Wrap around porch
azgreg
| Posted in General Questions on
We’re still in the never ending planning stages of our retirement home and my wife wants a full wrap around porch. Are there any cons to this idea besides limiting the natural light?
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I suppose it depends. The style of house plays a big part on this decision. Some architectural styles look good with a wraparound porch, like Farm houses, Victorian, etc., others like a Colonial or Federalist, not so much. To some people, it’s about character, it’s welcoming and friendly. I typically design porches with a 10’ minimum, but prefer 12’ or 14’ if you plan to have an outdoor living room, dining room and outdoor kitchen.
The way you like to live or use your house for. If you like to live outside, have family gatherings in the summer, lazy rainy afternoons, and invite the outside in, then a wraparound porches are for you. If you have great views, even better. If you live in the South, a porch is a must have to protect the house from the sun. On great weather days, you can open the house, and let the cool brises in.
A screen porch is a must if you live in an area where mosquitos, bugs and flies are in abundance, and if you live in Alaska, you know, their mosquitos are related to F-16 fighter planes, and come in hordes. A porch is a great place to have your grill and smoker, and have no worries about the rain or snow.
With good building practices of today, good sealing job, good insulation and outsulation, good window placement, and properly design and installed HVAC systems, we don’t look at passive houses like we did back in the 70s and 80s.
If compromise can be had, you could install skylights on the porch. They are not as big of a mess as if they were on the house and you have a leak. Another option is to have a 2 or three sided porch, or a porch in the front and a porch in the back.
I'm sure others can come up with more reasons that are pro and con, but at the end of the day, I believe it's about you, the way you live and the style of house you like. Good luck!
I just noticed you are in AZ? I don’t have to tell you how hot it get there in the summer, so having a porch surely protects you from the sun. In the "winter", you guys have perfect weather to open up the house. Once I went to PHO for a friend’s summer wedding, and we’ve played golf there at 120°F outdoors, and I could see porch readings 20°F lower… Insane!!!
We are looking at more of the farmhouse look. Even though I'm currently in Phoenix We're not retiring here. We're going to build on a couple acre lot in a bit cooler part of the state.
We went with a wrap around porch on 3 sides, and then extended covered porch over the back patio. One of the best decisions we made. Only thing I would do different is increase the depth of the porch.
I can't speak to the cons, but regarding blocking light, I built skylights into my porch above my kitchen window to increase the light. Because heat loss isn't an issue it wasnt necessary to install actual skylights, so the approach was affordable and a good compromise between the porch and letting some light in.
From an energy point of view what is over and under the porch can be important. But being in AZ makes it more likely that you will build a single story home without a basement. If you did something like put a second story room over the porch or a finished basement under the porch would have a huge change in the surface area you would have to insulate and be losing energy thru. Also a conditioned attic and porches can get complicated.
From what I recall of AZ architectural style was to make your home look and feel like an impenetrable fortress. The back yard surround with 8 foot tall block walls on 3 sides and sometime 3 feet tall across the front with bars on the windows and doors. Maybe I was in the wrong part of town but this photo seem more or less typical in my mind. It does not give me a warm and friendly vibe and a wraparound porch could feel out of place and time surrounded by something like this.
I have a deck with twin windows above and below and the lower windows still get lots of light with 12 feet of shading.
My must have list for my retirement home.
All the rooms needed for daily life on the main floor.
No steps at entry doors or to deck.
No doorway less than 36”
Space in every bath room to turn a wheel chair around, that requires a 5 foot circle.
Flat ceiling covered with lots of low cost insulation and a vented attic above.
All ductwork and HVAC equipment must be inside the conditioned space.
Walta
A lot of houses here in Phoenix look just like the one in your pic. I'm looking to incorporate as many of the aging in place principles as we can but my wife likes the look at a 1 1/2 story cape. I'm trying to talk her out of it. I've already talked her out of a turret.
I can't think of any cons when it comes to having a porch and I do agree the deeper the better. Our new retirement home has an open front porch, which we have a solar shades to reduce the suns rays when sitting on it. Then we have a screened rear porch. Living in Northern Florida for the first time, we may consider screening in the front porch as well when it starts to get buggier. I don't believe you deal with as many flying insects in AZ, so an open porch may be just fine. If your worried about light, make sure you have enough lights installed in your home. The new low profile LED lights are great and don't need a recessed housing to be installed. Use lighter colors for your walls and trim on the inside. I think a wrap around porch is lovely and inviting and there should be ways to achieve that look in AZ so that it looks good within the neighborhood. Pinterest is a great source for ideas on it.