For our latest project we have constructed a lean-to, attached carport addition that gives plenty of parking and looks great.
The owner wanted the structure to appear natural to the house and blend harmoniously with his home. He also wanted a large space to park and be able to get out of the car with ample room on either side.
So we built him a solid, custom carport addition that’s going to last a long time. Since the home already had an large addition built off the back of the house, we had to keep it simple and design the carport as one part. We added an attached awning to cover the back door to the house and create a path to it from the car.
Given that, we started with the main parking area. After some design and layout, we started to build our 18′ x 14′ carport.
The large 252 square foot main area attached carport is made entirely with all pressure-treated pine lumber. It is long enough to cover the length of two cars and tall enough to walk under in its entirety. The band is built with a 2” x 8” lumber and uses 2” x 6” material for the rafters. The roof sits on four 6” x 6” posts with post brackets on footers.
We were able to design the roof line of the addition on a 3/12 pitch for the lean-to to shed the rain water adequately. The roof was done with dimensional asphalt shingles purchased from a roofing supplier in downtown Birmingham. The front was built with a faux gable side piece and cedar shake shingles to match the siding, creating the look the homeowner asked for.
Attached along the back side of the carport is a smaller awning that serves to cover the rear entry door of the recently remodeled home. Since the existing lean-to addition has a roof line change we opted to make the design incorporate the two builds. At 8′ x 10′ the rear lean-to is only slightly smaller than the main carport. On the main structure, the awning is made with pressure-treated lumber. There is a slight step down from the main carport height, but there is complete coverage from the parking space to the door. The most important thing was making sure the awning has the same roofing shingles and slope that the main carport does.
Instead of leaving the underside of the ceiling open and exposed, we chose to finish the look. We used a pre-primed beadboard siding for our ceiling. Pine accent trim pieces were used for the seams and joints which created a beautiful finished product.
We managed to glue and nail the sheets up with the help of a panel lift in less than a day. Once the ceiling was up we prepped for paint by filling the nail holes and caulking our trim carpentry work.
We opted for white paint for the posts, fascia, trim and ceiling. And a custom color match paint for the baby blue cedar shake siding. It’s a great little carport to help our customer keep himself safe and dry year round.
