How to Build a Carport

Your first port of call is design. My advice is to go for something simple, yet sympathetic to the existing design of your house. Take lots of photos of both your house and carport with designs that you like. If you have any basic computer graphics skills you can quite quickly mock up a view of what the finished carport will look something like. Take the pictures to a draftsman or architect to draw up your carport plans - the money is well worth it. Once you have your plans you will need to get permission from your local building authority to build your carport. They will probably need at least 3 to 4 sets of plans and a list of the planned building materials. Sometimes these building authorities will give approval over the counter, but you may have to wait a few weeks for it to go through the process.

All carport construction begins with the footings. Your design and local authority will specify how deep they have to go. Once you have all your footing holes dug, your local building authority will probably want to inspect them prior to you pouring in the cement. If you are putting your posts directly into the concrete footing make sure they are in-situ and braced before you backfill. If you are seating the posts on metal stirrups then these can be plunged into the wet concrete, but again need to be positioned careful and braced until the concrete sets.

You carport posts will probably be made from timber or maybe even metal. If not already in the footings they need to be securely bolted to the stirrups. A word of advice give the concrete footings a few days to cure before applying any load with posts and roofing. Your carport is now taking shape and the beams that connect the posts go in next. On top of those beams cane be built the roof frame according to your plans. I would suggest some kind of metal sheet roof. You may need to engage a plumber to do this depending on local building regulations. Make sure your gutters are in place before the roof goes on - it is much, much easier, and again you will probably need a plumber for this.

So there you have - how to build a carport!