Porches that finish the front of the house.

What a porch can do.

A porch keeps the weather off the front door and the parcels off the mat. It adds a layer of insulation between the hallway and the street, which a Victorian terrace feels immediately. It gives somewhere to leave wet coats and muddy shoes. And on a 1930s semi where the front door sits back from the bay, a porch closes the entrance and makes the elevation read as one piece — which is what the architect originally intended.

Styles we build.

An open porch with a tile roof on a Victorian or Edwardian frontage, drawn to the proportions of the existing door surround. An enclosed brick-and-glazed porch with side windows and a half-glazed inner door for a 1930s detached. A contemporary canopy in painted steel or aluminium for a modern new-build, where a heavier porch would overwhelm the entrance. Each one drawn from the house, not from a brochure.

Right for your house?

A porch is appropriate where the front door has somewhere to sit — set-back doors in a brick reveal, period frontages with a flat plane in front of the entrance, semis with a side return that wants closing in. A porch is the wrong answer for a flush modern frontage where the architect deliberately set the door in plane with the wall, and for any entrance where a porch would block a window. We'll tell you on the home visit which one yours is.