2014

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In Spirit Lake, Bonner County, we recently had the opportunity to build a 24' x 24' carport. This project was of interest because there is a lot of attractive building here for a very modest budget. A few of the features of the building include the very solid concrete piers obtained from Bonner Concrete products in Sagle. They are over 2' in diameter and are precast units that are then set on reinforced concrete footers and piers that are cast on site. They are then filled with concrete and tied to the foundation with embedded rebar.

Carport Front View

The post bases sit on top of these stout piers, and then we love using heavy timbers provided by Specialty Beam just across the border in Montana. These are beetle killed Douglas Fir, circular sawn with full fimensions on the posts of 6x6 and beams of 6x10. The advantages of this beetle killed Douglas Fir are its strength and its stability versus green timbers. These timbers tend to stay very straight without twists, crowns or bows:

New carport

We also used a Bonner Concrete Product precast retaining wall system. This is a durable and attractive option for retaining walls and can be done for a very attractive price:

Carport Retaining Wall

The connection method for the timbers are countersunk Timberlok brand wood screws. We then fill the countersink with wood dowels, which essentially creates a very affordable and durable hidden fastener system:

Timber Joint on Carport

A final view of the finished carport. The fascia is rough sawn 2x10 stained Western Red Cedar:

carport side view final

Finally, we connected the carport to the home with an attractive curved concrete sidewalk and concrete steps. We pour these on a 16" compacted crushed gravel base to avoid frost heaving of the concrete in winter:

Concrete sidewalk