How to Add a Portico Roof Over a Front Door Entrance

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Today I am sharing how to add a portico roof over a front door entrance which is an easy way to add curb appeal to your home. A portico is a covered porch over a front door.  It’s amazing how building a portico (a little roof) and two new columns can transform the front of a home! 

This front door portico was installed at our previous house and porticos are currently trending on google right now! With real estate being so expensive, many are opting to remodel or renovate and exterior renovations are on the rise. Hopefully you find some great front door entrance ideas here today and are inspired to add a portico roof over your front door (or even a side or backdoor). 

Portico Roof Installation

What is a portico?

A portico is a covered entrance or porch attached to a building, supported by columns or pillars. It’s beneficial for a home because it makes the house look more attractive, protects from bad weather when going in or out, and can even add value to the property.

building a wood roof over a front door entrance

Here is the front door before with no roof over the front door entrance:

colonial home with no roof over the front door

I searched google and pinterest for portico ideas wow, there are so many ideas online! It’s easy to get overwhelmed with so many designs so I only saved designs that showed a front door similar to mine. We were not going to remodel the entire front of the house, just the front entrance. I didn’t make sense to save images that were nothing like our front door entrance. 

Step 1: Frame Stairs

The first step to installing a portico is to frame your stairs.

We framed around the existing cement step with 2×4’s and 2×10’s.

wood frame over cement step

Initially, we were going to remove the cement step but decided that it was in decent shape and would provide a solid base for the new wider step, so we left the existing stairs.

2x10 wood frame over an old cement step
how to frame over a cement step with 2x4 and 2x10 wood

Step 2: Install Vinyl Decking On Top of Step Frame

The vinyl decking was installed on top of the 2×4 frame.

how to add red cedar vinyl decking over a front door cement step

How much does a portico cost?

The cost of building a portico depends on the size and building materials you use along with any manual labor you need to hire. Our front door portico roughly cost $2000 but we did a lot of the work ourselves. 

We chose a maintenance free vinyl decking to create our new step.

Portico Roof Benefits

Last week I shared front door portico designs that showed varying roof sizes and styles depending on the type of front door. A portico not only provides curb appeal but a roof over a front door provides protection from the weather.  It’s always nice if it’s raining or snowing, to have a covered door while you are trying to get inside your home. This is a huge benefit!

Step 3: Install Support Columns

Ultimately, we decided on the round italian style column portico.  The round columns added softness to the square portico roof line and provided visual appeal from the curb. 

round column for front door portico and roof

We did enlist a little help with the installation of the columns and roof over the door. We DIY most everything around our home but occasionally, you need muscle for projects, more muscle than I have! ha.

building a roof over a front door with round column pillars

I found it fascinating how they made a simple rectangular box as the supports for the columns. I have never seen a portico built before so this was a first for me. It’s always nice to see how things are actually made and what is underneath the “pretty” end product.

wood roof frame for a front door portico

Step 4: Install Roof

We used special brackets for fastening the wooden box to the house and new columns.

roof bracket frames

They used wooden shims on top of the columns to brace the support beams (rectangular box) until they got it level, then they removed them.

white round column attached to a front door roof frame

The front door portico looks kind of cool right?

building a front door portico with white round column pillars

Front door portico

As you can see the roof over the front door entrance is taking shape and the added curb appeal from the new portico roof is amazing.

wooden front door portico with white column pillars on a colonial house
front door portico makeover with wood roof over front door and white column pillars, vinyl decking step

We decided to add a decorative inset on the front facing part of the new roof which I will share next week. It was a last minute decision but it took the roof line from nice to wow!

front door portico makeover with wood roof over front door and white column pillars, vinyl decking step

As you can see, it’s coming along nicely and the two toned shingles add so much color and texture to an otherwise, boring roof.

I love the side view of the portico over the front door and it’s amazing how the roof over the door entrance adds so much curb appeal to the home.

front door portico makeover with wood roof over front door and white column pillars, vinyl decking step

More Portico Posts You Will Love

We still need to finish up the details and rip out the old door. The existing door is a solid wood gorgeous door with beautiful detail but unfortunately, that’s about all it has to offer. It basically lets in all the cold air during the winter months and you can see the outside through the cracks when you walk by it. Not good! I have plans for that door though, possibly a DIY headboard for our master bedroom. Stay tuned, the portico reveal is soon!

About The Author

What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.

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17 Comments

  1. Wow! What a difference Jess! It is just beautiful! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

    Denise and Lesley

  2. That looks fantastic. would love one on my house.

  3. I can’t wait to see it all done! It looks fantastic so far!

  4. Wow! Thanks for sharing! The new portico is going to be a beauty. The size is a great improvement over the prior one! And I, too, love seeing what’s under the pretty and the steps involved in making it all so pretty. Can’t wait for the final product!

  5. I absolutely love your portico! It looks like you guys are really doing it the right way with quality materials. There are so many benefits to adding this to your home, not only great curb appeal but shades your front door from damage and gives your guest a place to stand under shelter with bad weather, just to name a couple. You are going to love it!

  6. My husband and I are in the middle of a similar project and I am curious as to what diameter your columns are and how tall they are. Ours will be 9 1/2′ tall but I’m not sure whether to go with a 10″ diameter or a 12″. I would appreciate any help you could offer.

  7. Mind sharing what it cost?

    1. Karen Trakas says:

      Could you share the cost? I’m having this done by a contractor. I want an idea of what I should pay. Thank you!

  8. Anonymous says:

    Wow ! look so beautiful this is just what I’m intersting in doing to the front of my house. Thanks so much Gen

  9. Hi! I realize this is an older Post but was wondering if you could tell me the size of your step?