Carport Construction

When contemplating carport construction you have a couple of key decisions to make: they are what materials you want to build the carport from, and what construction method you want to use to undertake your carport building exercise.

Your new carport can be built from just about any sturdy building material you can think of, but ideally it should blend in with the materials that your home is build from. You have four main decisions to make: the roofing material, the roofing shape, the upright construction, and your choice of flooring material.

Roofing materials for your new carport should match as closely as possible that of your house. Let me illustrate, a cement tiled roof would blend perfectly with a cement tiled carport. Occasionally these materials may weather after a few years, and so matching them may be worse that choosing an alternative you can blend. The exact same thing happened to me with my carport. I have a timber house with green cement tiles of the roof. I did not want to build a carport that had roofing structure that strong, so I chose to use a pre-finished zinc product in the same color as the windows and gutters. This gave me a simple and yet light roof which tied into my house beautifully.

To build this roof structure I used long span Oregon beams in a near flat style. My house has a complicated pitched roof, so I though that this simpler style, coupled with the roofing color tie-in would be a better way to go. By choosing this method of carport construction I alleviated the need to build a complicated roof structure to support a heavy roof.

Your choice of upright building materials can be more imaginative by adding brick, cement block or stone into the mix. Whichever material you choose to build your uprights from, they need to be strong enough for the roof you choose. The key issues are that they are strong yet attractive and are easy to maintain.

The floor of your carport is a again an interesting carport construction choice. There are many cheap alternatives, but I find a good sturdy floor is always beneficial. A poured concrete floor is a tried and true option Personally my favorite is brick paving as it adds a really tasteful look to your carport floor.