Services

Porches, Patios & Outdoor Living Spaces - South Shore & Middlesex County

Outdoor space in New England has to earn its keep in a short season, which is why the best porches and patios are the ones designed around how a family actually uses them. R&D Building Solutions designs and builds farmer's porches, screened and three-season rooms, patios, and connected outdoor living areas as real construction: proper foundations, roof structures that tie into the house correctly, drainage that's planned instead of discovered, and finishes that still look right ten winters in.

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Sound familiar?

The situations this service solves

The front of the house has no presence

A farmer's porch changes a plain façade into the house people slow down to look at, but proportions, column spacing, and roof pitch have to respect the architecture. We design porches that look born with the house.

You want outdoor space you can actually use

Black flies in June, sun in July, dark by five in October. Screens, roofs, and orientation decide how many evenings a space really gives you, we design for the season you have, not the brochure's.

The old porch is sagging or rotting

Porch columns sinking, floors sloping the wrong way, rot at the posts, classic New England porch problems with structural causes. We fix the cause, not just the paint.

Patio ideas but a yard with problems

Slopes, drainage, and frost make or break patios here. Proper base preparation is most of the work and all of the longevity, exactly the part cut-rate installs skip.

Project types

The kinds of projects we take on

Farmer's porches

The classic Massachusetts front porch, roofed, columned, proportioned to the house, and built on real footings with rot-smart detailing at every post base.

Screened porches and three-season rooms

Bug-free evenings and shoulder-season use, roofed structures with screening or windows, tied into the house's roofline and framing correctly.

Patios and hardscape

Paver and stone patios built on properly prepared bases with drainage planned, including steps, walks, and seating walls that tie the yard together.

Connected outdoor living areas

Deck-to-patio transitions, grilling zones, fire-pit areas, and lighting, planned as one space so grades, stairs, and traffic flow actually work.

Think it through

Planning considerations

How you'll actually use it

Morning coffee, dinner for eight, watching kids in the yard, escaping bugs, each points to a different structure. We design from the use backward, not from a catalog forward.

Sun, shade, and orientation

A west-facing patio bakes at dinnertime; a north-side porch stays cool and dim. Where the space sits matters as much as what it's made of.

Water and frost

Roof runoff, yard drainage, and frost movement are the three forces that ruin outdoor projects. All three get planned, pitch, bases, footings, before anything is built.

Tying into the house

Porch roofs meeting existing rooflines, ledger connections, and flashing details are real construction junctions. Getting them right is why porches by building companies outlast porches by 'porch guys.'

Materials & design

Decisions worth understanding

Structural posts and columns

Proper footings, concealed post bases that shed water, and column wraps or true columns matched to the house, the anti-rot details that decide a porch's lifespan.

Porch flooring and ceilings

Traditional fir, composite porch boards, or PVC, pitched to shed water, with beadboard or finished ceilings that make the space feel like a room.

Screening and window systems

From simple screen panels to convertible window systems for three-season rooms, chosen for how much of the year you want the space to work.

Pavers and natural stone

Concrete pavers, granite, and bluestone on compacted structural bases, with edge restraint and joint choices that hold through freeze-thaw.

How we work

Our process for this work

Conversation
What outdoor living looks like for your family, what the house and yard give us to work with, and your budget range, talked through honestly with a real person.
Site visit and design
We measure, study sun and grade, look at rooflines and drainage, and shape a design that fits the architecture and the yard.
Proposal
Written scope with materials, structure, and pricing you can read, and phasing options when a full outdoor plan is best built in stages.
Permitting
Roofed structures and porches generally need building permits; we handle drawings, filing, and the inspection schedule.
Construction
Footings or base preparation first, structure and roof tie-ins, then finishes, with the yard protected and cleaned as we go.
Walkthrough
A finished punch list and a space that's ready for the first dinner outside, plus care guidance for the materials you chose.

Honest expectations

What shapes schedule and cost

No invented numbers, these are the real levers, so you can reason about your own project before we ever talk.

What can affect the schedule

Permit review for roofed structures
Season and ground conditions for footings and base work
Roof tie-in complexity on porch and room additions
Material lead times, window systems and specialty columns most often
Weather windows for masonry and finish work

What can affect cost

Roofed versus open structures, porch roofs are real construction
Foundation and footing requirements versus patio base preparation
Square footage and the complexity of the shape
Material tier: treated decking to bluestone, screen panels to window systems
Site conditions: slope, drainage correction, access for equipment
Electrical additions, lighting and outlets coordinated with licensed trade partners

Permits & inspections

Roofed porches and three-season rooms generally require building permits and inspections, since they're structural additions to the house; patios and hardscape typically don't, though zoning setbacks can still apply. Requirements vary by town across the South Shore and Middlesex County, we confirm what your project needs and handle the process. Every property still needs its own review; nothing here is zoning or code advice for a specific site.

Why R&D

How we do this differently

Designed for this climate

Frost-depth footings, rot-smart post details, freeze-thaw-proof bases, everything specified for the New England seasons the space has to survive.

Architecture-first porches

Proportions, columns, and rooflines drawn to suit your house's character, so the porch looks original instead of ordered from a kit.

One builder for the whole outdoor plan

Porch, deck, patio, and the transitions between them, one team planning grades, stairs, and flow, instead of three contractors guessing at each other's work.

The base work you can't see

Most patio failures are base failures. We do the unglamorous excavation and compaction correctly because that's where longevity actually lives.

Questions homeowners ask

Do I need a permit for a porch or patio?

Roofed structures, farmer's porches, screened porches, three-season rooms, generally yes, since they're structural additions. Ground-level patios usually don't need building permits, though setbacks can still apply. We confirm your town's requirements and handle whatever the project needs.

What's the difference between a screened porch and a three-season room?

Screens keep bugs out; a three-season room adds window systems that block wind and hold warmth into spring and fall. The structure is similar, the enclosure level and budget differ. We'll walk you through both against how many months you want the space to work.

Why do patios around here heave and settle?

Freeze-thaw working on a shortcut base. Pavers on a few inches of sand look fine in October and wavy by April. A properly excavated, compacted structural base with drainage handled is most of a patio's cost, and all of its lifespan.

Can you match a new porch to our older home?

That's the design brief we enjoy most. Column style, railing profiles, roof pitch, and trim are drawn from the house's own vocabulary so the porch reads as original. We'll show you the design before anything is built.

Can a porch, deck, and patio be one project?

Yes, and they usually should be planned together even if built in phases, so grades, stairs, and traffic flow work as one space. We'll design the whole picture and sequence construction to fit your budget.

How long does a porch project take?

Once permitted, most porches run a few weeks depending on size, roof tie-ins, and material lead times; patios often less. You'll get a schedule range with the proposal and updates whenever anything moves it.

We build porches, patios, and outdoor living spaces across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, based in Braintree. Contact us to discuss your town and project scope.

Make the outside part of the house

Porch, patio, screened room, or all three, tell us how you want to live outdoors and a real person will help you plan it honestly.

Request a Project Consultation Call and speak with a real person

Tell us what you’re considering. A real person will review your request, and we will not sell or distribute your project information.

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