Free Carport Plans

We aim to make planning your new carport easy.   We want to provide great ideas about:

• What construction materials your plan should show?
• Is the plan sympathetic to your home design?
• Is the plan simple enough that I can build it myself?

Carport Plans

Carports make a wonderful addition to your home.  Not only do they add value but, if done correctly, they also help to beautify your house.  What is the primary purpose of a carport?  Put simply they keep your car looking like new by minimising the amount of fade that you get on the paint work and interior.  But on top of that they also enable you to gracefully alight from your car in even the harshest of weather, whilst remaining dry and untroubled as you can empty all the children and groceries out of the car.

Construction

You will be surprised at the wide range construction methods and materials available to your and great way to find out your choices is to cruise your local neighbourhood.  You will find materials that lend themselves to decorative finishes like timber, or sturdy wide spans like steel.  The strength of your carport will be determined by the roofing material you choose.  Some materials are much heavier than others and so posts and roof framing also needs to be similarly strong if you choose the heavier option.

Bolt It Down

If you don't secure your carport correctly you will not only be probably in breach of some building regulations, but also run the risk of your new carport blowing away in the first high winds.  There are lots of simple and effective ways to anchor your carport.  Points you need to consider are the posts to the footings, the roof frame to the posts, and the roofing materials to the roof frame.

Top Choices

The roofing material for your carport is best matched to the roofing material of your house if possible.  But remember the style of roofing material used will dictate the strength required in the roofing frame.  Heavy materials will be more expensive and require stronger and more substantial frames.  It is for these reasons that many people opt for sheet steel.

Builder Required

So there you go your main choices are stand-alone versus lean-to, timber, steel or brick piers, sheet steel or tile roof!.  The only choice left now is to decide on the builder.  Unless you know what you are doing I recommend getting a building company to construct your new carport for you, and indeed you local building authority may demand it.  Building it yourself can be rewarding, but if you make a mistake then the savings are all gone of rectifying the problems.  For me its worth the extra cost to get my new carport built for me.