How To Build A Carport

Your homes don't have to be dull. Adding a carport could make it livelier

Your homes don't have to be dull. Adding a carport could make it livelier. Install a carport patio right outside your kitchen where you usually sit down and have your coffee. But don’t just add the carport also make it lovely. This mini carport plan will teach you how to build a carport, a wooden carport. Wooden carports are ideal for reading or lounging on sunny afternoon. What’s more, these carport types can easily be modified with accessories and fittings to look better. With this carport plan, you integrate the kitchen door with a wood carport that we decorate with vines so that the surrounding area looks less stark. Aside from a lounging area for your coffee, you also create a dry area, useful for unloading the car and for doing messy outside jobs on rainy days.

Building our carport

This carport design is quite simple and requires little carpentry skills and a bit of creativity to build. Choose a timber material that’s fitting.

Assemble the materials, including the lengths of wood for cross beams and supports, a piece to fix the cross beams to the wall and corrugated plastic sheeting. It is a good idea to paint all the pieces of wood before you start to put the structure together. Since the design we have in mind resembles a bit of a flowered patio, an ocher should be preferable.

The piece that supports the framework should be securely fixed. Initially, put in one screw at each end (if it’s a piece of plate), but don't tighten them fully until you've checked with a spirit level that it is absolutely straight. Once the piece is straight, add the rest of the screws.

If available, a fence will support the other end of the beams, but if not, then you can create another post. The beams should slope down, so the half-joints will not be at a 90° angle. To measure these 'bird mouth' joints accurately, use an adjustable set square.

Use a fixed square to mark out the ordinary half joints. It makes your life much easier if the wood is held firmly in place by using a vice or workbench. Cut some half joints on the beams to fit on the plates. Fix with galvanized nails

Using a saucer or small plate, draw around it to make the decorative scalloped fascia board. Cut round the curves that you have drawn with an electric jigsaw. All it takes is a steady hand. The fascia board is made of waterproof marine plywood. Once it is finished it is nailed to the front crossbeam with small, galvanized nails.

Wire mesh panels not only add interest to the carport, they are also ideal support for climbers with tendrils such as passion flowers. Fix the panels of wire mesh to the top rail of the fence using some screw-in vine eyes.

Once the carport shown here was finished, we matched the decoration on the opposite fence. We looped ropes over the porch and, using galvanized wire, attached glass jars decorated with glass nuggets from a florist shop. Night light holders, also made of twisted galvanized wire, can be lowered easily into these jars.