Can this be done?

[Marlene]

Hi Everyone,
I recently bought my first home 🙂 It has two bedrooms
and a den. I have been using the den as a bedroom, but
long for a room of my own. I have a carport with a roof
and foundation. I keep dreaming that somehow there is a
way for me to very, very, inexpensively, inclose this carport.
I don’t mind working with used materials,
as a matter of fact, given my budget 🙂 used is what
I’m gonna have to to accomplish my dream. I don’t
have much experience, but feel confident in my ability
to learn to do what is necessary to build. Would some one mind
putting me on the right track? I would like the
simplest method, I’m willing to go without heating
a/c in this room. I’ll use electric blankets in the winter 🙂
Thank You Very Much,
Marlene

[joey b]

The TV show “In Living Color” had a segment on how to very very inexpensively do what you want. It was called “This Old Box”. It was directed by a bum who was adding an addition on to the box he lived in.

[John 2000]

Marlene, “Hi”,
If you’ve got the will then you can do anything,and I mean that.
OK, lets see what we can do together, are you ready, lets GO…
Now your carport has four sides,we shall call each side a name,
side by the house,(house side),at the back of the carport away
from the road,(end side).the side near the road we call (front side)
you have one side left lets call it ( outside).
Now because you are a woman ( not being funny) we will make our walls
easy for you to lift.
But first you will need a base plate ( 6″x2″)this plate must be fixed
to the floor between the carport posts you should have two of them
I want you to draw a pencel line down the wall ( house side)
Look at the carport post to see where it joins the roof. (on the inside )
When you stand in the middle of the carport you should see the three main
timbers ) are you still with me.? follow that point
to the house side now draw your line down to the floor.( do this at both ends
of the carport.( Front side – end side) CONTROL the lenght between the two posts
then make sure the size is the same between your pencel lines ( house side) fix the
base plate to the floor the inside of the plate should be on the outside of the line
Now your baseplate will be in between the posts. on three sides..
We will now start to make the wall panels..
Each panel will be 4’wide x the hight between the top of the baseplate and underside
of the roof beam let’s call that XP.
All the timber you will be working with will be 6″x2″.
Cut two timbers 4′(top and bottom), cut 4 timbers to the XP size less the thickness
of 4″ ( the thickness of the top/bottom rail), nail together making sure your centers
are the same, find the center between the carport posts mark the floor with a pencel line
on the three sides ( important as you will see later) we both know nothing is perfect so
take a rail 4’long ( this is a model of your panel) mark the center of the rail, place
the rail on the baseplate then mark one end ( right side) move your rail along to the
new line, again mark the baseplate (right side) and so on till you come to the post
now you will have the size of the last panel you have to make.”ok”
See how it works out you may have to start with a panel on the right side of the center line.
now do that on the otherside on the center line. and do the same on the other two sides.
Make your panels like I said, then lay them out on the ground out side by there they will
go, this way you can see where you will want the window(s)
Now you have a size for the window, dont make them just buy them save a lot of problems
they must be less than 4′ wide to fit in to the panel, dont forget to put a rail top and
bottom of the window frame then cut your XP rails to fit.
Fix your panels in place screw/nail the top to the beam and the bottom to the baseplate.
You have done all that… good. now we can fix the inside panels.cut the panels to the XP size
less 1″ nothing is level. place the plywood offset about 1″ to one side, start from the center
as before and work away from the center panel left then right the last frame should be smaller
than the others so cut your plywood to fit.
If the hight of the plywood is smaller than the XP you will have to make a joint ( timber joint I mean,
you can smoke the other joint after).
“important” dont put two joints together, one panel has one on the top. the other on the bottom
Almost forgot…. between the plywood and the frame you must have a vapor seal ( plastic sheet) to stop
damp coming through, put this on before you fix the plywood.
You should now have a room in the carport made of plywood.
Outside now. fill the space between your XP timbers with fibreglass
the more you have the better it is, again fit plastic sheeting over the out side of the XP timbers,
leave it short on the bottom and short on the top for the fibreglass for air to pass leave about 2″ top/bottom
you start with the “cladding”?? is that the word you use ?? fix some PVC strip ( bricklayers use it
over windows its about 6″- 8″ wide, nail half on the XP timbers and let the rest hang over the foundation
when you fix the first plank push it down hard against the PVC (when it rains the water will run off)
There are lots of little things to do, but you will think about them BEFORE you start.
If you dont understand the way I explained ( it will be the way I wrote it )
You have my e-mail send me a fax number so I can give you a layout of what I have wrote.

Dont hit your fingers.
John 2000

[Henry in MI]

This all sounds good–and it can be done–but you have some things to consider first. Depending on where you live, you probably will have to have a building permit. For that you will need relatively good drawings. There will be a building code that you will have to meet. One of the issues of that is that you will have to have electric outlets every 6 feet around the walls. I’m sure that there will be plenty of other similar issues.

It sounds good to just go ahead and make the addition but your municipality can and very well might make you tear it all down. Then they probably will give you so many problems that I will be impossible to satisfy them. And to a big extent, I can’t blame them. Most of the items in the building code are there because someone was killed. An example is the spacing of the electric outlets. Most lamps, clocks, TV sets, et cetera come with 6 foot long cords. Before this spacing was specified, people were running extension cords all over the place and causing fires. People were killed. Now thay can not make you update existing construction to current standards, but they can make you build new projects or extensions to current standards and you should expect them to do their job. The rules are there for your safety. Bottom line–don’t even think about a project like this without checking with your local building inspector to see what he will require. It could save you a lot of time, money and maybe your life.

Henry in MI

[Roy]

Hi,

I was wondering how I would go about filling in my carport unlike marline I have the end side, a exit to my yard and a peice to my patio how would I do this.

Thanks in advance,

roy

[Author]

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