enclose carport without making it narrower?

Jayne

Jayne

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Critters keep damaging the truck (chewing things, covered in other threads) so I'm thinking that I need to enclose the carport to protect the truck. All the other 'tricks' don't seem to work long term.

I don't want it to become an oven and baking the truck all summer, so for the sides I was thinking of using 1/2" square wire. Should be easy enough to install, just treat it like a giant chicken coop.

What about for the ends where I need doors? The 'real' doors you can get for these all make the opening narrower and if that's the case I won't be able to get the truck inside. Even a roll-up needs some space on the sides.

Maybe something hinged on the outside of the posts rather than the inside? Make a door out of aluminum channel and cover it with wire?

I also see they make cover kits out of some sort of fabric, but again the door design makes the opening almost 2' narrower overall and are for wider carports than this one.

It's just under 11' outside-to-outside on the front legs.

Ideas?

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make barn doors that open like this

l
 
Could you not use a wood framed door around the wire with hinges and a latch closure?
 
confused said:
Could you not use a wood framed door around the wire with hinges and a latch closure?
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Possible. I've built smaller doors for the coop, barn, etc that way but they're at most 6'x3', wasn't sure if you could scale that up to 8'x5.5' or whatever is necessary to close that in.
 
Catfish said:
The carport, unmodified, becomes your firewood storage shed next to your new 2 car garage and workshop.
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There is a large flat spot next to the barn with a (dirt) driveway that leads right to it, would be the perfect spot for another garage/shop. Seeing what we're getting quoted for a simple bathroom remodel I can not imagine building anything these days. The wife will also point out how poorly I'm not using the 11x16 barn 'wood shop' I have now.
 
Slacker said:
I'd say an outside cat may earn it's keep.
Perhaps a servel or small cheetah chained to the bumper.
Don't feed it, beat it daily to keep it mean.
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Have you met our outside barn cat? Thing is useless. Squirrels will wander right by it while it's sitting like a princess on a bench watching the world go by. Mice? nope, just ignores them. raccoons? please, eat my food. butterflies? she'll destroy.

Useless.
 
Line the carport edges with mothballs or some sort of deterrent? Spray all the plastic/ rubber hoses on the underside with something they don't like to chew.
 
Mr.Gadget said:
May want to look at the easement or who owns the transformer on the ground before you do anything in the current location.
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Duke owns that. They've had to run new wires to it once already (apparently there was a short somewhere and it was dumping power into the ground and blowing up equipment somewhere further up the line). They just ran one of those fancy horizontal boring things and went right under the pad and the car port and said nothing.
 
Jayne said:
Duke owns that. They've had to run new wires to it once already (apparently there was a short somewhere and it was dumping power into the ground and blowing up equipment somewhere further up the line). They just ran one of those fancy horizontal boring things and went right under the pad and the car port and said nothing.
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But what you have now is a temporary structure. If you close it in that will be different.
Also if any part is within the easement that will also cause problems.
Again generally they do not mine drives, or temporary type items. Also it more than likely was a contractor that did the work for them, one of the Duke Engineers or company guys may see things different.
 
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Kill everyone you see and hang ‘em from the eave of the carport. It might not do anything on repelling the other crack tree rats but at least you will feel a little better every time you see one hanging.
 
NCFubar said:
Kill everyone you see and hang ‘em from the eave of the carport.
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I may or may not have trapped enough of them to make jerky out of last time, so I got my revenge on the little buggers.

Sadly the wife is hand feeding them about 50' away from the carport so there are lots more of them around.
 
Mr.Gadget said:
But what you have now is a temporary structure. If you close it in that will be different.
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That's why the wire sides are appealing. Cheaper, actually allows for some airflow as not to turn it into a giant truck oven, and it's not a building.... it's a screened carport, just like the rich folk have.
 
Jayne said:
I may or may not have trapped enough of them to make jerky out of last time, so I got my revenge on the little buggers.

Sadly the wife is hand feeding them about 50' away from the carport so there are lots more of them around.
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WTH? HAND FEEDING as in they literally eat out of her hand? She is just inviting more or them.
 
