Barndominium with Wrap Around Porch in Arizona
A wrap-around porch is a classic barndominium feature, and in Arizona it does real work. A deep roof around the house shades the walls and windows beneath it, turns the sunniest sides of the building into outdoor rooms, and keeps the monsoon rain off the doors. We design and build barndominiums with covered porches on two, three or all four sides, sized and placed for the sun on your lot rather than for looks alone.
What actually changes with this feature
The look is the easy part. These are the decisions that follow from it.
Depth by side
A porch you can sit on needs 8 to 10 feet of depth; one that shades a west wall well often needs more, or vertical screening. Varying the depth by side lets the porch roof do the most work where the sun is lowest.
Porch or ramada
The ramada, a free-standing or attached open shade structure, is a familiar form in Arizona; the word even appears in Pima County's residential code amendments. A ramada over an outdoor kitchen or dining area can extend a porch or stand on its own in the yard.
Porch roofs and wind
A porch roof is open underneath, so wind pushes up on it as well as down. Pima County's 2024 residential code amendments include uplift requirements written to minimize microburst effects. The posts, beams and roof connections of a porch are designed for the wind figure your building department sets.
Snow country porches
In the high country the porch roof carries snow like the main roof. The City of Flagstaff's design criteria call for a 60 psf ground snow load, and snow sliding off the main roof can land on a lower porch roof, so the porch is framed for both.
A porch roof is the cheapest shade a wall can have, but the east and west sides need more than depth
The Department of Energy's Building America Solution Center notes that the summer sun strikes east and west walls for significantly more hours than north and south walls. On the south, a porch roof of modest depth blocks the high midday sun. On the east and west the sun comes in low, under almost any roof, so a porch on those sides needs more: a deeper roof, a lower edge, or vertical shade such as screens, lattice or slatted panels between the posts. A wrap-around porch in Arizona is usually deepest and most enclosed on the west.
Common ways to build this
Common configurations. Yours does not have to match one exactly — this is a starting point for the conversation, not a catalog.
Front and west porch
About 1,800 sq ft home + 800 sq ft of porch
A porch across the front and down the west side, deepest on the west with screen panels between the posts, shading the two walls that need it most.
Full wrap-around
About 2,400 sq ft home + 1,600 sq ft of porch on four sides
A continuous 10-foot porch on all four sides of a 40x60, with an outdoor kitchen on the north side and a screened sleeping porch on the east.
Porch and ramada
About 2,000 sq ft home + 600 sq ft porch + a separate ramada
A covered porch on the north and east, and a free-standing ramada in the yard over an outdoor dining area, linked by a shaded path.
Ways to build this
This can go together several ways. These are the service lines most relevant to it.
Custom Plans
Custom barndominium plans for your Arizona parcel: drawn for the sun, the monsoon and the soil, to the design figures your city or county publishes.
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Steel barndominiums in Arizona: red-iron frames termites cannot eat, bolted to footings drawn for your soil and your jurisdiction's wind and snow.
Read moreBarndominium with a Wrap-Around Porch: common questions
6 common questions about this layout in Arizona. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.
How deep should a wrap-around porch be in Arizona?
Does a porch really keep a barndominium cooler?
What is a ramada?
Does a porch need to be designed for wind?
Can a wrap-around porch be screened?
Do porches work in the high country?
Keep reading
The pages that answer the next question this one raises.
Want this drawn for your program and your parcel? That is where a build actually starts.
Start your plans
Tell us what you want to build and we will draw this for your program and your parcel: which way it faces, where the shade goes, and the snow load, wind speed and frost depth your city or county publishes. Where the building department requires it, an Arizona-registered engineer seals the drawings. Then we build it, or supply the kit if you would rather build it yourself. That conversation costs nothing.