Mobile Home Porches & Decks Guide – Mobile Home Repair

Whether youre looking to add functional living space, curb appeal or a place to just lounge and relax, a mobile home porch can make for a great additional feature. These types of porches are typically built at the front of a mobile home, covered and are usually built using wood boards and a cinder block base. When it comes to mobile home porches, the design potential is truly endless. Porches can be built to incorporate ramps for elderly or handicapped residents. Perhaps you want onebuilt with pillars, railings, and ceilings for a more elegant look?Or porches can be built to be screened in so that they can double as functional living space in addition to the mobile home itself. This post will take a closer look at mobile home porches, how they differ from mobile home decks, porch design ideas and how to build one yourself.

Mobile Home Porch vs. Mobile Home Deck

The main difference between a porch and deck in a conventional setting also rings true when it comes to a mobile home application porches are covered (or even enclosed), where decks are not. Decks, or patios, may also be installed at either the front or the back of a mobile home, where porches are almost always built at the front of the home. Despite these key differences, there are many similarities between porches and decks when it comes to how they are constructed, which you can learn more about later in this piece. Essentially, you first have to build a deck when youre building a porch more on this later.

Building Materials for Porches

Well get into the basics of DIY mobile home porch building a bit later on, but before we can get into more of a step-by-step, its important to go over some of the common building materials that youre likely to need when it comes to such a project. While mobile home owners are technically able to get as creative as theyd like with these projects, below is an overview of some of the most common building materials that are used:

When it comes to mobile home porches, the design ideas are truly endless, and they can be as simple or as complicated as a homeowner chooses. Heres a look at some popular porch designs:

These are simpler types of porch designs, which consistof a deck area outside of the front door and a gable roof, which is characterized by a roof with two sloping sides and gable at the end of each side

If your mobile home has a flat roof, then a flat roof porch would likely be the best option for you. Flat roof porches are also ideal for mobile home units that dont have extensive roof clearances.

Another type of porch design is one that includes a gable roof porch and an adjacent deck. The deck portion would likely extend right off the porch itself.

For those that want to extend the available living space of their mobile homes, a screened in porch is likely the answer. Whats nice about screened in porches is that such screens can also be added to an existing porch.

If your mobile home is placed on a larger lot, a freestanding porch could be an attractive option. Freestanding porches are either a flat roof or gable roof porches that simply exist within the lot. In other words, they arent built adjacent to the mobile home.

There are a couple of important notables that must be considered when it comes to the construction of a mobile home porch. For starters, porches are best built on mobile homes where the owner doesnt have any intention of transporting the mobile unit elsewhere. Because porches are built externally to the mobile home, moving the mobile home becomes a much more complicated endeavor when a porch is included.

Another important consideration is when it comes to the porch construction itself, specifically the support base. Though cinder blocks one of the most common base materials do an adequate job when it comes to providing a base, its crucial that this base is level and is able to stay level. Failure to construct a level base is going to directly result in an off-balance porch, either now or in the future.

If youre handy around the house, good with tools and know the basics of woodworking, then building a mobile home porch can absolutely become a DIY project. This is even truer if you have past experience with deck building. A handy mobile homeowner with the right tools and materials should be able to build a porch for their unit in a few days. Heres a rough outline of the DIY steps involved in the process. Note also that your local mobile home service store can help you with any porch project and DIY kits are also often available.

If youre looking for design inspirations and/or further information or direction on mobile home porch or porch construction, there are several resources that you can tap into. Here are a few of our favorites:

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Mobile Home Porches & Decks Guide - Mobile Home Repair