As reported in the Herald-Tribune, carports are being seen on historic and “elegant” homes, properties that ordinarily wouldn’t have them, and while these portable structures are often seen as throwbacks to the 1950s and ‘60s, they’re environmentally friendly, don’t take up as much space, and can be constructed in the backs of houses.

Aesthetically, garages take up a large portion of a home’s appearance and give a property greater mass. Environmentally, additionally, a garage can be a place for chemical gases, such as volatile organic compounds, to accumulate, and the brick-and-mortar structures are rarely equipped with ventilation.

So, how are carports making a comeback? Design-wise, properties are being constructed with them. But, unlike the dated four-post look of the ‘50s and ’60s, modern constructed carports have peaked or sloped roofs and, depending upon the needs of a homeowner, may come equipped with chargers for hybrid vehicles.

Constructing a brick-and-mortar carport is expensive, and portable structures have the same benefits. A portable carport can be placed just about anywhere within zoning regulations or building codes, including in the back of a house, and holds up to heavy snow loads, rain, and winds. Depending upon your needs, as well, carports come in valance and enclosed varieties. If you see the structure solely for protecting your car, consider a valance carport; if, on the other hand, the shelter is needed for storing items, consider an enclosed model. Additionally, depending upon the strength you need and the amount of usage for the shelter, carports are available with powder-coated or galvanized steel frames.

If these shelters were on display, there’s a great likelihood that they were not anchored into the ground. Aside from showing what can happen to a portable shelter in a storm, this news story sends a clear message to carport owners: make sure your shelter is properly anchored during the storm. Although these durable metal structures can handle various conditions, not anchoring them makes them more vulnerable in any weather condition: hurricanes, tornadoes, or snow.

If you want to make sure your shelter ends up in better shape after the storm, what are the options for anchoring it? The most reliable is concrete. The metal poles are set in concrete in the ground; once the concrete hardens, the rest of the shelter can be put together.

While concrete is ideal for those planning to keep a carport outdoors all year long, what about when you only use the shelter seasonally? Anchor kits are an option, allowing you to ground your shelter for part of the year and to take it down when not in use.

Even when anchored, shelters can still be damaged by a storm. If this happens, assess the damage done to your carport during the storm and find the right replacement parts or canopy.

If you live in Salem, Oregon, this space becomes part of your yard, according to the Statesman Journal. As detailed in the article, a resident of Salem converted her garage into a bedroom and parked her car in the driveway in front. Not too long after, she was ticketed for leaving the vehicle in her yard.

As explained in the article, Salem considers a car not parked in a carport or in a traditional garage to be on a yard. A local code specifies against parking a vehicle in such a location. But what isn’t mentioned in the article is, if she had put a carport over the driveway, would keeping her car in the same area be legal?

As we’ve seen in various instances, making any modifications to your home or property should be consulted with your town first before any changes or construction is made. Much like this instance in Salem, carports and other portable garages have their own set of local concerns. Aside from outright bans against the structures, towns often restrict them to certain locations, and a structure that is set in concrete in the ground may have a different set of local codes than one that is simply anchored. Like we’ve seen in many instances, doing your research before purchasing a shelter is necessary, as is before making modifications to your garage.

In other instances, these zoning restrictions and ordinances go beyond keeping up a general aesthetic and are in place for practical purposes. This is the case according to an article published recently in The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois. According to the article, which summarizes minutes from a Rochester Village Board meeting, the town approved a ban that prohibits portable buildings from being built near drainage and utility easements. It appears that such structures near drains, in particular, are posing an impediment in floods. The article, additionally, specifies that residents can request variance, although how much variance allowed isn’t delineated.

Nevertheless, this article brings up an important issue for purchasing a portable shelter like a carport, shed, or garage: following your local ordinances and zoning restrictions. Manufacturers may not allow a shelter to be returned once it has been purchased and shipped, and you should be aware of your local laws before picking out any type of shelter ranging from a portable garage to a metal carport. Not only should you make sure that you can have such a structure on your property, but also many laws restrict the area in which the shelter can be placed and its size. In many neighborhoods, two-car portable garages may be the largest such a shelter can be.

But a recent editorial in the News-Sentinel debates whether these restrictions on historical properties are a hindrance or a practicality. The editorial discusses a homeowner in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who had a historically-designated property and, as a result, needed to have every minor external change approved by the town’s Historic Preservation Review Board. After two years of this, however, the owner decided to have the historical designation withdrawn, as he wanted to have the freedom to do what he wants to his property.

Although homeowners of non-historical properties don’t have true freedom, either, not having to approve every change with a local board means adding external structures like carports or changing the paint color on the siding is less of a hassle. Nevertheless, the editorial brings up another point: making such changes can devalue the property and, if the current owner ever decides to sell, the value may be less than the amount for which he bought it.

Carports, in particular, are structures that have restrictions on even ordinary properties, and adding one to a historically-designated home is nearly impossible. If you need the practicality of a carport, however, a homeowner should have the privilege of adding one, even if it’s only a small structure in the backyard. Those considering adding one or more carports should check with local ordinances and parking laws first before purchasing a structure and obtain a building permit before erecting it.

Setting and anchoring a carport prevents it from collapsing from snow or being blown over by strong winds. While news stories sometimes detail carports collapsing on vehicles because of snow or wind, these shelters, in nearly all cases, weren’t anchored properly. Aside from proper anchorage, all joints in the frame of any shelter should be checked for their sturdiness, as, in snow, weaker joints may not hold up several pounds of snow on the roof.

