Adding a Door and Walls to a Carport
Adding a door and walls to a carport seems like a good idea for many customers. A carport is a great way to keep your vehicle out of the sun and rain. But it’s not always enough, especially when you have other needs such as storage space or an extra room for yourself. That’s why customers often want to convert their existing carports into garages or rooms with walls. Unfortunately, while these changes look great on paper, they can be disastrous due to how unsafe they are. The problem is that adding weight to a carport will make it collapse!
Again, there are many articles you can find on Google to assist you in making additions to a carport. They are written with a foreign audience in mind and MUST BE ignored by Australians.
Your Carport Kit must be designed to take the Stresses and Weight of any additions.
You can order a carport where a door can be added. These are available through Professional Choice Sheds and only one or 2 other carport suppliers. You can also order a carport strong enough to add solar panels on the roof, but it MUST be designed to take the additional weight.
Again, you can buy a carport kit through Professional Choice Sheds which is specifically designed to take an additional load of 20kg per square metre to allow for solar panel installation.
Even the strongest carports in Australia, those made by Professional Choice Sheds, are not certified to take the additional weight of sides, doors, or solar panels. These purposes require specific designs for them.
Carports are not strong enough, adding to a carport is illegal.
Adding a door and walls to a carport is illegal. Most carports sold and installed in Australia are just capable of holding their own weight. Many common carports fail to meet Australian Standards and become dangerous in high winds.
Most people should be able to imagine the extra-large stresses that will be placed on a carport by filling in just one side. The wind hitting that side will be just like the wind hitting a big sail! It adds huge pressures on the structure which can result in catastrophic failure.
A carport is designed to have open sides to avoid the increased pressures and weight of additional solid side panels. Carports are just not strong enough to take this additional stress.
Roller doors are heavy. You add a roller door, which significantly increases the mass that the legs must hold. You are also adding additional wind pressure on the structure as the wind hits this new ‘side’ of the carport. This design is not suitable for the situation and poses a significant risk of injury to you, your family, and neighbours.
If you want to add something to your existing carport, you must have it re-certified by an engineer. In almost all cases, you will find the additional cost and work involved in strengthening the carport is not worth the money and you may be better off re-designing a new structure from the beginning.
Carports are not strong enough to add additional weight.
As you may have guessed, carports are not strong enough to add additional weight. The increased surface areas cause stresses on the frame that go beyond what it was built for, in addition to the extra weight. Additions will cause the carport to collapse and possibly damage your vehicle. Much worse than this, flying metal sheets can cause injury or death.
A carport kit can only support its own weight.
Kit Carports support their own weight without bearing anything else. When you add on a door or walls to a carport in Australia, the certification issued with the purchase of your carport is null and void. This also applies to additional weight on the roof such as solar panels.
Carport with a door is no longer certified.
Adding a door to a carport is adding, on average, around 158 kg to the load on the legs. On top of the actual load, you must add the additional stress caused by wind hitting the door so the carport is placed under stresses it cannot bear. It is no longer certified to Australian Standards.
A carport with walls is no longer certified.
- The legs of a carport cannot support the weight of walls.
- The additional stresses caused by wind hitting the sides will invalidate all previous engineering and your carport is no longer certified as safe.
- The carport kit is not capable of supporting extra weight on its roof.
A carport with solar panels is no longer certified.
The carport kit is not capable of supporting extra weight on its roof. It is barely capable of supporting its own weight. The average weight of a solar panel is around 18kg. It is unlikely that you would bother installing any fewer than 12 solar panels. That is another 220 kg (including mounting brackets) sitting on the roof. Your carport will no longer be certified as safe.
Adding a door and walls to a carport – Do not add weight to your carport.
The carport kit can only support its own weight, so if you add a door, walls or solar panels to a carport not specifically designed to take these, it will no longer be certified as safe. More importantly, you will have a dangerous large structure on your premises. This can cause huge damage to your belongings and to people!
Summary – Adding a door and walls to a carport.
If you have any questions about adding a door or walls to your carport, please contact us at Professional Choice Sheds. It can be a costly business to upgrade an existing carport to give it the strength to support any additional weight. Often you are quicker and cheaper to start again with a carport designed for the purpose.