Fall Is Here. Your Porch Season Isn’t Over.
Sometime in October, you’ll walk out to get the mail and notice it: the humidity is gone, it’s 68 degrees at three in the afternoon, and for the first time since May, you find yourself sitting outside for a while instead of hurrying back inside to the air conditioning. This moment tends to be when homeowners start asking us an important question: Is an open porch worth building if you only get a few good months out of it?
For those of us living in the Triad region, these “good months” stretch for almost half the year, from March well into December, and this is especially true for those with a porch that includes a fireplace or heating element. Below, we’ll walk through what we know about the ideal ways to enjoy outdoor living, what an outdoor fireplace really does for you, and the design details that determine whether a porch gets used in colder months or just collects leaves.
What Triad Weather Really Looks Like After Summer
Despite our southern location, winters in North Carolina can be very cold at times. We get cold snaps, and every few years an ice storm knocks out power across a good chunk of the region. However, the truly cold stretch usually lasts only a few weeks in total, with plenty of mid-50s afternoons that make staying inside feel like a waste. The warm days are easy to savor, so what can you do to make your open porch feel more comfortable when temperatures aren’t ideal outside?
The Outdoor Fireplace: Where an Open Porch Becomes a Winter Room
If you only add one feature to an open porch so you can use it in winter, make it a fireplace. We’ve built quite a few fireplaces around the Triad over the years, and homeowners most often tell us afterward that they never expected to spend so much time outside in December and January. Radiant heat from a fire can make any space feel more cozy and hospitable, which is precisely what a fireplace in your new outdoor living space should achieve. Bring some blankets, some warm tea, and a book out to the fireplace-warmed porch, and you already have a beautiful morning or evening to enjoy. This is true for solo relaxation or gathering with friends and family!
What kind of fireplace would work best for your home? Only you can decide, but we have some ideas to help guide your decision-making:
- Wood-burning or gas? Some folks won’t consider anything but wood, and we understand why. The sound and smell of a wood-burning fire is hugely nostalgic and appealing. Others, however, may choose gas thanks to the ease of turning it on and controlling the temperature. You really can’t go wrong with either.
- Placement. This is a simple matter of preference. Some factors we consider are where your porch entryway is, as well as which direction the wind will likely flow through your porch if you include open windows in your porch design.
- Materials. Stacked stone, brick, and stucco all look right at home in the Triad, and stone chimneys pair especially well with the farmhouse and craftsman homes you see throughout Summerfield, Oak Ridge, and Clemmons.
- Code and clearances. Building regulations determine how far a fireplace must sit from framing and how tall the chimney must be when it’s under a roof, and the inspector will check. This isn’t a DIY project, so you want a builder who pulls the permits and has experience working with inspectors. At Archadeck, we have this experience in spades.
You can see a few examples of custom porch fireplaces on our porches page, including a Greensboro porch with a hip roof and stone fireplace, and a Winston-Salem screened porch built around one.
If you aren’t partial to a masonry fireplace within your porch, a fire pit on an adjoining patio is a similar and affordable way to capture the same feeling. You won’t get the same heat on the porch itself, but it provides the whole backyard with a winter gathering area.
Small Design Decisions That Add Months of Use
A fireplace will garner much attention, but some of the smaller design decisions matter just as much when it comes to using the porch during the colder months. These are the points we bring up with nearly everyone:
Get the roof right. This is the big one, because a solid roof keeps the furniture dry, holds in warmth instead of letting it drift straight up into the night sky, and makes the space feel far cozier than an open deck. A gable roof with an exposed ceiling gives you plenty of height, while a hip roof feels snug and ties in nicely with many Triad homes. In most cases, we’ll recommend the option that matches your home’s roofline.
Think about which direction your porch faces. A porch facing south or west catches the low winter sun in the afternoon, making it easier to enjoy idle moments on your custom porch later in the day. East-facing porches get the morning sun and stay a little cooler on summer evenings. Often, your home’s position decides your porch’s placement for you.
Consider ceiling-mounted heaters. For the money, infrared heaters are an incredible winter upgrade. Like a fire, these heaters send warmth through the air and directly to you, so a breeze doesn’t cancel out their effect. We’ve had clients without a fireplace get through most of the winter with a pair of these heaters thanks to their effectiveness at warding off the cold.
Don’t skip the ceiling fan. Yes, this is a post about cold weather, but you’ll still want that fan running from May through September. Most can also run in reverse on a low setting, which will gently push some of a heater’s warm air back down to where you’re sitting during the winter months.
Choose materials that don’t need babysitting. Between falling leaves, pine straw, and temperatures that bounce above and below freezing all winter, wood floors take a real beating here. A composite deck floor or a stone or bluestone floor handles these fluctuations without needing a fresh coat of stain.
Plan your lighting. It’s dark by 5:30 in December, and layered lighting, such as a few recessed cans, sconces by the door, and maybe string lights or step lights, can turn the porch into an inviting place after work instead of a dark slab you glance at through the kitchen window.
Open Porch, Screened Porch, or Three-Season Room?
An open porch isn’t the right answer for everyone, and we’d be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise. Here’s how we usually explain the trade-offs.
An open porch gives you the best view of the yard and the most open, airy feel of the three, since nothing stands between you and the outdoors and it never feels closed in. If you spend a lot of summer nights outside, though, the Triad’s mosquitoes will quickly introduce themselves. In these instances, a screened porch earns its keep.
If your goal is to enjoy comfortable outdoor living months possible with the least fuss, a three-season room with 4-track vinyl windows lets you open everything up in May and close it down when pollen or wind arrives.
Many of our clients take a middle path. They choose an open porch now with framing planned so that screens or windows can be added later. Or, they combine an open porch with a screened section and a deck or patio, creating a connected outdoor living space that flows from one space to another. You don’t have to pick just one!
So, Can You Use an Open Porch Year-Round Here?
Yes, with a little planning. The Piedmont Triad provides a long, generous porch season on its own, and a custom-designed porch will allow you to make the most of these months. Put an outdoor fireplace at one end, and you’ll probably find yourself outside on January evenings more often than you’d think.
Fall and winter are also a great time to start the design process. You’ll have time to make decisions without rushing, and your porch can be ready before next spring’s first warm weekend.
If you’re curious what an open porch could look like on your home, browse our covered porch photo gallery for ideas, or grab our free design guide to start thinking through the details. When you’re ready to talk it over, schedule a complimentary design consultation or call us at (336) 537-1561. Archadeck of the Piedmont Triad has been designing and building porches in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, and the surrounding communities since 1991, and we’d love to help you get more out of every season.
Greg McNeer – Owner Archadeck of the Piedmont Triad
