Carports in Batumi

A carport in Batumi protects your car from the sun, downpours and birds, goes up in two to four weeks including the time the concrete under the posts needs to cure, and costs several times less than a closed garage. We build carports for one or two cars, freestanding or attached to the house, on a steel frame with a polycarbonate or metal roof. By the sea most of the work goes into three details: the post foundations, the fixing of the sheets and the drainage.

Size and height to suit your car

For one car 3×6 m is usually enough, for two 6×6 m. We work out the width with the doors open: if there is a wall or a post alongside, the driver has to be able to get out without hitting it. For a large SUV or a people carrier, and when you need a path to the house along the side, we make the carport wider.

We usually make the height at the low edge at least 2.5 m, and if there is a roof box on the car or a minibus comes into the yard, we go higher. The higher the carport, the worse it shelters from driving rain and the low evening sun, so on the windward or western side we sometimes add a side screen of the same polycarbonate or of louvres.

Freestanding, wall-mounted or cantilever

A freestanding carport rests on four or six posts and doesn't depend on the house. We place the posts so that the car doesn't catch them when turning, and at a narrow entrance we protect the bottom of the post with a guard.

A wall-mounted carport is held on one side by the wall and has half as many posts. We avoid hanging the beam on anchors in aerated concrete: the block holds an anchor poorly, and over the years the wind rocks the carport. We fix the beam to a concrete ring beam or to the columns of the frame, and if there are none at the right height, we put up posts of our own by the wall.

A cantilever carport has supports on one side only, and the entrance underneath is completely clear. Its frame is heavier and its foundations bigger, because the whole load hangs on a single line of supports. A carport next to the house is best drawn together with the facade design, so that the pitch, the colour of the metal and the gutters don't clash with the house.

For a carport, too, we determine the class of structure: it decides whether a notification is enough or a permit will be needed, and the classes themselves are explained on the page about construction in Batumi. Where the posts can stand relative to the boundary and the building line, we check against the registry extract and the zoning rules before the steel is ordered.

Frame: steel, aluminium or timber

Our main option is a steel frame made of box section. We grind the welds clean, prime and paint the metal, and close the ends of the tubes with caps: water gets into an open tube, and the post rusts from the inside, where you can't see it. We set the posts on embedded base plates above the concrete and don't concrete them into the ground, because a tube rusts fastest where the ground meets the air. Within the first few blocks from the sea we paint the frame in several coats over a zinc-rich primer, and in the estimate this is a separate line.

Aluminium is rarely used for a carport: a six-metre span needs a large profile, and the carport comes out noticeably more expensive than a steel one. A timber carport made of beams suits a house with a garden, and it needs the same care as a timber gazebo. If there will be a seating area next to the parking space, the carport and a pergola over the patio are easy to build from the same profile and in the same colour.

Polycarbonate or a metal roof

Multiwall polycarbonate, 8–10 mm, is cheaper, lets light through and doesn't make the area in front of the house dark. A clear sheet does almost nothing against summer heat: the sun goes straight through and the car heats up, so we more often choose bronze, grey or opal. We lay the sheet with the UV-protected layer on top and the flutes running down the slope, close the upper edge with sealing tape and the lower edge with perforated tape so that condensation can drain out. We remove the protective film straight after installation, otherwise in the sun it bakes onto the sheet.

Under profiled metal sheeting or metal roof tiles the shade is solid, and in summer the car stays noticeably cooler there than under polycarbonate. By the sea we choose sheet with a thick zinc layer and a polymer coating, and how metal behaves in salty air is covered in our comparison of metal roof tiles and asphalt shingles. If the carport is under a bedroom window, keep the noise in mind: in a downpour profiled sheeting is louder than multiwall polycarbonate. Next to a house with a tiled roof, metal in a matching colour usually looks more natural than polycarbonate.

Wind and fixing the roof

A carport roof is large and has no walls underneath, so a storm gust gets in below and pulls it upwards. A wall-mounted carport has it worse: wind that hits the wall of the house turns upwards and blows in under the roof. The weight of a light roof does little to resist this, and the post foundation works against pull-out: it is held down by the weight of the concrete and by the anchors, so the structural engineer sizes the piers and anchorage for uplift. We use screw piles when there are already services or finished paving under the area and digging isn't possible.

Polycarbonate is torn off more often than the frame gets bent. We fix the sheet with thermal washers along every purlin, not just at the edges, and drill the holes wider than the screw, because the sheet expands in the sun. Sheets are joined with a connecting profile, and the edges are closed with an end profile. A metal roof is fixed with roofing screws with sealing washers, and by the sea the screws are coated or stainless steel.

Drainage and the parking area

In a heavy downpour so much water comes off a 3×6 m carport that without a gutter the ground under the edge washes out in a strip. We give the roof a fall away from the house and the entrance, fit a gutter along the low edge and take the downpipe to the stormwater drain, the drainage or an outlet well away from the foundations. A wall-mounted carport mustn't shed water onto the paved apron and plinth of the house.

We pave the area under the car with 6–8 cm paving blocks on compacted crushed stone with a kerb: thin garden paving cracks under the wheels over time and sinks into ruts. We give it a fall towards a drainage channel or the lawn, and if you want the water to soak into the ground, a grass grid filled with gravel or grass can be laid instead of paving. A socket for a vacuum cleaner, pressure washer or EV charger and a light with a motion sensor are best planned in advance, so that the cable goes into conduit before the paving is laid.

How much a carport costs in Batumi

A single carport, 3×6 m, on a steel frame with multiwall polycarbonate costs from 5,580 to 7,800 ₾. The price includes supports on concrete foundations, a box section frame with primer and paint, the roof and the drainage. A double carport, 6×6 m, costs from 10,200 ₾. A non-standard size is priced by area: with polycarbonate from 280 ₾ per m², with profiled metal sheeting or metal roof tiles from 320 ₾ per m².

Priced separately are paving the area, from 125 ₾ per m² including sub-base and kerb, lighting and sockets, and by the sea also anti-corrosion painting over a zinc-rich primer, from 45 ₾ per m² of steel surface. A cantilever design, a tall carport for a minibus and side screens cost more; a simple freestanding carport on a level site costs less. From photos of the spot and the dimensions of your cars, we'll send a preliminary estimate within 24 hours on business days, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.