Pouring a porch up against the house

pws

Hi,
I am pouring a concrete front porch that will go right up to the front door and along a good portion of the front of the house. The 3" concrete would be sitting on 5" of rock, so grade is still 8" below the top of foundation (perimeter foundation). Are you allowed to pour the porch to a level the same as the top of the foundation, so the step into the house is only a couple inches (the treated 2x4 and the door base thickness)?

Some of the concrete siding on the house drops down below the top of foundation height....Can the porch pour right into this siding, or does that need to be removed, and the foundation flashed first?

Dropping the porch to 6" below the foundation top height may create some drainage issues the way the yard sits, so I want to keep the porch high at the house, so it has room to slope away from the house....Thanks for any info...

Termite

Better check code in your area to be safe...

Normally, grade (concrete in this case) must be at least 6" below any siding materials. If you have wood siding, water splashback can be a real problem if the concrete is too close. I'd advise pouring it as far down from the siding as possible.

To answer your question, yes, you can pour the concrete stoop at a level that causes you to take one step down from the door threshold, provided that the main door doesn't swing outward over the landing (a storm door can). You can't pour a step...It has to be a landing, but the landing can be dropped a little. The maximum drop allowed from the top of the threshold to the landing is 7-3/4".

All that is from the IRC code.

pws

That is what I was afraid of....The original porch was Trex decking, so the level was nice and high all the way above the concrete siding slightly...Now, I am converting to concrete, so it looks like the level must be dropped down this 6"...I'll verify with code....

I have seen pictures of some back patio's that seam to have been poured almost right into the sliding glass door frame! Curious what this exception to the rule might be....

Anyway, thx!

Termite

Concrete's proximity to a door isn't an issue and therefore isn't regulated. But having concrete nearly touching the bottom course of siding is a problem.

pws

You are correct...I verified with local code inspector...Concrete can be poured right up to the top of the foundation, even over the pressure treated ground board, but obviously critical to slope away from the house.....Any wood siding, like the T-111, needs to be removed or covered in sheeting, however...

Thanks!

Termite

Always good to place a call to the inspector before starting a project.