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How to Design Your Carport with Stacked Stone Column Bases

There is no reason why your carport has to look like every other carport on the block.

This is especially true when there is the GenStone faux stone option available to you!

Many carports are supported with wood, aluminum, or steel columns. These structures look ordinary and boring on their own. Within the span of just a few hours, and with a modest budget for materials, you can transform your common-looking carport into one that has the look and appeal of real stone, but without the real stone price!

GenStone makes it easy with six color options complete with corner pieces, trim, and ledgers as finishing touches. Considering how durable, lightweight, and easy-to-install GenStone panels are, it’s realistic to finish a complete carport column treatment in just a few hours.

Don’t think it’s possible? Here are the exact steps to take to give your carport the facelift it’s always needed but you never thought possible without having to shell out a ton of money for materials and labor. Alternatively, if you’re building a brand new carport, here’s the process for adding faux stone into your overall design.

After the foundation of the carport has been poured and the corner columns have been anchored, work can begin on adding GenStone faux stone panels to each column.

This is going to take some planning just to ensure that nothing is left to chance. First, we’ll need to take some measurements. Then, we’ll prepare the area for installation. Moving on from there, we’ll cut panelling if needed, and then proceed to the installation.

Follow These Four Steps

  • For each column, take a measurement, in inches, of the length between the column base and the interior roof of the carport. This is going to be your Total Vertical Rise (TVR). To determine how many pillar kits you need, divide your TVR by 48 inches, as each GenStone pillar kit is 48” in height.Let’s presume you have a 96” TVR (eight feet). 96/48 = 4. So, you’ll need to order four pillar kits per carport column.
  • Prepare the area for installation. GenStone stacked stone pillar kits are designed to be installed onto 8” square posts. If the columns of your carport are greater than 8” in width, you’ll want to switch to using full-sized GenStone panels, cutting them to size as you work.For tubular steel carports, adding an 8” square post around each column should be a fairly quick job involving some plywood and a few carpentry nails.
  • Many carports with TVRs that are evenly divisible by 48 won’t need to have custom-cut GenStone pillar kits used on them. So, you can leave your handsaw in the garage!However, most carport columns are going to need an irregular number of pillar kits—it’s a good thing GenStone material is easy to cut. During step three, cut each pillar to fit the carport TVR.
  • Using non-corrosive deck screws and the industrial grade adhesive of your choice, attach each pre-matched GenStone pillar piece until the entire column has been covered. Don’t forget to check the leveling of each piece before placement.If you’ve decided to use ledgers or trim, be sure to work those piece dimensions into your overall pillar piece placement.
Coffee Stacked Stone DIY Columns

Coffee Stacked Stone Carport Columns

Final Project Considerations

And that’s it! You’ve done it—a soup-to-nuts carport transformation that now sets your carport apart from the sea of look-alikes. Here’s a bonus: the columns are easily cleaned with a quick rinse from the garden hose, and they’ll look great for years to come, even after prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.

GenStone installations (whether pillar kits or full-sized panels) require the use of screws which can sometimes remain visible after being driven into the surface substrate. To address this, GenStone provides custom-colored caulking that can be used to hide the screw face. The caulking can be matched exactly to the GenStone product of your choice. Just contact us and we’ll get a special order going for you.

At GenStone, we’re passionate about helping home and business owners revitalize the look of their indoor and outdoor living spaces. Using GenStone to beautify the columns of a carport is just one of the many stacked stone application ideas. For more, head over to our projects page.

Oh, and don’t forget! GenStone also provides high-quality, genuine-looking faux brick panels, too. With all of the design possibilities available with GenStone products, the sky’s the limit.

We look forward to seeing pictures of your own GenStone faux stone or faux brick creation!

Kenai Stacked Stone 90º Outside Corner

Kenai Stacked Stone Corner Columns