Is it necessary to have an enclosed porch these days?

[SorrelSoup]

Because of upvc doors. Everyone on our street has an enclosed porch, but I'd like to get rid of ours. I'd actually like to build into it, so we'd have more space in the hall and just one external door. Would this be cold with a upvc door? I thought most of the porches were from decades ago when front doors were not properly insulated?

I've had a house where we took the internal door out and relied on the upvc front door. It was great , extra space and became a feature area with all my plants.

I don't have an enclosed porch and have a wooden front door, not even upvc and it's fine.

That's great. Thanks for the responses. I didn't want it to be really obvious that the temperature in the house had dropped. It's my idea and dh not really sold on it so thought I'd better check.

We don't have one but I wish we did. Somewhere to put a decent door mat and to take off muddy shoes would be great. Our hallway floor gets filthy in the winter - the doormat outside gets wet which makes it useless, and we can't fit one in inside as the door won't open properly.

We have a very shoddily built single skin porch - it's freezing in there!!!

If it's a well built porch I reckon it will be fine.

I love my enclosed porch. It is large enough to have shelves for boxes of shoes, hats and gloves in the recesses that used to be part of the outdoor porch. We extended it to come out further than the original line of the house so it has space for visiting buggies and grandma's wheelchair. Also a lidded box bench for wellies that doubles up as a seat so you have somewhere to perch to put on shoes. Visitors tend to leave their shoes in porch too and as it is separate the cats don't end up playing with their footwear. . As it isn't incorporated into the house it is ideal if you work all day as we get deliveries left in the porch safe and dry. It keeps down on the heating costs too as despite having UPVc front door and a set of double doors to the porch it would otherwise be draughty without it. I can see the attraction of having a larger hall space but for us the convenience of the separate spaces is great.

PettsWoodParadise sounds amazing! We don't want to stay here long so won't be able to go to the expense of extending out.

I want all the storage though; that's why I want a bigger hall. The existing porch is tiny but the space would be good for shelving, coat pegs, shoes etc. We're just coming out of the buggy stage.

Before you remove the internal doors it's worth remembering that different building regs apply to when the main door remains in place. If you are planning to move it could be a problem on survey. Sorry to be a doom monger! Talk to your local building control office who will be able to advise just to be sure.

I want all the storage though; that's why I want a bigger hall.

I might be being silly but why can't you just have the storage in the porch? Same space just in the porch not the hallway?

For a porch addition to meet building regs it has to be separated by an external door to the house I believe. Something to bear in mind if you are thinking of selling (maybe keep door in shed so can be put back).
www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/46/porches/2

I have this in my porch to provide coat/shoe storage needs
www.laredoute.co.uk/ppdp/m/prod-324482619.aspx?docid=221816

Thanks will look at the links. The porch is probably only a foot wide and is glass on two whole sides. Can't put any shelving in there as it's narrow and glass. If I bricked up the outside window I could shelve it all, plus gain a foot extra in the hall, and access to the storage.

The porch is actually inside the main part of the house. Does that make sense??

Bit like this. But it's double width sliding doors.