Porch dos/ don'ts

[whoami24601]

We're looking at extending our house. After much consideration I think a large porch would be the most cost effective and useful way to do this. Currently planning for it to be roughly 5.5x1.4 m. One half for utility and storage and the other for coats/ shoes/ bags etc.

I think we're looking at UPVC to keep costs down and maximise internal floor space.

If you've had a porch built is there anything you wish you'd thought of/ wish you hadn't done? All advice welcome!

Thanks!

Be aware that you will need planning permission for a porch of that size.

We are having a porch added to the house but its an American style outdoor space rather than an enclosed space (and it still needs planning permission due to the size even though nobody else can see it and it isn't road facing)

Do you mean as the entryway into your house at the front? It will be one big mess unless you are super tidy and unless you heat it very cold to use for laundry.
I think you need to provide a floor plan as I'm not sure I'm understanding what you mean.

@HasaDigaEebowai planning permission is being applied for! My brother is a planning officer so is helping lots with that! He thinks we have a pretty good shot. We can always make it smaller if needs be but we're applying for our 'ideal' size initially!

@Pipandmum yes as the entryway. I am quite a naturally tidy person and will get lots of storage but obviously it's going to be messy. Currently our front door goes straight into the dining room and so all the mess is in there! When I say utility I mean to house the washer/ dryer. Not planning on using it to hang washing up

Our porch has 20 adult hooks and 4 at kids height. And baskets of shoes. It’s not big enough, especially when everyone is trying to come in/out.

I also wish there was somewhere to sit when putting shoes on!

@Daffodil101 20?! How many people live in your house???

😂 four!

How big is your porch?

We turned our conservatory off the side entrance to our house into a boot room/ utility and it works brilliantly (it’s our main entrance).

It’s upvc and stays warm, enough for what we use it for.
We have coat/shoe storage, bench to put shoes on, water/dryer/cupboard/storage and sink that we use loads. If you’re having to put water/drainage in there for washing machine consider a sink as well. If you don’t already have a utility you’ll love it

@vinoelle is yours all UPVC? I'd wondered how things like coat racks etc would work if we didn't have a solid wall to fix them to? What do you have?

It’s a bog standard conservatory but is a lean to - so it’s attached to the side of our house - we use the house wall for coat hooks etc. The only thing I would say is 1.4m for yours is quite narrow - I think you’ll have to have a single ‘galley’ style of things along one wall anyway? For example a washing machine is 60cm deep so you’ll only be able to have 1 run of units?

Ours is brick built and I love the sidelights next to the door and the built in wardrobes and shoe shelves

Like the idea of a bench but we just sit on the stairs!

You will have to have a vented tumble dryer - condensers don’t work below 5° so would be unusable for much of the winter. We have a uPVC porch and are planning to replace it with brick in the next few years. We have found the lack of wall storage very frustrating. If you can stretch to brick then it will be a much more useful space.

It serves as an excellent overflow fridge at Christmas time, though...

Ooh @YippieKayakOtherBuckets is that true about condensers? I didn't know that! One option is to have brick at each end and then UPVC along the front to give us some wall for fixing things to. How cold do porch's get in winter?

Too much wall and we start losing light!

Also if we have wall along the front then we lose internal space, and we're already cutting it fine...

How cold will depend on the amount of insulation. If it just UPVC (I'm imagining conservatory style), then it will be pretty much the temp outside without wind-chill. Or a few degrees higher if the winter sun is shining on it. Remember often even heated conservatories aren't really useable in winter because the heat goes straight out through the roof.

Having a proper tiled roof with insulation will help, but I'm not sure how much. I'd ask friends / neighborhood with conservatories how cold theirs gets

Could you look up ‘warm roof conservatory’. I don’t have one but heard they are more useable year round.

We have a condenser dryer in our unheated garage and it works fine throughout the winter.

If its just a conservatory structure it will be very cold in the winter.

Put a good quality glass roof on it to maintain the heat in winter, and could you add a heater? Maybe a storage heater that runs independently of your central heating?

I'm not bothered if it's cold in winter as it will only be used to store things. The dryer might be an issue that needs looking in to but a quick google tells me it's not necessarily a problem.

If it's cold in winter be careful with storage as condensation and mould could be a problem.

I had to have extra insulation in my porch as coats hung on the wall and shoes were going mouldy and the walls ran with condensation. And a condenser dryer would add to this issue but you could have one vented to outside.

Our plan is to replace the uPVC with solid walls on either side, then obscure glass windows at the front either side of a composite door. We will lose a bit of light into the hallway but we can live with this.

The tumble dryer isn’t insurmountable as long as you have some means of ventilating in mind when it’s being built.

Ours is a conservatory style and we currently have a free-standing unit with coat hooks above and shelves below for shoes. It’s fine but the amount of glass means that it is a real goldfish bowl and no matter how much we try to keep on top of it the impression is always a bit untidy. We have to be careful about what we leave in there as things get dreadfully sun-bleached.

I’m sorry to sound negative but I am very keen to change ours!