As this is my first post, I'd like to say a quick Gday to all. Please excuse my complete lack of building experience

As background, I'm building a flat roofed patio and planning on attaching it to the fascia. It is L-shaped, but the square attached section is 4.8m x 4.6m. I intend to use a beam attached to the fascia and a beam on the opposite side, then rafters spaced at ~1.5m intervals and battens at ~0.9m intervals. I realise I absolutely need to get council approval for this (city of Cockburn), and I'm intending on drawing up my own plans. Before I go full steam ahead with that though, I wanted to make sure my basic design is sound. Before I get onto the questions, here's a little not-quite-to-scale drawing I whipped up in 3dsMax. It currently looks like a free-standing, but I hope to move the house side beam up so the raters are attached and possibly remove those house side posts.



1) Will I need the two posts to support the beam that is attached to the fascia? The house was built in the 1960s so I thought I'd put them in to be sure.
2) Is 1.5m a reasonable spacing for the rafters?
3) Can I perhaps have less posts on the non-house side, say one for every second rafter?
3) Currently I intend the timber dimensions to be Posts 90x90, Beams 190x45, Rafters 140x45, Battens 40x20. Do any of those sound ludicrous or just not quite sufficient?
4) It seems that pine is my only affordable option. I'll probably go with that and paint it. Other than aesthetics, would you disagree that this is a good idea?
5) Does anyone know of a site with free examples of how patio plans look and what is required?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Cheers,
Aranda


Read the full thread at RenovateForum.com...