Porch floor options
 

Here's the ugliest member of our family that doesn't have my name...our front porch.

Smallish house, smallish porch. I'm blessed in plenty of other ways.

It's not really protected. When we moved in 4 years ago it had putt-putt type carpet on the porch floor. Time, sun, and the rain did their thing until it became the rattiest tripping hazard in the neighborhood.

Off it came.

I'm now the proud owner of a mastic/adhesive residue covered, slightly sloping *towards* the house, porch and delightfully outdated railing.

What do people do for porch floors these days?

Tile?

Have their been epic strides in indoor-outdoor carpet technology since Clinton's el camino years?

How thin of a thinset cap can one put on to re-slope?

I do realize that many a 15K porch remodels start with "Let's rip off that nasty carpet and go from there."

This won't be one of those escalations. That will come in 8 years.

Here's the visual report. I welcome all of your expertise and smartassery.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch7.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch3.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch4.jpg

tile won't work- the grout would crack in no time. You shouldm consider stamped concrete. It will be the cheapest- best looking alternative. It is basically a decorative thinset, but has to be a little thicker so won't crack as easy. They can also fix the sloping problem in the process

This was my thought as well. Patterned/stamped concrete, especially if you're going to change it in 8 years. You won't have to worry about possibly covering up framing and rot issues and such from running the concrete too high up into the baseplate.

Stamped concrete seems like a beast to keep clean, yes?

The siding does come all the way down to the concrete porch, but it's vinyl, so easily cut.

Right. But behind the siding is framing. You start covering the framing with concrete, and you're trapping moisture which leads to rot, etc...

Still, not a big deal if you're talking about 8 years. If you're talking about the life of the home... slightly bigger deal.

And I don't think stamped concrete is any harder to keep clean than anything else. Spray it off and mop that shit down.

Thanks for the advice, and I understand the moisture part.

By "keep clean" I don't mean stains and moppable stuff.

Our porch gets filled with maple seeds, muddy boots, and things like that. I'd like to be able to sweep it off, and those furrows in stamped concrete seem like I'd be growing weeds in 10 days.

Can I get the stamped concrete without the stamps? Do they do stairs too? Am I basically forming up the entire project and pouring or is it more like troweled on like stucco?

Maybe I'm the lone hold-out in a largely porch mopping world? Who knew?

Stone?

http://www.homeplacemasonry.com/BeforeAfter.html

Tile?

How easy is that to shovel snow and ice off of?

Vailpass, you make a great point.

You sure you don't root chiefs when nobody is looking.

I'm cheap & would go with garge floor paint
maybe with sparkles!

Maybe? There is no question...... You ALWAYS go with sparkles!

Are you a Boise State fan? Have you considered the blue putt-putt carpet. :evil:

you CAN do tile outdoors, but you have to use the right products. unfortunately in this climate, the winters are hard, water gets under the tile and freezes, popping it off. stamped concrete is good, but only for a tear-out. You can
t just put a thin topping on something like this, otherwise the afore-mentioned freezing will pop it off.

I have stamped concrete on my back patio, my front porch, and the trim around my driveway. It's no problem at all. The grooves aren't very deep, certainly nowhere near as deep as the grooves between sidewalk squares. Keeping them clean and/or shoveled is a complete non-issue; literally, it's never even crossed my mind that they are dirty or difficult to shovel. It looks really good, too. I would absolutely recommend it.

I have tile on my deck, and I haven't had any real problems with it, but I don't walk on it all that much, especially in the winter. No way would I want to use it in a high traffic area.