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Jayne said:
They'll take individual shelled peanuts out of her hand, but the sunflower seeds have to be tossed on the ground.
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When my father in law was still living he had them sitting on his knee while he fed them at his place at the river. It was so bad if he didn't come out on time to feed them they would climb on the storm door and shake it till he came out.
 
Till you remove the food source (wife inviting/feeding them near by) your still gonna have problems enclosed or not if not the truck it will be other things they chew on or run off with.
 
Honda makes a rat tape "for lack of a better term" that works great on all the emissions lines.
 
Jayne said:
Have you met our outside barn cat? Thing is useless. Squirrels will wander right by it while it's sitting like a princess on a bench watching the world go by. Mice? nope, just ignores them. raccoons? please, eat my food. butterflies? she'll destroy.

Useless.
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You missed the part about beating it daily.
 
Jayne said:
Sadly the wife is hand feeding them about 50' away from the carport so there are lots more of them around.
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Being at arms length, you don’t have to worry about missing 🤣
 
I think the chicken wire thing should work? In theory. Attached is a little picture


If I was personally going through all this work I'd enclose the whole thing. And put a vent on the end of each gable. Should keep it cool enough to not roast your truck and added protection from when the rain is sideways. Or hail depending on where you live.

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Squanchy said:
I think the chicken wire thing should work? In theory. Attached is a little picture


If I was personally going through all this work I'd enclose the whole thing. And put a vent on the end of each gable. Should keep it cool enough to not roast your truck and added protection from when the rain is sideways. Or hail depending on where you live.
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That's some advanced CAD work right there.

What's the advantage of putting the 4x4s inside the frame vs. hinging directly to the metal legs themselves?
 
Jayne said:
That's some advanced CAD work right there.

What's the advantage of putting the 4x4s inside the frame vs. hinging directly to the metal legs themselves?
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I don't know anything about those metal legs and if it could hold up a door or not. They always look small but I don't know anything about aluminum or whatever those legs are.

2x10 was a question if you'd have enough height for you truck. Is this a classic truck with leaky door seals?
 
Squanchy said:
I don't know anything about those metal legs and if it could hold up a door or not. They always look small but I don't know anything about aluminum or whatever those legs are.

2x10 was a question if you'd have enough height for you truck. Is this a classic truck with leaky door seals?
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There should be plenty of height to have something overhead like that. It was really cheap to make the carport taller when we ordered it so I did 'just in case'. It's tucked back into the trees there (although it doesn't look like it in that photo) so it doesn't get rained on sideways or anything odd except for the rear opening. Rarely does the tailgate get wet.

I think I get it now though, the 4x4s and the header provide structure to hold the weight of the doors. The existing legs just have to keep it from tipping in/out, the header keeps the doors from bending the legs inward over time.

One of my original ideas was to make the doors out of aluminum tube, thinking I could get a fab shop to weld me up the frames pretty easily and then I wire them.
 
Jayne said:
I think I get it now though, the 4x4s and the header provide structure to hold the weight of the doors.
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Yeah that was my thought if you make it light enough I'm sure hanging it directly to the posts would be fine.

I don't think it'd be difficult just time consuming for something that's ultimately a carport. But if I had one and made a carport a shed my wife would be trying to pack it full of crap. so I can understand the carport appeal.
 
Squanchy said:
Yeah that was my thought if you make it light enough I'm sure hanging it directly to the posts would be fine.
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I could go nuts with stuff like this: https://8020.net/framing-options.html

Other than the doors I can think of at least 2 more fun projects.

Squanchy said:
I don't think it'd be difficult just time consuming for something that's ultimately a carport. But if I had one and made a carport a shed my wife would be trying to pack it full of crap. so I can understand the carport appeal.
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I've got nothing but time. If the carport people made a completion kit with doors that would work for me I wouldn't reject it out of hand, I don't care that it's enclosed from a 'wife fills it with garbage' perspective. She's pretty good about not buying and collecting 'stuff'.
 
Making progress on the enclosure project.

Dad talked me out of 2x2s on the side into 1x4s which gives me more wiggle room to work on the 'tall' side where the ground to roof opening is greater than the 6' my wire is.

The right door is warping a bit, likely to put two sets of latches on the doors to ensure they close together. Still haven't decided on what to do above the doors, either wire there too or do something with paneling. Also have to work out some sort of sweep for the doors to seal against the sloped concrete.

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