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Covering the sides of an open wooden porch
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Posted by barb_bronze z7 DC (My Page) on Mon, Nov 22, 04 at 20:25
| This porch faces north but it's mostly protected by the house. I've only been here a few months, so I'm not sure what's going to happen this winter, but a lot of our bad weather comes from the west and northwest. I use it as a transitional storage area right now, so I'd like to protect it, above and below the deck.
I have several old shower curtain liners and a giant green tarp, which would have to be cut up and sewed if I used it for this purpose. The tarp was free and seems pretty strong, but it's 24' x 24' and seems a shame to cut up. But then again, it was free. But then the shower curtain liners each fit right on the left portion, one up and one down. I could use another as the "door" and another under the steps. Luckily, I have two dark brown ones. I also have two pale peach ones. Then again, they only cost a buck.
Nobody pays much attention to the back of the house, but it can be seen from the street, so it can't be too tacky looking. (Of course, my junk was pretty tacky looking in the picture already. LOL! But it didn't stay that way.)
I don't expect the shower curtain liners to hold up to too much, but they've held out well over the years with the uses I've put them through. Has anybody else used them in a situation where they'd get a "reasonable" amount of wind beating?
I'd have to hook and/or nail them to the porch. How far apart would you space the nails/hooks? Half of me just thinks I could use the existing grommets on the top and put hooks in the porch, not that I want to make any holes. I also have a grommet gadget and could add more, like on the bottom.
Any ideas/suggestions appreciated. This probably could have been posted elsewhere, but I think you guys have more imagination :-)
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Covering the sides of an open wooden porch
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| Why don't you just get some treated lumber or lattice & plant something like ivy to crawl up? You can usually go through the "junk" piles of lumber yards and get free or really cheap pieces of lumber. |
RE: Covering the sides of an open wooden porch
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| I think you misunderstood my intentions, so perhaps I wasn't clear. I only want to cover it temporarily for the worst weather of the season. Around here, that's usually after Christmas until March at the latest. We usually get a few bad blizzards a year, and I don't want to have to take everything off the porch for the winter. In the summer, I hope to have something like morning glories climbing up there and a lot less junk stored above once I get organized. I could use the nails I put in the wood to create a fishing line trellis once I take down the covering. Under the porch will remain junk storage, and I may or may not leave it covered. |
RE: Covering the sides of an open wooden porch
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| Barb, I'd stick w/ the lighter colored shower curtain where it's visible from the street, since the house is an off-white. I was thinking about how to attach them to prevent as much wind damage as possible....how about a piece of long thin wood, such as baseboard molding, put over the top part of the shower curtain and the bottom and putting nails through that? You would be putting the nails through that instead of only through the curtain's grommets, so it would 1) require fewer nails and 2) protect the shower curtain material from the wind ripping it around the nailholes. This way, instead of having to use a nail every few inches (in a grommet) to combat the wind's force, you could use one maybe every foot to 18 inches, nailing it into the piece of wood. The nail would go through the piece of wood, through a grommet on the shower curtain, and then into the deck wood. The brown curtains could be put over the top of the bottom area and the deck cover as kind of a roofing, but I would nail them to the inside part of the woodwork so they don't show from the street. Again I would use a long, thin piece of wood such as molding (or a piece of pallet wood would work, if it was cut in half down the piece), sandwiching the shower curtain between it and the frame of your deck for tautness. Then, when you are ready to take it down, you just pop off the thin pieces of wood, that releases the curtains, and you're back to pre-covered condition. And, if possible, you would still have the 24 x 24 tarp in full condition. (Even though you got it for free, those things are so expensive that I would be seriously hesitant to cut it. I would buy clear or apricot shower curtain liners from the dollar store before I would cut the big tarp.) Do you think that would work for you? |
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