New front door leads to remodeling the whole porch! But what to do about the extra concrete around the floor?

Lynette Taylor
by Lynette Taylor
Our new front door has arrived, and we have discovered a glitch in our plans to update the porch. We want to put plank boards all around the porch area, but when the brick was removed on the wall where the door goes we noticed the base that was built for the brick to sit on. (Guess we should have known this!) We'd rather remove the brick than to put the boards on top of it, but the boards won't come out as far as the concrete footing thing. Any ideas on how to remove or disquise this little roadblock? I'm open to all suggestions!
Existing door. The new (Craftsman style -Yay!) door will have sidelights on each side.
The problem ledge.
The new plank siding (because I don't love the brick).
  5 answers
  • Are you placing the wood plank down for the deck on the porch? or are they going around the door? If you are planning to cover the cement deck I would be very careful placing the wood deck down on the cement. It will lead to warping and rotting issues. If your going to tile or put down a stamped deck down the cement ledge can be cleaned up and made to look as though it was designed that way. You cannot or should not remove the cement ledge as water can run behind the deck and into the lower areas below the deck area/ If your doing the wood wall, you can pack out the surfaces around the door area and then cover over the cement ledges.
  • Gail Salminen Gail Salminen on Feb 19, 2013
    @Lynette Taylor have you thought of maybe concrete paint that is similar in clour to the wood? Or perhaps cap the ledge with the wood - @Woodbridge Environmental Tiptophouse.com might be able to indicate if this could be a problem. Pretty nice front door :)
  • Lynette Taylor Lynette Taylor on Feb 19, 2013
    Gail Salminen, thanks for the ideas!! Hadn't thought of them. And thanks to Woodbridge Environmental for the caution on taking out the ledge. Our first thought was how to get rid of it!! We'll leave it alone and work on other solutions. The wood plank is only going on the walls, but thank you for your advice on that as well.
  • Creative Expressions Creative Expressions on Feb 20, 2013
    Since it is an entrance have you thought of making an entry built in? That way you could build around the concrete and have storage for coats,shoes etc.You can put doors on them or make seating below and cabinets above.Actually any type would work because you can back it to cover the brick. Good luck!
  • MBLori MBLori on Jan 21, 2015
    You could curve out the bottom pieces. Check out the picture of the Queen Anne style house I pulled from the internet. Old clapboard houses had this to aid with water runoff. It would hide your concrete. You can see it on the second and first floors of the blue house.