Aside from anchoring a carport, the composition of the structure allows it to protect many vehicles, be it one or three cars under its shelter. As mentioned in the article, each carport is made from a galvanized steel frame. Powder-coated frames are for temporary shelters only, such as pop-up tents and canopies, and full metal carports also have a roof made from the same galvanized metal. Additionally, traditional carport canopies have a roof made from heavy-duty polyethylene. This material has been treated to be waterproof and UV resistant, as well as mold, rot, and mildew resistant. Metal roofs, similarly, have all of these qualities naturally. Either way, when you put a car under a carport, it’s receiving all of these aspects for protection.

For a summary of the information in the article, the development of this carport is one of the building integrated photovoltaic applications of IX Energy Holdings and further developments include making a solar power carport more cost effective. As mentioned in the article, one option is basing the design of the solar carport on the structure of bridges to create a cost-effective model.

Another point brought up in the article is that the design of the carport, in general, makes it friendlier to becoming a solar powered structure. Carports are found in many locations, from various homes to hotel and business lot parking to commercial parking lots. Home carports can hold one or two vehicles, usually, but industrial sized carports can sometimes hold up to six cars. For an example of a large carport, Canopy Hut has a large sized Shelterlogic carport available on their website, which can also be seen here: .
Carports have flat, curved, and peaked roofs and, for a solar power carport, a peaked or flat roof would be an ideal design for solar panels. As these solar powered carport designs by IX Energy and Romag both rely on an electrical grid for power, the combination of a large carport, similar to the one displayed above, and a grid-tiered renewable energy source might mean that in the not-so-far-off future that six electric cars may be able to recharge by solar energy in a public parking lot.

Romag’s PowerPark is essentially a metal carport topped with photovoltaic cells – also known as solar panels – that can change an electric vehicle. Although these carports have potential to be used as home carports, the PowerPark has been designed for a commercial parking lot, in which users for a supermarket or shopping center can park their cars in a PowerPark and have their cars recharge with solar energy as they shop. A solar carport would be linked to an electric grid for power and, so far, the introduction of the carports wouldn’t need to disrupt or change the current electric grid. Each solar carport has a 1.5 kilowatt peak and an individual parking space, according to the article, could generate 1,100 kilowatts of electricity annually. Already, the PowerPark has been in use in Romag’s headquarters in the UK.

In terms of protecting the car, as is the original purpose of a carport, these PowerPark carports appear to have the same type of protection offered by an ordinary metal carport with the bonus of an added electric charge. As these solar power carports have the potential to help reduce significantly greenhouse emissions, is it possible that within the next decade that PowerPark or other solar carports will become common? Perhaps, as electric and hybrid vehicles become more affordable and more people become more “green” conscious, solar power carports may seem like a logical and affordable option for charging and protecting cars.

The particular carport at the hotel in Swansea experienced water damage from “heavy” ice and snow buildup and that resulted in a crack in the carport’s ceiling. The combination of the crack and snow buildup caused the carport ceiling to collapse.

Although a carport is any structure used to cover a car, the most common carports used are polyethylene canopy carports and metal carports, both of which can come in flat roof, A-frame, and rounded roof designs. For snow, ice, and rain, the ideal carport has a rounded roof, and this type of carport is recommended for areas of the country that experience heavy snow falls, as snow falls off the curved roof and won’t build up on top of the roof of the carport. However, all types of carports are supposed to protect vehicles and other investments from weather damage, and a carport shelter is supposed to withstand certain amounts of wind and snow to give optimal protection for the vehicle.

For a polyethylene canopy and galvanized steel carport, the strongest canopy-type carport available, the roof is designed to withstand 37 to 53 pounds of snow for certain A-frame Shelterlogic carport models. Curved roof carport models can withstand the same amount, only this carport design is less prone to snow buildup on the roof. A metal carport, a popular carport type for its longevity of use, is designed to withstand 40 pounds of snow buildup on the roof. All carports, in addition, should be able to withstand winds up to 90MPH.

A metal carport, in addition to having a galvanized steel frame, has a steel roof, which, when being installed, has holes already in place for the rest of the carport frame. The roof itself is made of 29 gauge steel with 80,000 KSI strength. The steel roof is coated with silicon, which allows the metal roof to have a limited warranty of up to 20 years. Aside from lasting many years, roof coated in silicon can support up to 40 pounds of snow per square foot and will not need frequent coats of paint. In addition, as no wood or plastic is involved, the metal roof will not attract termites. For the vehicles you are protecting with the carport, the metal coated with silicon, naturally, is water and rust proof and will protect your vehicles from the sun, as steel is not affected by UV rays.

A polyethylene canopy carport offers all of the same protection but in different ways. Although a polyethylene carport has the same galvanized or powder-coated steel tubing frame, the canopy is made from heavy-duty polyethylene. To protect the vehicles covered, a polyethylene canopy is UV treated, sometimes on both sides, and is occasionally given anti-fungal treatments. Polyethylene, because it is a woven material, is breathable, so moisture under the carport roof will not become trapped and cause dry rot and mildew, and is also waterproof and tear resistant. As a carport canopy, the polyethylene can withstand large amounts of snow and winds up to 95 MPH.

Price wise, a metal carport is a long term investment and, if you have multiple cars and seasonal vehicles, it is a wise investment, as the carport will outlast most vehicles. A polyethylene canopy carport, while ranging from $300 to $1300 depending upon the size of the carport, is as effective as a metal carport but the polyethylene canopy will need to be replaced over time, although the galvanized or powder-coated steel frame will be intact.