You long to improve your home – not because you plan to sell it, but because you want to enjoy the beauty of Colorado from the comfort of the porch you’ve dreamed about building. Whether the best views can be seen from your backyard or you’ve got enough wide-open space at your front door to accommodate a beautiful porch, be fastidious about every detail so the process goes as smoothly and quickly as possible.
How to Add a Porch to Your Denver Home
1. Choose a porch style that reflects your Colorado community and neighborhood. Match your rustic-style home, for example, with a porch design that’s filled with natural, rugged elements. Complement a Victorian or modern exterior with a porch design that closely approximates the period. Harmony is essential if your addition is to fit smoothly into your community landscape.
2. Design your porch. Sketch it out on paper, hire a Denver-based architect to render a custom design or save money by purchasing pre-drawn commercial blueprints/construction plans from a reputable design firm in Colorado. Contact your insurance agent to learn how much your premium will increase as a result of adding the porch to your homeowner’s policy.
3. Hire contractors. Ask for and check out references and make sure the firm you hire is bonded and insured. The contractor(s) you choose should have coverages that protect workers and materials as well as covering construction accidents, injuries and other types of liability. Add a rider to your policy if you plan to do the work yourself and if you hire day laborers to help you out, the agency providing this manpower should have sufficient insurance coverage as well.
4. Investigate local zoning laws to learn about guidelines that impact porch construction in the city and within your community. Go to the site, insert your property address into the dialog box and review building rules and regulations as they relate to your address and porch project. The site is interactive; follow prompts to permit-granting links and you can even pay your license and permit fees online. If you don’t understand everything you’re required to do, query members of the Denver Development Services team.
5. Get recommendations from friends, contractors and Denver officials for the construction supplies and equipment needed to undertake your porch addition if you’re not using a contractor with a network of wholesalers at his fingertips. Frequent Denver mom and pop lumber yards if you like to support small, community-based businesses or head for your favorite big box home improvement store to shop for materials and rent heavy-duty equipment and machinery.
6. Follow porch blueprints and construction plans to the letter. Measure and mark ground parameters with string and stakes. Grade the targeted portion of your yard. Build a framework of 2 x 4s and then fill the frame with concrete to make a porch slab. Allow the concrete to cure before you begin building the walls and adding the trim. Install railings and a gate or undertake other architectural and decorative touches per your building plan before you sand, paint and seal your new porch, using colors that match your home’s exterior.
7. Choose flooring material for the porch that holds up to Denver weather fluctuations, cleans easily and looks beautiful year-round. Expect a visit from a member of your community’s zoning or planning board if you live in a suburb that mandates inspector sign-off before the job is considered complete. Now, place an outdoor table with umbrella and chairs on your new porch and set up the gas grill so you can enjoy all of your hard work and those gorgeous views.
