In the United States, 63% of homes have a garage or a carport.
It isn’t hard to see why, as keeping the sun off your vehicle will prolong its beauty and life. That’s only one advantage, there are several, so if you want to take advantage of having a protected area in your yard, how do you build a carport?
Start To Build A Carport
The first thing to building a carport is to figure out where you want to put your new carport. You’ll need to be able to access it from the street, so you’ll want to have as straight a line as possible from the street to the area where the carport is going to be. Once you’ve chosen where you’re ready to move on to the second step.
Get The Driveway Ready
To get the driveway ready, you’ll need to decide whether you want to pave it or use gravel. Paving is better in most cases, but it is also more expensive. Gravel is easy to work with and cheaper, but the key is that either way you go, you’ll have to smooth the ground and grade it so water runs away from the carport and into the gutter.
This is important because if the drive is level or slanted towards the carport you can flood your yard or even damage the foundation of your home. If you don’t have the skills or tools to do an undertaking like this, you can always hire a contractor to build you a driveway or to pave one for you.
The Structure Of The Carport
From this point, there are a couple of options available. One is that you will have to measure and find materials for the pad, or you can get something that is prefabricated. Doing it yourself can be interesting and fun, but it does require a lot of tools and knowledge.
These days the options for prefabricated carports are broad and cover almost anything you could think of. If you want to discover more about them, then read more here. If not, you’ll need to cut your beams to size or purchase metal already the correct length which can be difficult.
The materials that you choose to use will impact the cost to build a carport. Metal is more expensive than wood, in most cases.
Once you have all the materials, you will have to bolt or screw the legs onto the roof. Many times at least one wall will be semi-solid, but that isn’t always necessary depending on what you want your carport to look like.
Wire The Carport
Since you will be using the carport at all hours of the day and night, make sure to not forget lighting and electricity. Depending on where you live the electricity can be used for various things, but it is always useful to have a light on the carport. Of course, never work with electricity unless you are comfortable with it.
Learn About Carports and More
Now you know how to build a carport, or at least the basics of it. If you have any other questions about what style of carport you could get or what you could do with it, take a peek around our website for more answers.