Everyone loves an old fashioned front porch. It's a great place to sit back, wave at the neighbor and watch the world go by. When Ed DelGrande first arrived, this front porch needed a lot of DIY attention. He will show you step by step how he transformed it and tips to make your own porch a great entry way to your home.
Materials:Safety goggles
Hammer
Flat bar
Reciprocating saw
All-purpose blade
Miter saw
Nails
Contour gauge Steps: - Use a pry bar and remove the frame and trim pieces of the porch. This allows you to take out the nails holding the lattice to the porch. Use the pry bar again to remove the top railing and then get out the reciprocating saw and slice right through the nails that attached the railing and lattice to the end columns.
- With the old lattice and railings out of the way, it's time to give your front porch a whole new look. When it comes to your columns and rails, you'll have a few different choices. First off the wood. On the columns, DelGrande went with primed redwood. This is a great choice because it comes from the factory with the primer coat on it, and it will last a good long time. For the railing, he went with fir. Fir is also a good strong wood and you do have to prime it and paint it.
- You can build your entire rail assembly piece by piece or do what DelGrande did and go down to your lumberyard, where they will build this to your local codes. You can then put it right in place and it makes the job a lot easier.
- Begin with the columns, and the first step is measuring and then trimming the redwood pieces to fit. They used a miter saw to make the cuts on the show. DelGrande put 1X4 boards on either side of the existing column and attached them with the nail gun. He used galvanized nails because they're less likely to rust. Then he put the larger 1X6 pieces on the back and front of the columns. Carefully check to make sure that when you do this, you are even on both sides. Watch as you nail the boards...you attach to the existing column and to the small boards you just added to the sides. This helps to form a tighter joint. DelGrande suggests renting, borrowing or buying a pneumatic nail gun.
- Cut scrap pieces of 1X6s to use as trim pieces at the top and bottom of the columns. Also, use small pieces of wood to cover gaps caused by overhangs.
- When installing your rails, you may run into a situation like this. When you bring your rail up to the column, because of the trim at the bottom, you may have to do what’s called scribing. This means to custom cut the wood of the rail around the trim. Now that can be a little tricky. A contour gauge is a tool that makes this very easy. As you measure up where you want your rail to meet, get your tool and just bring it to that mark. Slowly push and you can see what is happening...it's going right to the contour of that trim. Bring it over to your rail, line it up to the bottom and simply draw a line right around the gauge. Make the line dark so you can see it. You will have an exact angle!
- Slide the bottom rail into place, check to make sure that it's level and that it is centered on the columns. To attach it to the column, you may have to drive the nail in at a 45 degree angle, a process called toenailing. With the bottom rail in place, measure the spindle section, cut it to size and slide it into place. Remember to attach it to both sides. Top the spindles with a 2X2 cut to length. Now you can add the handrail and attach molding to trim out the overlap.
- Install lattice to keep out the nasty critters. Vinyl is great because you don’t have to worry about painting it plus it's never going to rot. It goes in the same as wood lattice, except you do have to follow some simple manufacturers instructions. Make sure you always add your trim pieces around the vinyl.
- Painting is your last step. It is recommended that your get a power washer and wash all the old paint off. However, you do have to wait about three days for the wood to dry before you paint it. Then once you are ready to paint, don’t use any old paint. You have to use a porch paint or floor paint. It’s a very thick coat and it really stands up to foot traffic.
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