Only on the right house. A GRP or composite canopy on brackets costs a few hundred pounds, goes up in an afternoon, and for a door that only needs the rain kept off it's the right answer. A softwood porch from a joiner can be built to the same shapes as oak for less, and on a painted house it can be the better match. Green oak costs more, and it repays that where the porch will be looked at, the timber is meant to be seen, and nobody wants to paint it. If those three aren't true, don't buy oak.
What are the choices for a roof over the front door?
Three, and they do different jobs.
- A canopy on brackets. A moulded GRP or composite hood fixed to the wall. A few hundred pounds, fitted in an afternoon. It keeps the rain off the door.
- A softwood porch. Posts, braces and a roof, built by a joiner to the same shapes as an oak porch, and painted.
- A green oak porch. A frame of fresh-sawn oak with pegged joints, left bare to weather.
All three keep you dry at the door. Only the oak one is meant to be seen bare.
When is a GRP canopy the right answer?
When the door only needs the rain kept off, on a house that won't be judged by what's over it.
On a door like that, oak buys you something you don't need.
When is a softwood porch the better choice?
When the house is painted anyway and you're happy to keep the porch painted too.
A softwood porch can be built to the same shapes as oak, for less, and painted and kept painted it lasts well. On a painted house it can look more at home than bare oak. Softwoods such as larch and Douglas fir are a bit cheaper than oak as a material. They're also the better choice if you want a straighter, more modern look, or the timber stained a particular colour, which is common in North America and rare here.
There are trade-offs. Softwood is much softer, especially between the grain, so it tends to crush rather than cut cleanly under a chisel, and tight joints are harder to get. It can be done; it's something to know. And the saving is smaller than the price of the timber suggests: TRADA's guidance, on 2005 prices for large framing sections, puts the cost of making and raising a frame at two to three times the cost of its timber, whatever the species.
Why does an oak porch cost more?
Because the oak is expensive and much of the jointing is carpenters' work.
The sections a porch needs can't be bought dry, so oak frames are cut green, and green oak works cleanly under a chisel. The joints are mortice and tenon, pegged rather than screwed, and the fixings are stainless, because the tannin in oak corrodes ordinary steel. A frame is priced by its joints, so the more detail you want, the more it costs; Why do two oak porches the same size cost different money? explains how.
From us, an open oak porch is £2,500 to £5,000 including VAT for the frame supplied only, and £6,500 to £12,000 designed and built, depending on size, rates at 9 October 2026. The detail is in How much does an oak porch cost?
What does oak give you that the others don't?
A frame you never have to paint, meant to be seen, that lasts for decades if it's detailed properly.
What it does to the house. A front door set flat in a wall has nothing around it. A porch gives it depth and a shadow line, and on most houses it's the difference between a door and an entrance. At Penpergwm the brief was to take a plain new-build front and give it the look of a country cottage. At Pontllanfraith it was to add some character to the front of a brick house. At Llanellen the oak porch replaced a canopy over the front door.
No paint. Oak heartwood can be left untreated outside, and that's our first choice. Outside, it turns from honey to silver-grey as the sun works on the surface, unevenly at first, and it evens out over two or three winters. Some people prefer the silver and some want the original colour. The only way to hold that colour outside is to oil it and keep oiling it, every year.
How long it lasts. Oak heartwood is rated durable, and an oak structure outdoors can be designed for fifty years or more, provided it's well detailed: posts kept out of the ground on stone, end grain kept out of standing water, and no sapwood, which isn't durable at all. What goes wrong when that detail is missing is in What goes wrong with oak porches, and how do you stop it?
What do softwood and oak ask of you afterwards?
A softwood porch asks for paint, kept up. An oak porch asks for nothing structural: there's no maintenance schedule on the joints, the pegs or the fixings.
What oak does ask for is patience in the first year or two: as green oak dries it shrinks, opens fine splits along the grain and bleeds tannin, and none of that is a fault. What to expect, and what to do about it, is in What goes wrong with oak porches, and how do you stop it?
When is oak the wrong answer?
In any of these five cases.
- When the door only needs the rain kept off and the house won't be judged by it. Buy the canopy.
- When the house is painted and you'll keep the porch painted. A softwood porch may suit it better.
- When you want a crisp, straight, modern frame, or a stained colour. That's softwood's strength.
- When the lowest price decides it. Oak won't win on price, and we won't be the cheapest oak quotation either.
- When what you want is a room with a door. That's a glazed porch, which is a different decision: see Open or glazed oak porch: which will you actually use?
FOXTAIL OAK. We build only in oak: green oak as standard, with air-dried oak for curved braces. For a softwood or larch porch, or a GRP canopy, you'll need to go elsewhere. We won't take a specification back to a point that compromises the porch to reach a price.
What should you send us?
A photograph of the front of your house and a sentence on what you want the porch to do. If the answer is "keep the rain off the door", we'll say so, and a canopy may be all you need. If it's more than that, a rough width is enough for a real number, and the design visit is free. See oak frame porches, or get in touch.
Questions people ask next
Does an oak porch need treating? No. We'd leave it untreated. If you want to hold the honey colour, we'd usually recommend an Osmo oil, and then you're committed to redoing it.
How long does an open oak porch take to put up? About three days of work at the house; allow a week from the first day to the last.
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