressure treated 2 x 4’s rated for ground contact (ripped to the correct height to level the final porch floor), attached to the concrete with exterior construction adhesive and concrete screws. The location is in Eastern PA. Steve Bliss, of BuildingAdvisor.com, responds: Thanks for your inquiry. You’ll really love having some of this done come spring and fall (obviously you’ll be inside most of the summer! Apr 24, 2018 - If you've ever thought about turning your cement porch into a wood deck, it's surprisingly easy! The porch boards will have tiny little spaces between them, and I really don’t want concrete and unfinished riser boards to show through. Addicted 2 Decorating is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I’m also wondering if paint will peel? I would definitely paint the cement with a sealer of some sort. He said that concrete just continues getting harder and harder as it gets older, which is why the old stuff is so much harder to deal with than the new stuff. On a couple of boards, we’d have to take it back to the table saw and trim off an eighth of an inch or so. The new wood porch floor is finished! On the porch side, it’ll be more like a zero threshold doorway, but it can’t be any higher. Conceal each anchor in decking with a plug cut from a composite decking board. First, you have to attach risers/sleepers to the concrete and then the porch boards can be screwed to the risers. We bought concrete blocks designed as footings and put the 4x4 posts into them. I saw a lot of power washing in our future! He ended up blind in that eye, even after several surgeries that tried to save his sight. It’s great how he helps/works with you from time-to-time. This only gives you one and a half inches of air space between the concrete porch and the underside of the deck boards. This will mark the spot for your pilot hole in the concrete. Use face fasteners (not hidden fasteners) to attach the deck boards to the sleepers. So we decided to abandon that idea. Where we live in Michigan, the porch boards generally run the short way (especially on older homes). I just had to eyeball the line as I ripped the boards. Clean the area thoroughly, mix and pour your chosen material into the sunken area and run a straightedge over the newly poured mix until it is level with the surrounding concrete. But the eight risers that we got installed look pretty darn good. Attaching deck boards directly to your concrete porch would lead to excessive mold, mildew and early deterioration of the deck boards. What are the code requirements? 3. There is Roman concrete that is more than 2,000 years old. But the nutshell version is that I’m building a wood porch over my existing concrete front porch. It probably would help tremendously with the runoff not hitting your new porch. That’s how I’ve always seen it. If you look at that first picture, you’ll see the issue. Quikrete Concrete Resurfacer and Sakrete Flo-Coat are two common brands. It is easy to do and can be built by most do-it-yourselfers. The slate is flaking real bad and some of the stones are breaking up. Unlike a deck, a porch may require a roof. 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