Description

Carports are effective and economicalalternative shelters for cars, instead of a garage. Even if youalready have a garage, a carport offers additional parking spacefor cars..

A carport as a structure, evolved out of a need for home ownersto build a car shelter, that did not cost as much as a garage.Besides offering a low-cost shelter for your car, it can also addto the overall ambiance of your property. If you are planning tobuild one, you must be on the lookout for some designs online.However, I would personally advise you to make your own designsinstead of going for ready-made ones. The ones that you design onyour own are the best because they are tailor-made to your specificneeds and expectations. Let me present some tips on how to go aboutdesigning your own carport plans in the next section.

How to Plan Carport Designs?

Creating designs and plans, made to scale, is essential, beforeyou even think of going for construction. It gives you an ideaabout budget allotment and time required for construction. Besides,planning things in advance never hurts you! Here are the thingsthat need to be taken into consideration while creating your owndesigns and plans:

Decide the Budget
Deciding on how much money you can allot for the carportconstruction is one of the first things to take into consideration.All your choices of materials and design will be dictated by themoney factor. So roughly decide on the maximum amount of money youare willing to spend on building the carport.

Size Matters
Next important thing is deciding on the dimensions of your carportstructure. Depending on the size of the vehicle you park in thatcarport, you must decide on the length, width and height of thewhole structure. If you are planning on adding some storage space,let the dimensions be a couple of feet more. The size andmeasurements of the whole structure will give you an idea about thematerial costs of designs that you create.

Choosing Building Materials
The most important choice, when creating designs is for thebuilding materials. Your two prime choices are wood and metal. Ifyou are looking for a low-cost structure, metal is the materialthat you should go for. Metal carport kits are available that comewith easy construction instructions and can be set up quite easily.If you are willing to spend more, wood is the choice which canprovide you with a range of elegant designs. Cedar and salt pineare the popular wood choices when it comes to building a carport. Awooden structure has a great visual appeal, compared to a metalone. Some may even go for a stone and concrete structure.

Studying Designs
Browse through as many designs as you can. You can search online orjust have a look around the neighborhood. You could always come upwith your own unique and unconventional design. Make a list ofdesired features that you want in your carport and start sketchingone, which is a right combination of aesthetics andfunctionality.

Deciding the Location
Decide on where would you like to build the carport. Is it going tobe attached to your house at the front door or is it going to be astandalone structure away from the house? Finding an answer to thisquestion will affect carport designs that you could choose. Makesure that the carport gels well with the overall architecture ofyour house.